Being Human in the Bible

Prof. Mark K. George
I-113, 303-765-3168
mgeorge@iliff.edu

Course description (catalogue) : What does it mean to be human, according to the biblical writers? This is both a simple and complicated question to ask, much less answer. How it is addressed has important consequences. A range of perspectives and answers to the question therefore will be taken up in this course. These can include life and death, gender and sexuality, technology, education, family relations, politics, peoplehood, ecology, human vs. animal, philosophy, and economics. These perspectives and answers are engaged in pursuit of gaining a greater appreciation for how one might think through this question.

Additional course description for Spring 2020 : This term we are going to approach the question of what it means to be human in the Bible by making use of some of the terms and categories used in the Bible itself, most importantly sin and repentance. We will begin with origin stories and then branch out into other topics. So expect to begin with creation stories, a consideration of the divine and human, and then to move into sin and repentance and on to other topics.

Prerequisites
Either the introductory course in Hebrew Bible or the introductory course in New Testament.

23 March Note : The schedule opens at 12:00 pm today. Please note that I am still doing some revision in weeks 6–10 in terms of readings, so things may change a bit. This is especially so if I learn of a particular topic in the Introductions that seems important to cover. Also, we need to have a bit of discussion as to whether Wk 10 Migration should remain or be removed so that you all may concentrate on your second exegesis papers.

Books (required; other readings will be made available electronically or through library subscriptions)

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). This is the translation we will use in the course for all class work, written work, online postings, and other “official” contexts. If you do not own a copy of the NRSV or have easy electronic access to a copy, please make arrangements to gain access. If you would like to purchase a copy, I recommend Harold W. Attridge, ed. The HarperCollins Study Bible-Student Edition: Fully Revised and Updated . San Francisco: HarperOne, 2006. ISBN 978-0060786847.

Anderson,Gary A. Sin: A History . New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. ISBN 9780300168099 (p). Available as an ebook through the Iliff library .

Fredricksen, Paula. Sin: The Early History of an Idea . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. ISBN 9780691160900 (p). Available as an ebook through the Iliff library .

Lambert, David A. How Repentance Became Bible: Judaism, Christianity, and the Interpretation of Scripture . New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. ISBN 9780190212247 (c). ISBN 9780190212254 (ebook).

The course syllabus is subject to change at the sole discretion of the professor.

