Old Testament Exegesis II (poetic literature)

Language

French

Main themes

In order to achieve this end,
- some significant text from Old Testament poetic literature will be studied, with an explanation of the exegetical method and an illustration of the interest of exegetical basic tools;
- some scientific literature about the texts will be read;
- anthropological and theological aspects of the analysed texts will be developed, and their particular contribution in the context of biblical thought enlightened.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	- understand the main procedures of biblical exegesis and apply them on a poetic text of the Old Testament ;
2	- situate the anthropological and theological contribution of significant texts of the Old Testament poetic literature ;
3	- understand and criticise scientific works in Old Testament exegesis.

Content

This course will be devoted to the the study of selected poetic passages in First Isaiah (Isa 1-39).
The following aspects will be discussed :

• Compositional criticism;
• Translation and philological questions ;
• Literary structure ;
• Poetical features ;
• Intertextuality ;
• Historical setting ;
• Rhetorical function ;
• Reception history.

Teaching methods

The teaching method will combine times of presentation by the teacher and times of more active pedagogy around the implementation of the exegetical method on selected texts. The exegetical method is described in the handbook published by the teacher (see the "bibliography" section).

Evaluation methods

This course will be subject to continuous assessment:

• Activities during the term in preparation for class sessions (to be filed on Moodle). [30% of the final grade]
• Writing of an exegesis paper on Isaiah 19, to be submitted on Moodle at the end of the term. [70% of final grade]

These assignments form a coherent whole from a pedagogical point of view because they contribute to the training of the exegetical method in a progressive way; it is a question of carrying out partial tasks during the term in order to acquire precise competences, then to carry out an overall exegesis at the end of the term. The following table (pedagogical alignment) explains the link between learning outcomes and assessments:

learning outcomes/assignment	activities	essay
understand the main procedures of biblical exegesis and apply them to a poetic text from the First Testament	X (one by one)	X (all)
situate the anthropological and theological contribution of one or more important texts in the poetic literature of the First Testament	X	X
understand and critically evaluate a scholarly article in Old Testament exegesis		X

The modalities of evaluation in Q3 will be the same as in Q1: the same assignments must be submitted on Moodle.

Other information

Prerequisite : course of introduction to the Old Testament.

Teaching materials

• M. Richelle, Interpreting Israel’s Scriptures: A Practical Guide to the Exegesis of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2022).

Faculty or entity

TEBI