BIBL1015A: Introduction to the Bible

Abstract

This course will address the following question: When we speak of תנ"ך as a holy corpus of books, what precisely do we mean? What, exactly, are the markers of sanctity that distinguish תנ"ך from secular literature generally? Rather than focusing on fundamental differences between religious and secular literature, e.g., one is divinely authored, the other is not, we will ask how those fundamental differences have affected the way that תנ"ך has been treated and interpreted throughout Jewish history. This question will serve as the backdrop for our inquiries into the history of the biblical text, the canonization of תנ"ך , and the historical tension between פשט and דרש .