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  • Open Courseware

    The New Testament as History

    The accounts of Paul’s travels in The Acts of the Apostles and Galatians seem to contradict each other at many points. Their descriptions of a meeting in Jerusalem–a major council in Acts versus a small, informal gathering in Galatians–also differ quite a bit. How do we understand these differences? A historical critical reading of these […]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQaOlxhg8xg

  • Open Courseware

    Introduction: Why Study the New Testament?

    This course approaches the New Testament not as scripture, or a piece of authoritative holy writing, but as a collection of historical documents. Therefore, students are urged to leave behind their pre-conceived notions of the New Testament and read it as if they had never heard of it before. This involves understanding the historical context […]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtQ2TS1CiDY

  • Open Courseware

    New Testament History and Literature

    This course provides a historical study of the origins of Christianity by analyzing the literature of the earliest Christian movements in historical context, concentrating on the New Testament. Although theological themes will occupy much of our attention, the course does not attempt a theological appropriation of the New Testament as scripture. Rather, the importance of […]

    https://academicearth.org/courses/new-testament-history-and-literature/

  • Open Courseware

    The Hebrew Scriptures in Judaism and Christianity

    In 70CE the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. Second Temple Judaism, whose worship consisted of animal sacrifice permitted by biblical command only at the Temple, would have to reinvent itself as Rabbinic Judaism. Contemporaneously, the authors of the New Testament Gospels were writing about the Jewish apocalyptic prophet whom they believed was the awaited messiah. For […]

    https://academicearth.org/courses/the-hebrew-scriptures-in-judaism-and-christianity/

  • Open Courseware

    Interpreting Scripture: Hebrews

    There are many ways of interpreting the text, and ancient methods of interpretation may seem bizarre to our modern sensibilities. The New Testament offers us many examples of how an early Christian might interpret the text of the Hebrew Bible, which was their scripture. The Letter to the Hebrews, which is not really a letter […]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_vA1UeSjSo

  • Open Courseware

    Interpreting Scripture: Medieval Interpretations

    The principles of interpreting the New Testament in this course assume a historical critical perspective. The historical critical method of interpreting a text privileges the intended meaning of the ancient author, the interpretation of a text’s original audience, the original language the text was written in, and the avoidance of anachronism. However, for most of […]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC7-MEwQccE

  • Open Courseware

    Paul as Missionary

    The New Testament and other texts provide us with many accounts of the Apostle Paul, some that contradict each other. Throughout the history of Christianity, Paul has assumed many different roles for different people. For the early Christians he was primarily a martyr. For St. Augustine, and later Martin Luther, he was a man interpreting […]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V8NeoY2qB4

  • Open Courseware

    The Historical Jesus

    It is obvious that certain narratives in the New Testament contradict each other and cannot be woven into a historically coherent whole. How, then, do scholars construct who the “historical Jesus” was? There are several principles that historical Jesus researchers follow, which include considering data that 1) has multiple attestations and 2) is dissimilar to […]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_dOhg-Fpu0

  • Open Courseware

    The Gospel of Mark

    The Gospels of the New Testament are not biographies, and, in this class, they are read through a historical critical lens. This means that the events they narrate are not taken at face value as historical. The Gospel of Mark illustrates how the gospel writer skillfully crafts a narrative in order to deliver a message. […]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd5sXfFboxA
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