The course will introduce two largely uncovered aspects of the Bible—the influence of surrounding cultures and the often inconsistent sections of the text. Surrounding cultures will be the Canaanite, Midianite, Persian, Greek, and Roman; sections of the Bible will be the documents known as J, E, P, and D.
At the same time, the course will track the changing concepts of God in the Hebrew Bible and the changing images of Jesus in the New Testament. This will lead to an outline of the rival origins of both Judaism and Christianity and how they were resolved and turned into the single narratives we have today.
The course will be offered in lecture format with as much discussion as the class would like. The talk will be supplemented with Keynote and PowerPoint, and copies of some 200 slides will be available to all by computer. This will be the text for the course.