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On this page you will
find detailed information on class topics and readings, week
by week
This course has two components every week: Lecture: Thursday, 12-2pm: (which is not really lecture, but some lecture, some group work, some exercises) for all enrolled students Discussion sections (Thursday, 2-3pm; Thursday 4-5pm; Friday 11am-noon): (beginning in Week 3) for smaller groups of students meeting with the instructor and Teaching Fellow; student will receive instructions on which section to attend (hopefully) in Week 2
How to use this page. Every week you will find the general topic (both the biblical texts and the major themes up for discussion) and some detailed questions/topics that I expect to cover in lecture, in small group work as a class, and in discussion section (activities will vary week to week). You will then find four sets of links: 1. readings for lecture, typically biblical book(s), chapter(s) from Smith and Kim, Toward Decentering the New Testament (TDNT) (as a reminder you can access TDNT digitally through Hollis here, log-in required), and an additional scholarly article or essay; 2. reading for section, typically a specific part of the assigned biblical reading for focused attention during discussion section; 3. additional reading, links to relevant articles, essays, and book chapters that provide further depth on our topics; 4. additional media, links to podcasts, videos, websites, and other online media that will add depth to the topic. Links in blue will take you to texts/pages on the internet; links in red will take you to PDFs stored on Canvas (you may be asked to log in if you are not already logged in). If you have any trouble accessing readings, let me know! Do as much reading as you feel capable and comfortable doing. We are still struggling through a major global pandemic, with attendant disruptions and distractions. As much as you are able to prepare before class is triumph! Even if you can't get any reading done, I will try to structure class and discussion section time so that everyone can participate and share in the learning experience. SKIP AHEAD TO WEEK: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve |
| Week
one (January 27) BIBLE/BIBLES: WHAT/WHO/WHEN/WHERE/HOW Today we will go over the basics of the course (readings, assignments, schedules, expectations). Then we explore some basic questions about the Bible and the New Testament (if you don’t have time to do the readings before class, try to make them up at some point!). - what do people mean when they talk about “the Bible”? - who produced the Bible (and why) and who reads the Bible (and why?)? - when does the Bible emerge (as oral stories? as written texts? as a coherent library? as a “book”? as an authority?) - where does the Bible come from and where does it live today? - how do people understand the New Testament and how do they read it? readings for lecture: Smith and Kim, TDNT, 11-30 (ch. 2, "Biblical Interpretation: An Invitation to Dialogue), 67-72 (ch. 8, "Some Matters of Translation and the New Testament"); Naomi Seidman, “The Language of the New Testament and the Translation of the Bible” (Jewish Annotated New Testament, 699-703) additional readings: Wikipedia, “New Testament” (yes, really!); Leonard Greenspoon, “The Septuagint” (Jewish Annotated New Testament, 703-7) additional media: Religion for Breakfast, “How did the New Testament Form?”; Keeping it 101, “Early Christianity is Actually Kind of Interesting”; Matt Baker, “When Was the Bible Written?” (usefulcharts.com) Week two (February 3) CONTEXTS: JEWS/ROMANS/GREEKS/ETC. Today we look at the various contexts in which the texts of the New Testament are set and from which they emerge, including: - Jewish diversity: how many different ways were there to be Jewish in the first century? - Roman imperialism: how was the state power of Rome experienced in the provinces? - Greek culture: what was Hellenization and how did it produce forms of ancient code-switching? - How did multiple forms of identity (race, gender, status, ethnicity, and so on) intersect in these multiple imperial contexts? We will pay special attention to Jewish imaginations of imperial force, culture, and native resistance. readings for lecture: Smith and Kim, TDNT, 31-44 (ch. 3, "Greco-Roman and Jewish Influence on the New Testament"; ch. 4, "Refugees, Immigrants, and Foreigners in the New Testament"), 52-60 ("Intersectionality and Reading Complexity in the New Testament"); Daniel Schwartz, “Jewish Movements of the New Testament Period” (Jewish Annotated