Jeremy Thompson Catholic PhD in Biblical Languages, Programmer, Runner

When it comes to Old Testament courses online, some readers may wish to study more specialized or advanced topics. However, many of the online courses that are available, particularly on this site, are directed toward more general learners. Yet there is a possible avenue for those that wish to study more advanced topics. The Society of Biblical Literature has published example course syllabi for a significant number of topics related to the Old Testament, New Testament and beyond. As far as I know, no membership to SBL is necessary since I was able to view the syllabi without logging in. These syllabi can be useful for those wanting to study particular topics on their own because there are often book recommendations, a reading schedule, course handouts and more.

As an example, a person may wish to study the idea of violence in the Old Testament and other sacred texts in detail. It is unlikely that someone will find an online course devoted to this topic; however, the SBL syllabus page includes a link to the course Sacred Texts and Violence taught by Dan W. Clanton, Jr. at Arapahoe Community College. This syllabus contains a considerable number of texts devoted to the topic and a reading schedule. I have glanced over the reading schedule, and it appears to me that anyone who simply followed the readings would get a very thorough introduction to the topic, much better than if one were to randomly choose a book on the topic from Amazon. So, if you are interested in studying more advanced topics related to the Old Testament be sure to check out the syllabi HERE.

Some time ago I posted a link to a course by John Strong called Literature and World of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible on the courses page of this site. I was browsing YouTube a bit and found that there is a video preview to the course. So, if you want to find out if this course would interest you before going through the process of downloading everything from iTunes U, check out this video. To go directly to this course in iTunes, click HERE.

I apologize for linking to the same blog two days in a row, but Dr. Brady has noticed a Neo-Marcionite trend among current comic strips. And, I find this tendency very interesting. Marcionism was a movement related to early Christianity that saw a dichotomy between the Old Testament and New Testament, going so far as to say the deities of the Old Testament and New Testament were not the same. The God of the Old Testament was vicious and terrible, whereas the God of the New Testament was gracious and merciful. Dr. Brady has posted a recent Doonesbury comic and a comic called Watch Your Head that demonstrate the tendency within modern culture to recognize the same dichotomy that Marcion did.

Yet in his post containing the Doonesbury comic, Dr. Brady explains why this dichotomy is a false one. He says “Do a quick search for the phrase “kingdom of heaven” or “kingdom of God” and you will find that Jesus’ vision of the future includes God judging both the wicked and the righteous and their are dire consequences for those who are not accepted into the kingdom.” Instead of a dichotomy he implies that modern culture needs to recover the image of Jesus as “one tough and hornery hombre.”

I agree with Dr. Brady’s assessment to a significant degree, though I think what is most difficult for readers of the Old Testament is the failure of God to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. Yet the point still stands, the New Testament is not just “Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild.” What do you think? Don’t forget to post comments below.

I was browsing through the blog of Dr. Chris Brady this morning and came across a post from back in February of 2009. He deals with the issue of whether or not the material in the Bible can be or ought to be systematized. The post is quite interesting because he is writing in response to one of his students who “took him to task” after asking a question in class. This is a good post to introduce one to the problems involved in systematizing the Biblical material and demonstrates how people from two different viewpoints approach the issue. I hope you enjoy the post and consider following Dr. Brady’s feed as the site often includes posts helpful for those interested in the academic study of the Bible.

As an academic, I am well aware of the difficulties involved in using the terminology “Old Testament.” The technical term for the problem presented by this terminology is Supersessionism, roughly the idea that the “New” Testament has done away with the need for the “Old.” I am also well aware that other terminology is available, such as Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Scriptures, and TaNaKh. It should be pointed out that each of these terms have their own sets of difficulties, e.g. the whole of the corpus is not written in Hebrew and Law, Prophets, and Writings (TaNaKh) reflect a particular ordering that is not shared by the Greek (which was used by Jews for some time) and subsequently Christian versions of the corpus.

Yet this is not the primary reason for settling on the terminology “Old Testament” on this site. My reason for using the terminology is a pragmatic one. If I went with my preference, I would probably use “Hebrew Bible”; however, when comparing the search terms “Old Testament” and “Hebrew Bible” on Google, one finds that “Old Testament” gets 368,000 searches per month and “Hebrew Bible” gets only 74,000. My thought pattern was simply that if I wanted to try to educate the most people possible about this corpus of literature, “Old Testament” would be the best terminology. My hope is that those who visit the site and decide to make use of many of the free courses will become acquainted with this issue and become better educated about these writings. However, in using another term, these listeners would probably never reach this site in the first place.

