English 310
The Bible As Literature

Course Introduction

Why Study the Bible?

If ever there were a question that really didn't need answering, "Why study the Bible?" is probably it. In teaching a range of literary subjects at the University of Washington over the past 25 years, I've heard students demand to know "Why do we have to read Shakespeare?" "Why does anybody read modern poetry?" "Why are we reading the U.S. Constitution in a literature course?" "What's the good of this or that?" But in all those years, I've never heard anyone ask "Why do we have to read the Bible?" or even "Why do we have to read Leviticus?"

This is not to say that everyone has the same reason for wanting to read—or feeling they should read—the Bible. But virtually everybody (and certainly everybody with enough interest to sign up for a Distance Learning course on the subject) has his or her ideas about why to study the Bible. Some standard reasons follow.

• It is the revealed Word of God.
• It is a tissue of primitive laws, superstitions and folktales that some people unaccountably still believe in, and I want to understand something about how such benighted minds work.
• It is the book on which Judeo-Christian religion and morality are based, so I should know about it.
• It is a book that knowledgeable people seem to know about, so I should know about it, too.
• I keep seeing it quoted in the literature courses I take, so I should look into the source of all these allusions.

I don't care very much if your reason for taking this course is some combination of those reasons, or something else entirely. The point is that we start with the agreement that the Bible is important, either because of what it inherently is, or because of the huge significance it has had and continues to have in cultures all over the world.

Course Objectives

To really study the Bible—to study all the stories, poems, prayers, and laws in it, to figure out what they mean and what they have meant to all the different audiences that have read them, and to trace how the Bible has been applied, adopted, and adapted throughout the centuries—would be the work of several lifetimes. The goals for this course are much more modest. They are for you to

• see for yourself what some of the most famous and historically important parts of the Bible actually say;
• acquire—with the help of Gabel, Wheeler, York, and Citino and the Oxford editors—a general knowledge of what modern scholarship has been able to determine about the contexts in which various parts of the Bible were written; and
• exercise and increase your abilities to articulate your thoughts about what you've read.

About the Online Environment

Your online course offers several advantages to the traditional classroom, including the comprehensive Online Student Handbook, the ability to communicate electronically with students and with your instructor, and links to a rich array of online resources.

Online Student Handbook

This handbook answers questions about your online learning course, such as how to purchase your text, schedule an exam, obtain a transcript, and get technical help if you need it. The handbook also provides additional resources, such as how to order books or journals from the library and how to study for an online course.

Communication with Your Instructor and Student Peers

• Online Discussion Forums, designed by the University of Washington award winning Catalyst team, allow you to communicate with other currently enrolled students and with your instructor. We encourage you to use the forum to exchange ideas, resources, and comments about your course work with other students in this course. This unstructured forum is monitored by your instructor.
• You can use e-mail to ask me a question or preferably post your question on the forum. I will reply on the same forum.

Online Resources

As an online student, you have access to a wealth of Web resources compiled to provide fast, easy access to information that supports your online learning experience. Organized by subjects, Online Resources link you to sites with help for writing and research, study skills, language learning, and library reference materials. All links have been assessed for credibility and reliability, and they are regularly monitored to ensure their usability.

Texts

I do not insist that you use the Oxford Annotated Revised Standard Version of the Bible in this course, but I strongly recommend it. If you happen to have a copy of the Oxford Study Edition of the New English Bible, that will do almost as well. It is important that you have access to the sort of historical and explanatory information that the Oxford Study Editions provide in their introductions, footnotes, and appendices; they are very helpful. As for using the venerable King James translation, its English is beautiful and very famous, but it is the English of four hundred years ago. A modern translation is much easier to read and understand, and is also truer to the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts. For a discussion of the problems of Biblical translation, see Gabel, Wheeler, York, and Citino, "Translating the Bible."

Course Work

In this course you will be asked to read—not the whole Bible—but extensive selections from it, distributed among eight lessons. For each of these eight lessons you'll be asked to write a short essay (three pages or so) about some aspect of the readings in that lesson.

