Genesis (BA9109T)

Content

This unit engages with the Book of Genesis. Topics covered are: its major sections and unity; discussion of its historical and social context, its major theological themes; exegesis of selected texts with consideration of artistic, historical and contemporary interpretations of a number of these.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

At least two units of Biblical Studies, one in Old Testament.

Pedagogy

Twelve weekly sessions, delivered as online lectures and classroom seminars, each week comprising guided reading in primary and secondary sources, additional reading resources and some notes, together with an online tutorial forum. Students will be expected to contribute to the discussions in each session.

Indicative Bibliography

• Arnold, Bill T. Genesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Brenner, Athalya. ed. A Feminist Companion to Genesis. Vols 1-2. Sheffield: Sheffield University Press, 1997/1998.
• Paulson, Graham and Mark G. Brett. “Five Smooth Stones: Reading the Bible through Aboriginal Eyes.” Colloq 45, no. 2 (2013): 199-214.
• Bergant, Diane. Genesis: In the Beginning. Collegevile, MN: Liturgical Press, 2013.
• Brueggemann, W. Genesis. Atlanta: John Knox, 1982.

• Enns, Pete and Jared Byas. Genesis for Normal People. Englewood, CO: Patheos Press, 2012.
 (recommended for purchase)
• Habel, Norman C. The Birth, The Curse and The Greening Of Earth: An Ecological Reading Of Genesis 1-11. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2011.
• Hendel, Ronald. The Book of Genesis: A Biography. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013.
• Hendel, Ronald S. “Genesis 1-11 and Its Mesopotamian Problem.” Pages 23-36 in Cultural Borrowings and Ethnic Appropriations in Antiquity. Edited by Erich S. Gruen. Stuttgart: Frantz Steiner, 2005.
• Warner, Megan. “‘Therefore a Man Leaves His Father and His Mother and Clings to His Wife’: Marriage and Intermarriage in Genesis 2:24.” Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 136, no. 2, 2017, pp. 269–88.

Assessment