THEO43530: The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament

• Hebrew and Greek at elementary undergraduate level

• None

• None

• To equip students with the skills and experience to engage directly with the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha with confidence, and to be able to draw on them as a theological source.
• To familiarize students with the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha as Sources for Early Judaism and New Testament studies.

• Old Testament Pseudepigrapha is a term often used in order to designate texts belonging to the narrative world of the Old Testament but written later by Jews or Christians (I prefer the term Old Testament Parabiblica). Well known examples are the First Book of Enoch, a collection of narratives, visions and prophecies associated with Enoch, or the Fourth Book of Ezra, a book that comprises visions of Ezra formulating a pessimistic worldview typical of Jewish Apocalypticism in the first century after Christ and that has been of enormous importance for research on New Testament Theology in the last decades.
• By closely reading parabiblical texts both in original (Greek) and translation, students will be trained in the various methods which are necessary in order to reconstruct their meaning, to evaluate them as sources for the history of religion and society and to correlate them with other Jewish texts and Early Christian literature, not at least the New Testament.
• This seminar will also aim at provide students with deeper insight about research in Early Judaism in general.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Understanding Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
• Understanding the importance of OT Pseudepigrapha as sources for the history of religion.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Ability to interpret texts of the OT Pseudepigrapha in original language and translation
• Ability to engage intellectually with a historically distant theological source
• Abillity to understand and evaluate secondary literature on OT Pseudepigrapha.

Key Skills:

• Skills in the acquisition and interpretation of information through close, nuanced reading of primary and secondary sources.
• Skills in the structured presentation of information in written form.
• Skills in the conducting of research.
• Skills in thinking theologically and historically.

• Seminars enhance subject-specific knowledge and understanding both through preparation and through interaction with students and staff, promoting awareness of different viewpoints and approaches.
• Formative essays develop subject-specific knowledge and understanding, along with student skills in the acquisition of information through reading and research, and in the structured presentation of information in written form.
• Summative essays develop subject-specific knowledge and understanding, along with student skills in the acquisition of information through reading and research, and in the structured presentation of information in written form.

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