The Final Examination

At the end of the course you'll take a two-hour final examination. This will consist of 20 questions calling for short, objective answers, demonstrating that you remember pertinent details from the Biblical readings you've done. At the end of each lesson I've provided three questions like those that will appear on the exam. If, after doing the assigned readings, you can answer those sample questions, you should have no difficulty with the final exam.

How to Approach the Lessons

For each lesson you will have three kinds of material to read:

• the Biblical passages;
• background information in Gabel, Wheeler, York, and Citino, and the notes and introductions of the Oxford editors; and
• my comments and essay topics in this study guide.

You will engage in a back-and-forth process between the primary readings in the Bible and the secondary background and discussion of those readings. To be honest with you, I am not sure what the best order is in which to study them. I hope and trust that you will work out a pattern that works for you. It might make sense to start each lesson by reading the Bible selections—which sounds natural—although I suspect it would work better to first read Gabel, Wheeler, York, and Citino and the Oxford editors, then my remarks and essay topics, and finally the Biblical passages. After that, you could go back and zero in on the topic you want to take up in your essay; read the topic more closely; and then go over the relevant Biblical material in preparation for writing your essay.

How to Approach Your Writing Assignments

Each lesson concludes with a writing assignment that proposes three topics; you are to choose one for an essay of about 750 words (about three pages), typed, and double-spaced. This is intended as a rough indication of the paper's scope; there will be no penalty if you write somewhat more or less than 750 words.

The topics are my attempts to isolate for discussion certain interesting situations in the Biblical writings, and questions and issues that they raise. I've tried to limit the topics enough so that you can handle them in relatively concise essays.

Make Your Own Point

When you choose a topic, please do not spend your time trying to guess what I would write if I were doing the paper. Granted, I've framed the topics rather specifically; but that does not mean you must say what I would say in order to be right. Try to take over the topic and make it your own. Use it to show me that you've read the material closely and intelligently, have lively thoughts about what you've read, and can state your thoughts clearly. Make your essay have a point, a definite focus, a central thesis to which everything you say in your paper relates. The old formula applies here:

• make your main point clear from the outset;
• provide the evidence from the Bible readings that supports your conclusion; and
• explain your reasoning.

If you do that, your essays can hardly fail to be satisfying both to you and to me.

Grading

Your grade in this course will be based on the eight short essays you submit (all weighted equally, a total of 70% of your course grade) and the final exam (30% of your grade).

Background Reading

I do not assume that you will need to do any secondary reading beyond Gabel, Wheeler, and York and the Oxford apparatus in order to handle the topics creditably. You are, of course, free to do more reading in the scholarship if you wish. Gabel, Wheeler, and York provide sensible suggestions for further reading after most of their chapters. I have found the following books enduringly useful as scholarship for the general reader:

• Harris, Stephen L. Understanding the Bible. London and Toronto: Mayfield Publishing, 1980.
• Hayes, John H. Introduction to the Bible. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1971.
• Kee, Howard, Franklin Young, and Karlfried Froehlich. Understanding the New Testament. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1957.
• Anderson, Bernhard W. Understanding the Old Testament. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1957.

Reading Assignments in Gabel, Wheeler, York, and Citino

As part of the lesson-by-lesson reading assignments, I have specified the chapters or sections in Gabel, Wheeler, York, and Citino that pertain directly to the Biblical material in each lesson. Please consider them part of the required reading.

Reading before the First Lesson

Two chapters—"The Formation of the Canon" and "The Religious Use and Interpretation of the Bible"—concern the Bible as a whole and don't belong to any one lesson. I urge you to read them now, as you begin the course. Be ready to review them when you encounter issues relevant to them later in the course. I will occasionally refer to them.

You may be interested in Gabel, Wheeler, York, and Citino's brief geographical description of ancient Palestine, "The Physical Setting of the Bible." Two other chapters—"The Bible as Literature" and "Literary Forms and Strategies in the Bible"—contain some enlightening points, but overall you may find those chapters needlessly abstract and theoretical. I do.