New Testament, 614-19); Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, “Exploring the Intersections of Race, Gender, Status, and Ethnicity in Early Christian Studies” (Prejudice and Christian Beginnings, 1-23) readings for section: no section this week additional readings: essays from Jewish Annotated New Testament: Martin Goodman, “Jewish History, 331 BCE-135CE”; Lawrence Schiffman, “Pharisees”; Jack Pastor, “Josephus” additional media: Religion for Breakfast, “The Siege of Masada: What Really Happened?”; Keeping it 101, “Intersectionality” Week three (February 10) GOSPELS/EMPIRE (Mark) - how empire is present in Mark (military, economy, law, politics, infrastructure, cuisine) - the reality of a slave economy in the first century - apocalyptic discourse and empire - the paradoxes and possibilities of a promise of liberation framed as a “new empire” - the resonance (and lack of resonance) between ancient and modern imperialism and modern engagements with ancient messianic narratives readings for lecture: Mark (entire); Smith and Kim, TDNT, 84-104 (ch. 10, "Gospel of Mark"); Ada María Isasi-Díaz, “The Kin-dom of God” (In Our Own Voices, 171-89) readings for section: Mark 13-16; Daniel 2, 7 additional readings: Giovanni Bazzana, “A Ghost Among the Tombs: Mk 5:1-20 as a Ritual of Exorcism” (Having the Spirit of Christ, 60-101); Maia Kotrosits, “Speaking of Grief and the Grief of Speaking: Martyrs’ Speech and the Perils of Translation,” Culture & Religion 17 (2016): 431-49; Jonathan J. Hatter, “Slavery and the Enslaved in the Roman World, the Jewish World, and the Synoptic Gospels,” Currents in Biblical Research 20 (2021): 97-127 additional media: Christy Cobb, “Greco-Roman Slavery” (Urbs & Polis); Timothy Lee, “40 Maps That Explain the Roman Empire,” Vox (August 19, 2014); Warren Carter, “The Roman Empire” (Bible Odyssey) GOSPELS/RELIGION (Matthew, John) Today we are comparing the creation of distinctive communities of belief and ritual in the Gospel of Matthew and John. After a brief consideration of the relationship between the four canonical gospels, we ask how these accounts narrate relations among and conflicts between followers of Christ and (other?) Jewish groups. We will ask: - how do Matthew and John portray different sectarian groups in their accounts? - why do ancient and modern readers think of Matthew as a “Jewish” gospel? - how do modern scholars understand the Ioudaioi (“Jews”) in John’s gospel, and why? - how do/can/should/might modern readers interpret the “anti-Jewish” passages in these gospels? - how does thinking about “Judaism” and “Christianity” as distinct religions condition reading of these gospels? - what role do these gospels play in the historical perpetuation of Christian antisemitism? readings for lecture: Matthew (as much as possible but at least 1-10, 15-16, 21-18); John (as much as possible but at least 1-9, 17-21); Smith and Kim, TDNT, 105-38 (ch. 11, "Gospel of Matthew") and 161-75 (ch. 13, "Gospel of John"); Adele Reinhartz, “A Nice Jewish Girl Reads the Gospel of John,” Semeia 77 (1997): 77-93 readings for section: Matthew 1-10, John 1-9 additional readings: Adele Reinhartz, “The Vanishing Jews of Antiquity,” Marginalia: LA Review of Books along with the other essays in this forum additional media: Religion for Breakfast, “Did the Gospels Copy Each Other?”; Useful Charts, “Who Wrote the Bible? Episode 5: Gospels & Acts” Week five (February 24) GOSPELS/RACE (Luke/Acts) Today we are looking at the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles with special attention to the way this “double-work” represents, categorizes, and prioritizes different ethnic and racial populations in the Roman Empire as part of its account of Christ’s salvation. We will ask: - how does Luke-Acts reproduce and/or disrupt the ethnic and racial hierarchies of empire? - how do gender and sexuality intersect with racial difference in the story of messianic salvation? - what does it mean to talk about race in the gospels before and after whiteness? - how do racial hierarchies naturalize and/or disrupt power, violence, and redemption? readings for lecture: Luke (as much as possible but at least 1-13, 20-24); Acts of the Apostles (as much as possible but at least 1-10, 13-16, 20-28); Smith and Kim, TDNT, 139-60 (ch. 12, "Gospel of Luke"), 176-91 (ch. 14, "The Acts of the Apostles"); James Cone, “Strange Fruit: The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Harvard Divinity School Ingersoll Lecture),” African American Pulpit (and see video link below!) readings for section: Luke 7-10, 22-4; Acts 2-8, 25-28 