• Regular participation in Canvas discussions. Each week I will post comments about the week’s readings and topic (normally these will be posted by Tuesday evening of the previous week). Before participating in the online discussions for the week, please listen to the lecture and complete the readings. The flow of participation is as follows:
  • Tuesday: This is the initial posting you will make each week and where our class discussion begins. It is the one where your voice and engagement with the materials for the week are most clearly articulated. I do not offer prompting questions about the week’s materials (although I may raise some in my recorded comments), so our discussion will emerge from the things you want to talk about.
    • By 11:45 p.m. MDT, please log in and offer your considered reflections and contribution for the week. Tell us what you make of the material in terms of how it helps you understand the course theme of what it means to be human in the Bible with respect to the week’s topic. For example, “It has been a while since I read the Enuma elish, so it was interesting to read it again because I noticed different things in it. Specifically, ...” Or tell us what doesn’t make sense, or questions you have about the material. Please don’t simply say something like, “I don’t understand the Enuma elish.” This is too general. Try to explain what it is, specifically, about the Enuma elish that doesn’t make sense to you, or where you got lost, or whatever it is that you don’t understand. In other words, to the best of your ability, diagnose where your confusion or lack of understanding lies. I offer more suggestions for how to do this in my comments on grading in the Grade Scale and General Grading Rubrics.
    • I selected readings from a variety of perspectives (not all of which I agree with), including social, theological, methodological, cultural and educational backgrounds, and so on. Practice and develop your critical reading skills with them. What I mean by this is, as you read, engage them with a critical and analytical perspective. Ask a series of questions about them: what is the central argument being made, how is it being made, what evidence is cited to support the argument, and what is at stake in making this argument. Critical reading and engagement with other scholars and their perspectives is a skill, one we are trying to improve during this course. This is a process of listening carefully to others to learn from them. When you finish a reading, try to state the central thesis in your own words. If you can, then you probably understand it! If you cannot, try to find the author’s thesis statement (usually in the first page or two), then try to state it in your own words. (If you try this and can’t find the thesis, make this part of your Tuesday posting.) Once you feel confident you have done this, outline the argument. Scholarship is, at its best, a conversation, so this work of identifying the thesis and outlining the argument opens the conversation. Then enter into a conversation with the author. What kind of conversation do you want to have with that scholar, why, and on what grounds.
    • When you are making your Tuesday contribution, the more specific you can be in explaining your thinking, the more it helps the rest of us hear you, understand how you think about the materials, help us think about them with you, and thus facilitates our learning together. But please keep the next point in mind!
    • Please don’t write everything you are thinking about the week’s materials. Three (3) paragraphs (no more than one page total) should be enough to get us going. What are the 1 or 2 most important ideas, arguments, questions, connections, or take-aways for you from the week’s materials in terms of how you are thinking about what it means to be human in the Bible? You may have more than this in mind, so please remember you can introduce other ideas about the materials during the week’s discussion.
    • Please note that this discussion is set up in such a way that you cannot see other contributions until you enter your own. This is intentional! It helps the rest of us hear you and what you are thinking and learning.
    • Your Tuesday contribution is the primary basis for your weekly participation grade (90% or so). For more details concerning how I grade your Tuesday contribution, see the Grade Scale and General Grading Rubrics. I adjust this grade based on your other contributions for each week (Thursday), since those parts of the grade will be entered into the Canvas grade book as “complete/incomplete.”
  • Thursday: By 11:45 p.m. MDT, please read through the Tuesday contributions and respond to at least 2 others in the class (please note that I may divide us up into smaller discussion groups). The goal of these responses is to advance our learning and understanding of the week’s materials. Answer a question. Pose a question. Connect the dots between ideas of one person with those of another. Tell us how your own thinking is developing as you think about something another person contributed.
    • Your responses do not have to be lengthy; a (short-ish) paragraph normally is sufficient.
    • Please note that the quality of our discussions depends on what you contribute on Tuesday and the ways you respond to others on Thursday.
• Writing assignments. Two writing assignments are required.
  • Two (2) exegesis papers are required. The first paper is due on Friday, 24 April no later than 11:45 p.m. MDT. The second paper is due on Friday, 29 May, no later than 11:45 p.m. MDT.
    • Masters Students. Each paper is to be 1300–1600 words (approximately 4–5 pages).
    • Doctoral students. Each paper is to be 2100–2400 words (approximately 7–8 pages).
    • In terms of length, word count is the determining factor, not pages, so please indicate your word count at the end of your paper (place it before the bibliography). Your name and bibliography are not part of the word count.
  • Expectations for the two exegesis papers.
    • Thesis and argument. Each student is to formulate a critical, analytical argument about the chosen contemporary issue and the biblical text that uses a particular approach, theory, or method as part of the exegesis. A clear thesis or central argument is to be made and then logically and carefully argued throughout the paper with the help of that approach. To put this somewhat differently, your thesis and method should be clear, that is, what are you going to say and how will you say it?
    • Current scholarship. Because these are scholarly papers, engagement with the work of other scholars is required and expected and normally will be demonstrated through citations in footnotes that include minimally 1 monograph and 2 peer reviewed journal articles. (Commentaries, dictionaries, encyclopedias, websites, and other reference works are not monographs.) These sources are to be recent, by which I mean they were published within the last 20 years. Older sources may be included but engagement with the current scholarly discussion is expected in these papers.
    • Style and format. Papers are to be double-spaced (including notes), in 12-point font, with one (1) inch margins on all sides, and page numbers. They are to follow the style guidelines for The Chicago Manual of Style, 17^thedition (this resource is available through Taylor library [see the list of databases here] after you log in with your user credentials; please contact the library staff or support@iliff.edu for assistance if you do not know how to do this), as well as the guidelines for papers in biblical studies provided by The SBL Handbook of Style, 2^nd edition (library access here; use your Iliff credentials to log in if you are an Iliff student; doctoral students may use their Iliff or DU log in credentials). Also, please make use of the resources of the Iliff Writing Center as a way of improving your skills at writing, organizing your thinking, refining ideas and organization, finding research help, and the other ways the Writing Center staff can help you.
    • Consultation. Students are advised to consult with the professor about their topics well in advance of the due dates to discuss their project, outline, and working bibliography. Students also are encouraged to make use of the Iliff Writing Lab resources (for doctoral students, you may use the services of either Iliff’s Writing Lab or DU’s writing center).

