The Book of Psalms (Hebrew exegesis) (BA3300T)

Content

In this unit, students will engage with the Book of Psalms, through Hebrew exegesis of selected texts and scholarship on its composition, and historical contexts. Themes such as ecology, divine absence, ageing, poverty, justice and wisdom will be examined in light of the pedagogy, poetics and canonical formation of the Psalter. The fundamentals of reading Hebrew poetry and text criticism will also be developed.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

Prerequisites: an introductory unit to the Old Testament; and Hebrew A and B (or equivalent)

Pedagogy

Lecture component (online or in classroom) and tutorial component on Hebrew exegesis.

Indicative Bibliography

• Brenner, Athalya, and Carole R Fontaine (eds). Wisdom and Psalms. The Feminist Companion to the Bible, 2nd Ser., No. 2. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998.
• Brown, W.P. Seeing the Psalms: A Theology of Metaphor. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2002.
• Brown, W.P. (ed). The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
• Brueggemann, W. and W.H. Bellinger. Psalms. NCBC. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
• DeClaissé-Walford, Nancy L., R.A. Jacobson and B. Laneel Tanner. The Book of Psalms. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014.
• DeClaissé-Walford, Nancy. Introduction to the Psalms: A Song from Ancient Israel. St Louis: Chalice press, 2004.
• Gillingham, Susan. “The Messiah in the Psalms: A Question of Reception History and the Psalter.” Pages 209-237 in King and Messiah in Israel and the Ancient Near East. Ed. John Day. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998.
• Gossai, Hemchand (ed.) Postcolonial Commentary and the Old Testament. London: T&T Clark, 2019.
• Jacobson, Rolf A. (ed.) Soundings in the Theology of Psalms. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011.
• Wenham, Gordon J. Psalms as Torah: Reading Biblical Song Ethically. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2012.

Assessment