additional readings: Shelly Matthews, “The Lynching Tree and the Cross: James Cone, Historical Narrative, and the Ideology of Just Crucifixion (Lk 23:41)” (The Narrative Self in Early Christianity, 147-70); Febbie Dickerson, “Acts 9:36-43: The Many Faces of Tabitha” (I Found God in Me: A Womanist Biblical Hermeneutics Reader, 297-312); Shively T. J. Smith, “Witnessing Jesus Hang: Reading Mary Magdalene’s View of Crucifixion Through Ida B. Wells’s Chronicles of Lynching,” in Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation, 296-323; James H. Dee, "Black Odysseus, White Caesar: When Did ‘White People’ Become ‘White’?” Classical Journal 99 (2003): 157-67 additional media: James Cone, “Strange Fruit: The Cross and the Lynching Tree,” 2006 Ingersoll Lecture (Harvard Divinity School), Oct. 19, 2006; Rebecca Futo Kennedy, “Talking about Race and Ethnicity in Greco-Roman Antiquity,” Classics at the Intersections; Javal Coleman, “Call It What It Is: Racism and Ancient Enslavement,” Society for Classical Studies Blog PAUL/ABILITY (1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians) Today we meet the apostle Paul and, after learning what we can know about his life, letters, and significance in the first generations of the Jesus-movement, we zero in on the way Paul inscribes the brokenness of the cosmos onto the (physical and moral) corruptibility of individual humans with a promise for (physical and moral corruptibility). We will ask: - how does Paul’s preaching use embodiment to frame a human subject in need of redemption? - how does Paul convey the brokenness of individual humans and all of humanity? - how can Paul’s preaching reproduce notions of a “perfectly abled” human as an ideal state? - how have readers understood key Pauline terms like love, sin, and resurrection as both individual and communal? - does Paul’s ideal, “abled” human being retain particular features (race, class, gender)? readings for lecture: 1 Thessalonians; 1 Corinthians; Smith and Kim, TDNT, 195-204 (ch. 15, "Significance of Paul as a Jewish Man in Diaspora"; ch. 16, "The Body of Christ"); 221-35 (ch. 18, "1 Corinthians"); 279-84 (ch. 25, "1-2 Thessalonians"); Candida Moss, Divine Bodies: Resurrecting Perfection in the New Testament and Early Christianity, 1-21 (and notes) reading for section: 1 Corinthians additional readings: Isaac Soon, “Disability and New Testament Studies: Reflections, Trajectories, and Possibilities,” Journal of Disability & Religion 25 (2021): 374-87; Louise A. Gosbell, “Space, Place, and the Ordering of Materiality in Disability Theology: Locating Disability in the Resurrection and the Body of Christ,” Journal of Disability & Religion (pre-print PDF) additional media: Candida Moss, “Disability in the New Testament,” Bible Odyssey; Kyle Harper (University of Oklahoma), “Lesson 6: Paul’s Mission to the Gentiles,” The Origins of Christianity Week seven (March 10) PAUL/GENDER (Galatians, Romans, Acts of Thecla) special guest: Dr. Ben Dunning (Fordham University) reminder: Beginning Week Seven you can turn in your “Meet Paul!” assignment! We continue our exploration of Paul’s preaching on individual and communal redemption with a focus on gender and sexuality. Among our questions today will be: - what is Paul’s teaching on gender and sexuality and how does it intersect with other forms of difference (race, class, ability, religion)? - what is the historical, political, and theological value of such modern (?) terms as gender, sexuality, or queer in understanding Paul? - how did later Jesus-followers imagine Paul in the matrix of gender-sex-desire? - are men, women, and others equals in Paul’s communities? plus! incoming Professor of New Testament Ben Dunning will sit down for a Q&A on one of his recent, relevant publications! readings for lecture: Galatians; Romans; Acts of Thecla; Smith and Kim, TDNT, 205-20 (ch. 17, "Romans"), 246-53 (ch. 20, "Galatians"); Benjamin H. Dunning, “Same-Sex Relations,” The Oxford Handbook of New Testament, Gender, and Sexuality, 573-91 readings for section: Galatians 3; Romans 1-2, 16; Acts of Thecla additional readings: Bernadette Brooten, “Junia—Outstanding among the Apostles (Roman 16:7)” (Women Priests, 141-44); Stephen Moore, “Sex and the Single Apostle” (God’s Beauty Parlor, 133-72) additional media: Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, “Women in Early Christianity,” Bible Odyssey; “Confronting the Sh*ttiness of Paul,” Straight White American Jesus podcast ft. Cavan Concannon; Cavan Concannon and Robyn Faith Walsh, “AJR Conversations | Profaning Paul,” Ancient Jew Review ~spring