Given the realities of the COVID-19 global pandemic, social distancing, self-isolation, and so on, I want to offer something different this term. Each week, I will hold a seminar-style (or tutorial-style) Zoom session to discuss the week’s materials and issues. This will give us all a chance to interact at the same time, perhaps lessening the sense of isolation we might be feeling and experiencing, and also to spread out over the term the time we would have together during Gathering Days on Iliff’s campus. We will work together to find the best time to hold these sessions on Wednesday or Thursday, although I anticipate this being late afternoon or early evening, Denver time. If wanted and/or needed, I also will consider holding a late afternoon session on Sundays so more people may participate.

Participation and discussions...............................................................................................40%
Exegesis Paper 1.....................................................................................................................25%
Exegesis Paper 2.....................................................................................................................35%

Pass/Fail requests must be submitted to the instructor by e-mail no later than Sunday, 29 March 2020. Incomplete grades will be granted only in the rarest of cases. For Masters students, the policy for incompletes stated in the 2019–20 Masters Student Handbook will be followed. For JDP students, the policy for incompletes stated in the DU 2019–20 Graduate Bulletin will be followed.

Late work is unacceptable. Let’s keep one another accountable to doing the work, coming prepared to class, and having robust and engaging discussions in order to work together on these topics and learn from one another.

Attendance Policy: This course is an upper-level seminar-style course. This means class participation and discussion are central elements of our work. Students may miss one (1) class session without penalty to the participation grade as long as they provide the professor with prior written notification (mgeorge@iliff.edu). Missing more than one (1) session for any reason will adversely impact your course grade, including the likelihood of failing the course.

Academic integrity and plagiarism. Masters students, please review Iliff’s academic integrity policy. JDP students, please review the DU Honor Code. Every student is expected to abide by the respective policy as well as demonstrate the highest level of academic integrity, which is central to the educational enterprise and thus the social privilege we earn because of being graduate students. Please be attentive to definitions of plagiarism so that you may ensure you do not violate this element of the policies.

Accommodations. Iliff engages in a collaborative effort with students with disabilities to reasonably accommodate student needs. Students are encouraged to contact their assigned advisor to initiate the process of requesting accommodations. The advising center may be contacted at advising@iliff.edu or by telephone at 303-765-1146.

A...................94–100
A-..................91–93
B+.................88–90 (NB: a 90 is a B+)
B...................83–87
B-..................80–82
C+.................78–79
C...................73–77
C-..................70–72
D+..................68–69
D....................60–67
F.....................59 or below

Please note that an average grade in my courses is a C, as you might expect given the standard grading scale. A B+ extends to 90, making the “B” range a bit wider than usual.

If a student turns in all materials on time and satisfies the minimal requirements of the assignment, this is a “C” or pass. With more insight and engagement in the assignment, students earn a higher score and grade. Exceptional performance on assignments merits a score and grade that is exceptional. This schema holds for all graded assignments.

Grading for participation and discussions in class: Students are expected to come to our weekly Canvas discussion prepared to engage all the assigned materials that week. This includes careful reading of the texts so that each student is ready to identify the main argument in each reading and phrase it in their own words, explain the structure of the argument, and explain its relevance to the work of the day and course overall. Although you may not end up explaining these aspects of a reading in your Tuesday contribution, the expectation is that you can do so. If you cannot do this, please explain why. Diagnosing and explaining why we are confused about a reading, or simply don’t “get” a reading, can be an honest part of learning to read critically, but it still requires work in order to be productive and something from which we all may learn. Be prepared to explain such things as: what you found difficult to comprehend (page numbers and paragraphs are helpful), where the logic of the author's argument got away from you or became unclear, words and terminology that is confusing or seems contradictory to its usage elsewhere in the material, background or other information that is assumed in the material but you don't know or can't recall, what you think is at stake in the reading (to the best of your ability), or other questions or comments that help the rest of the class help you make sense of the reading.

Grading for paper assignments: a “C” means you have a weak or confusing thesis that you argue with 1–2 arguments that may or may not thoughtfully engage the biblical text you chose as your exegetical focus. You met the minimum requirements for outside sources (two recent journal articles and one recent monograph), formatted your paper more-or-less appropriately, correctly cited sources, spell-checked your paper, and other such basic matters (I assume all graduate students know these aspects of writing a paper; if not, please contact the Writing Center staff and seek their help). A “B” has a clear thesis suitable to the length of the paper and provides several arguments that demonstrate broader engagement with the biblical text and secondary materials, but has several weaknesses in logic and argument, while formatting, documentation, spelling, and other formal features of the paper largely are correct. An “A” demonstrates outstanding creativity in its thesis and argument, engages with the biblical and secondary literature in discerning ways, offers insight to the biblical passage that is thought provoking, and has no formatting, spelling, documentation, or other formal errors.