COURSES > UNDERGRADUATE

Although many people think of the Bible as containing all of the sacred literature of the Judeo-Christian tradition, many books of “scripture” that could have been included in the Hebrew Bible or New Testament were left out by the committees that put those anthologies together. In this seminar course we will examine a selection of such “lost” books (drawing from the Apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library) in order to better understand what was left out of the Bible as well as what was kept in and why. Students will be responsible for doing close, thoughtful reading of each assignment and actively participating in each class discussion. In addition, students will be asked to write several papers and to make a presentation related to the themes of the course. The second essay is to be revised based on class and instructor feedback.

Texts

• Hebrew Bible
• Apocrypha
• New Testament
• Charles, R.H. (trans.), The Book of Jubilees
• Wise, Michael et al. (trans.), The Dead Sea Scrolls – Revised Edition: A New Translation
• Robinson, Nag Hammadi Library in English: Revised Edition

TAUGHT: SUMMER 2010, SPRING 2012, SPRING 2014, SPRING 2015,
        SPRING 2016