break~ (March 17)
Week eight (March 24) CANONS (Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary) special guest... Annette Yoshiko Reed (New York University) reminder: Beginning Week Eight you can turn in your Noncanonical Response assignment! Since Paul’s letters may have made up the first collection of “new scriptures” for Jesus-followers, we take this week to explore the desires, conflicts, and evidence for “canon” in the study of the New Testament. For part of our class, Professor Reed will be leading us on a tour of material evidence for a “canonical” New Testament in the first centuries: if all we had were material evidence, what would we conclude about “the” New Testament and how would it change our view of the whole and the parts? For the other part of our class, we'll be discussing canonical parameters, asking: - why have some texts been excluded or included in ancient and modern canons? - how have/can/might noncanonical texts be deployed to resist the normative discourses of canonical texts? - what are the (theological? social? communal) advantages and disadvantages of canon? - who decides what is “in” and “out” and how do they do it? readings for lecture: Gospel of Thomas; Gospel of Mary; Annette Yoshiko Reed, “Canon,” 916-23; Jewish Annotated Apocrypha, Michael Greenwald, “The Canon of the New Testament,” Jewish Annotated New Testament, 695-699; Melissa Harl Sellew, “Reading the Gospel of Thomas from Here: A Trans-Centered Hermeneutic,” Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies 1.2 (2020): 61-96 reading for section: Gospel of Thomas or Gospel of Mary additional readings: Karen King, “Canonization and Marginalization: Mary of Magdala” (The Postcolonial Biblical Reader, 284-90); Halvor Moxnes, “Does the History of the Canon Matter? Contextualizing the Debate over the Authority of the New Testament Canon,” Biblical Theology Bulletin 45 (2015): 108-15; Annette Yoshiko Reed, “The Afterlives of New Testament Apocrypha,” Journal of Biblical Literature 133 (2015): 401-25; Lee Martin McDonald, The Formation of the Biblical Canon (selections) additional media: “Annette Yoshiko Reed, ‘Euanglion: Orality, Textuality, and the Christian Truth,’” NT Review Podcast; Religion for Breakfast, “How Star Wars Explains the New Testament Canon”; website of the North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature; Nicola Denzey Lewis, “Noncanonical Gospels,” Bible Odyssey; Krista Dalton, “Using Harry Potter to Construct Canon,” Ancient Jew Review EPISTLES/COMMUNITY (1 Timothy, 1-2 John, James) The literature coming from the second and third generations of the Jesus movement is often perceived as more socially and theologically conservative, embracing the hierarchical values of empire (racial, gendered, economic). By looking at some of the later letters including in the New Testament we will explore evolving notions of community, such as: - the changing understanding of key terms like ekklesia, pistis, and anastasis (“church,” “faith,” and “resurrection”) - the role of the apostles as “founding fathers” of a multigenerational movement - the intersecting values of household, empire, and “church” in later texts - whether forgery is a useful framework for evaluating contradictory scriptural texts - whether we can/should/might read concepts like schism, heresy, or denomination in these texts and contexts readings for lecture: 1 Timothy; 1-2 John; James; Smith and Kim, TDNT, 285-301 (ch. 26, "1-2 Timothy and Titus"; ch. 27, "Letter of James"), 307-10 (ch. 29, "1-3 John"); Adela Yarboro Collins, “The Female Body as Social Space in 1 Timothy,” New Testament Studies 57 (2011): 155-75 reading for section: 1 Timothy additional readings: Clarice Martin, “The Haustafeln (Household Codes) in African American Biblical Interpretation: ‘Free Slaves’ and ‘Subordinate Women,” in Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation, 229-56; 75; Hugo Méndez, “Did the Johannine Community Exist?” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 42 (2020): 350-74 additional media: Carolyn Osiek, “Household Codes,” Bible Odyssey; The Brick Bible, “On Women” Week ten (April 7) REVELATION/EMPIRE II (Revelation) Is the final book of the New Testament a carefully coded story of first-century Judean politics or a mystical puzzle to be endlessly reinterpreted? Our discussion of the only canonical apocalypse will consider both the historical context of Revelation’s composition as well as its multiple deployments throughout Christian history as a violent text of resistance and counter-resistance, both of which draw on the logics of empire. We will explore: - the contested definitions of apocalypse, apocalypticism, and apocalyptic in biblical studies - the ways empire is linked to gender, economics, and race in the imagined end-times - the deployment of violence, particularly sexualized violence, as a tool of oppression and liberation in the text - the persistence of key apocalyptic symbols and imagery through Christian history (including the conflation of end-times and afterlife) readings for lecture: Revelation; Smith and Kim, TDNT, 329-52 (ch. 33, "Contemporary and Ancient Apocalyptic Texts and their Significance"; ch.34, "Apocalypse of John/Book of Revelation"); Shanell T. Smith, The Woman Babylon and Marks of Empire, 125-74 reading for section: Revelation 12-22 additional readings: Jacqueline Hidalgo, “The Roman Empire in the Book of Revelation,” The Oxford Handbook of Postcolonial Biblical Criticism; Candida Moss and Liane M. Feldman, “The New Jerusalem: Wealth, Ancient Building Projects and Revelation 21-22,” New Testament Studies 66 (2020): 351-66 additional media: “Does Hell Exist (ft. Meghan Henning)?” The Bible for Normal People Podcast; hoakley, “Tyger’s Eye: The Paintings of William Blake, 11 – A revelation of beasts,” The Eclectic Light Company Week eleven (April 14) CHRISTIANS/RELIGION II (Ignatius, Barnabas, Hebrews) We return this week to the question of Jews and Christians which hovers around the later texts of the New Testament canon (and possibly the formation of that canon) and becomes urgent for some (non-Jewish) Christ followers in the second century. Our readings span the canonical boundaries into what are often called “apostolic fathers,” but which are from the same period as the latest canonical texts. In looking at these texts together we ask: - when do Christianity and Judaism become meaningful, and do they mean what we think they mean (and what do we think they mean?)? - what strategies did some gentile Christians develop to distinguish Judaism from Christianity? - can we imagine a Christianity (with or without these texts, or other New Testament texts) that is compatible with Judaism? - can we imagine a Christianity (with or without these texts, or other New Testament texts) that is not supersessionist? readings for lecture: Hebrews; Epistle of Barnabas; Ignatius, To the Philadelphians; Smith and Kim, TDNT, 319-26 (ch. 32, "Hebrews"); Pamela Eisenbaum, “Ritual and Religion, Sacrifice and Supersession: A Utopian Reading of Hebrews,” Hebrews in Contexts, 343-56 readings for discussion: Hebrews additional readings: Ed Kessler, “The New Testament and Jewish-Christian Relations,” Jewish Annotated New Testament, 763-67; Jesper Svartvik, “The New Testament’s Most Dangerous Book for Jews: Reading and Preaching Hebrews without Supersessionism,” The Christian Century 138.19 (2021) additional media: “Paula Fredriksen: When Christians Were Jews,” The Bible for Normal People podcast; Jesper Svartvik, “Supersessionism,” Bible Odyssey Week twelve (April 21) CONCLUSIONS/HISTORY reminder: Beginning Week Twelve you can hand in your Final Project assignment and all other assignments are due this week! In this final week we turn to consider the reigning methodology of biblical studies as it is taught in Euro-American universities and seminaries: historical criticism. We take as our test case the modern invention of the “historical Jesus” as a way of theologically disciplining the New Testament through historicism. - can/should we distinguish “historical” and “theological” methods and goals in the study of the New Testament? - what makes the “historical Jesus” desirable in certain contexts? - what kinds of historical Jesus has “Q” enabled and why have some scholars and theologians embraced or resisted the Jesus of “Q”? - whose readings are promoted or excluded by traditional historical criticism? readings for lecture: Q (online); Smith and Kim, TDNT, 75-83 (ch. 9, "The Danger of a Single Story: The Synoptic Gospels"); Amy Madeleine Waters, “Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and the Quest for the Historical Jesus,” Open Theology 6 (2020): 468-74; Ekaputra Tupamahu, “The Stubborn Invisibility of Whiteness in Biblical Scholarship,” Political Theology Network readings for discussion: Q (online); Mark Goodacre, “10 Reason to Question Q” additional readings: Jens Schröter, “The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Current Debates and Prospects,” Early Christianity 11 (2020): 283-96; Mark Goodacre, The Synoptic Problem: A New Way through the Maze additional media: “Austin Farrer: On Dispensing with Q,” New Testament Review Podcast |