Historical Background

The editors of the Oxford Annotated Bible provide a short, substantial account of the history of the ancient Israelites and the early Christians in the appendix "The People of the Covenant." I recommend that you read through it here at the beginning of the course, and refresh your memory of it as necessary later on. For convenience, I have boiled down some of its salient information in the following outline.

Brief Chronology of Ancient Hebrew, Israelite, and Jewish History

1900–1500 b.c. Ancestors of the people later to be called Israel are vaguely defined nomadic peoples wandering the deserts of Canaan and the fringes of established Canaanite city-culture; they were sometimes called "Habiru" or "Apiru," a catch-all term for outcasts and wanderers from which "Hebrew" derives. There is no reason to suppose that these bands thought of themselves as one people. Their religions were presumably a standard assortment of territorial and force-of-nature cults.

1500–1300 b.c. "Habiru" are among the many bands of nomads who migrated to Egypt in search of sustenance; some of them are enslaved for Egyptian building projects.

1250–1200 b.c. A more or less unified body of "Habiru," Hebrews, flee Egyptian bondage; they are a poor, landless, wandering collection of clans and families. Yahwism—the worship of the god Yahweh, a deity perhaps worshipped by Midianite tribes and said to live on Mt. Sinai or Mt. Horeb in the Sinai Peninsula—is becoming important among them, but is by no means the only Hebrew religion. (El, the chief god of the Canaanite pantheon, was also important; the name appeared in Israel and in many shrines and place-names recorded in the Bible.)

1220–1100 b.c. A number of these families go into Canaan after a generation of living in the Sinai desert. Some resident Canaanite tribes, perhaps acknowledging blood kinship, are hospitable to them; others are hostile. The eternal conflict between land- and city-owners on the one hand and the encroaching nomads on the other goes on.

1030–950 b.c. The very loosely linked tribes and clans of migrant Hebrews develop enough of a sense of common purpose and identity to form a single kingdom under Saul, then David, and finally Solomon. Israel during this period is a political entity whose main rival for dominance in Canaan is the Philistines, a western culture from the Mediterranean.

936–587 b.c. When Solomon dies, civil war breaks out in Israel, which is divided into two kingdoms—the North (called variously "the house of Omri" after its king, "Ephraim" after a leading tribe, and "Israel") versus the South (Judah). The Northern kingdom falls to the Assyrian Empire in 722 b.c.; Judah (from which the terms Judaea, Judaism, and Jew are derived) survives 150 years longer, then falls to the Babylonian Empire in 587 b.c. The Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed, leading Jewish families are deported, and the Babylonian Exile has occurred.

538 b.c. Cyrus of Persia conquers Babylonia and releases deported Jews (and all other peoples subjected to Babylonian deportation) to return home after 50 years of captivity. Some do; many don't. The dispersion of the Jews throughout the world has begun. Jerusalem and the Temple are rebuilt by a faithful remnant that goes back. Judah achieves some minor political and religious autonomy under a succession of Persian, Greek, and Macedonian empires.

160 b.c. Following the division of Alexander the Great's empire, a Seleucid prince named Antiochus IV takes possession of Palestine, attempts to force Hellenistic culture on the Jews, desecrates the Temple in Jerusalem, and provokes the Maccabean Revolt there.

a.d. 70. Rome is now the ruler of the Mediterranean world; Palestinian Jews revolt against Rome; the Romans occupy Jerusalem by force and destroy the Temple.

Formation of the Bible

Equally important as historical background for this course is a general understanding of how and when the various writings that make up the Bible came into being, and the basic process of "canonizing" them as Scripture. Gabel, Wheeler, York, and Citino provide essential information in "The Formation of the Canon," and in "Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha: The Outside Books," where they describe a number of writings that did not quite achieve canonical or Scriptural status. The Oxford editors discuss the same subjects in their "Introduction to the Old Testament," and "Introduction to the New Testament." You can read those pages in a few minutes, and they should prove very helpful.