If you would like to learn more on this issue, you may want to check out the introductory lecture in the course The Hebrew Bible by Lawrence Schiffman, which is free with a trial of Audible:

I wanted to let everyone know about a new blog related to Biblical Hebrew. This blog is by one of my friends and peers through the University of Stellenbosch Karyn Traphagen, who is doing doctoral work in Biblical Hebrew Pedagogy. On her blog she gives some helpful resources for learning Biblical Hebrew, discusses methodology, and lets you in on some of the goings on in her personal life. She has taught Biblical Hebrew at Westminster Theological Seminary in PA and like me is doing her doctoral work under Prof. Christo van der Merwe at Stellenbosch.

I’m quite impressed with the blog so far and hope you will link over there and check it out. The site is http://boulders2bits.com/.

In my recent reading, I have come across a commonly occurring mistranslation of the Hebrew of the Old Testament. It involves the word ספר (sorry, have not figured out how to add vowels without creating problems). This word is commonly translated “book” as in the NRSV, ESV, NASB, NIV, and KJV renderings of Deut. 30.10, i.e. “book of the law.” The problem is that this word does not mean “book”; it means “scroll.”

One might not think that this mistranslation is significant; however, it seems to me that this would affect one’s overall views concerning the Hebrew Bible. A “book” sounds like something that is readily accessible and handy. If one wants to find out something in a “book,” one can simply open up and flip to the correct numbered page. A “scroll,” however, must be unrolled. And, there are no “pages”; it is just one scroll. One’s view moves from handy and accessible to not readily accessible and likely unrolled and read in the context of a community if the word is translated “scroll.” One word can make a great deal of difference.

Having studied cognitive linguistics, it is hard for me to imagine that modern readers would encounter “book of the law” and not have a modern image of a book activated in their minds, unless they had some explicit background instruction on what this word means in the context of the Ancient Near East. The only translations I found that get this issue correct are the NET Bible and the LEXHAM Hebrew-English Interlinear.

If you are interested in learning more about ancient “books,” consider taking this audio course on the Dead Sea Scrolls:

If you are looking for a good site for learning the Hebrew Aleph Bet, I would recommend the Hebrew site of the University of Texas at Austin. Esther Raizen has put together a number of helpful tutorials for learning the Aleph Bet (though these are for Modern Hebrew) all in flash format. The tutorials are especially helpful for those trying to learn through self-study because several of the tutorials include a native speaker pronouncing the names of the consonants. In addition, there is a puzzle game that will help one to learn the order of the consonants.

If you are looking for other Hebrew tools, you might check out the Hebrew resources page on this site.

Bryan over at Hevel.org has started and intermittently adds to an introduction to the Old Testament prophets. These posts are helpful as they are written for the general reader and they are succinct. If you are looking for a more thorough introduction to the prophets I have linked to a couple of texts below that might be helpful. Or, you may want to check out the Yale Open Course introduction to the Old Testament which I have a link to on the courses page of this site and which is free. However, if you are looking for a good succinct introduction check out Bryan’s blog and make sure to sign up for his feed, so you will know when he adds future posts on the topic.

Recently, I have posted a number of YouTube videos on this site and the experience of searching YouTube has reawakened me to the problem of just how much nonsense there is online when it comes to the study of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (as well as the New Testament). Other places that make this apparent abound, like Yahoo Answers, where people who are clueless about the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (=HB/OT) answer questions about it as if they know what they are talking about (e.g. some of them think the HB/OT was originally written in Greek). This makes study of the HB/OT online very difficult, dare I say dangerous.

Though I find it disheartening that many sites devoted to the HB/OT contain material that is incorrect, this does encourage me that sites like FreeOldTestamentAudio.com are needed. Certainly, this is not the only site that is posting good material. I would also recommend Ralph Klein’s website on the Old Testament, Jim West’s Biblical Studies resource page, and number of blogs like Hevel.org and Anumma.com. However, these sites seem to be more sparse than those that promote an uncritical approach to the HB/OT.

I hope that readers of this post will glean a couple of things. First, make sure to be critical of what you read online. Academic credentials are surely not every, since some of the world’s best thinkers have been self-educated; however, always try to check out “About” pages or “Home” pages when you visit someone’s website. Second, when you find a good site, make sure to get connected. Bloggers like Bryan and G. Brooke from Hevel.org and Anumma.com are using Social Media outlets like Twitter as am I. Subscribe to their RSS feeds, follow them on Twitter, or become a FaceBook Friend. Oftentimes those who use social media will link you to good websites or blog posts about Biblical Studies.

With that said, I want readers of this blog and visitors to this site to consider this a site that they can trust for accurate information about the HB/OT. If you do, I hope that you will spread the word about this site.