Again, for convenience's sake, I've pulled together a rough chronology, indicating the dates of the milestones in the formation of the Bible.

General Outline of the Development of the Old Testament

2000–1000 b.c. No literature or written accounts survive from this period; apparently what existed were oral traditions (tales, legends, songs, ballads, customs, laws) and some books that are mentioned in the Bible but have never been found (e.g., The Book of the Wars of Yahweh, Numbers 21.14, and The Book of Jashar, Joshua 10.13).

850 b.c. One or more authors in Judah put into writing a connected cycle of some of those ancient stories and traditions—folk-type stories of Adam and Eve and the talking serpent, Noah and the flood, Samson, and so forth; stories and legends about tribal leaders like Abraham, Moses, and Joshua, and accounts of the founding of some shrines and the capture of some cities. This extended "epic" is called the J cycle by modern scholars.

750 b.c. One or more writers in Israel (the Northern kingdom) compiles a similar cycle of traditions. This E cycle exists independently of the J cycle though it contains versions of some of the same stories.

621 b.c. The Book of Deuteronomy is discovered or written under King Josiah of Judah (see II Kings 22 for the Bible's account of this event). For the first time, the idea of a "Book of the Law" is established, and something like "sacred scripture" (the written word of God) is proclaimed in Judaism.

450 b.c. Editors in Judah (called the Priestly editors, or the P source by modern scholars) put together the J cycle, the E cycle, and the Book of the Law to form the Torah in much the form we still have: the first five books of the Bible, also called the Pentateuch, or the "Books of Moses." When the Samaritans secede from Judah in 432 b.c., they take this Bible with them, and they never add anything to it.

200 b.c. By this time, collections of oracles and proclamations from a series of prophets who prophesied from 750–300 b.c. have been made and "canonized" (that is, accepted as authoritative by Judaic priests). From this era comes the Septuagint, the Greek translation of Hebrew scripture made for Greek-speaking Jews in Egypt. The Septuagint was the Bible as far as the first-generation Christians were concerned; it is the Old Testament of the Catholic Church to the present day.

a.d. 70. Palestinian rabbis establish from Hebrew scrolls, according to their best judgment, the text of what is to be considered Holy Scripture—the Masoretic text. Several books and passages included in the Septuagint are not included here. This Masoretic text will become the Protestant Old Testament during the Reformation (a.d. 1500–1600). Those portions of the Septuagint that are not included in the Masoretic text become the so-called Apocrypha, printed as a section separate from the Old and New Testaments in many Bibles, including the Revised Standard Version.

General Outline of the Development of the New Testament

a.d. 50–60. To various developing Christian congregations, Paul and other missionaries write letters of instruction and advice, some of which are saved, copied, and circulated.

a.d. 70–100. After several decades of believers' passing Jesus's acts and sayings along orally, a number of gospels are written, based on these oral traditions.

a.d. 100–400. Over the years, Christian congregations have used various gospels, visionary prophecies, and pastoral letters by Paul and other "Apostolic Fathers" in their worship services. In a.d. 367, Bishop Athansius, expressing a kind of consensus of church practice, publishes the list of Christian books which becomes the official church canon and establishes the New Testament as we know it. A number of letters, vision-prophecies, and gospels are thereby rejected (e.g., the Apocalypse of Peter, the Gospel of Thomas, the Acts of Paul, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Didache), and many destroyed.

About Your Course Developer—John Griffith

My name is John Griffith; I am an Associate Professor in the University of Washington English Department. I took my BA at the University of New Mexico in 1962 and my Ph.D. at the University of Oregon in 1969. I've been teaching at the University of Washington since then. My primary specialty is American literature; I have taught and published scholarly articles on American writers ranging from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. I also teach American Literature: Later Nineteenth Century, and Children's Literature Reconsidered.

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