REL238
Jews and Judaism in Antiquity
Subject code
REL
Course Number
238
Department(s)
Instructor(s)
C. Baker
Course Long Title
Jews and Judaism in Antiquity
Cross Listed Courses
Description
The millennium between 500 B.C.E. and 500 C.E. saw the gradual invention of a culture that has come to be known as Judaism. This course introduces the significant historical events and texts that were part of this cultural process, as well as the daily practices, institutions, ideologies, and movements associated with it. The approach is both historical and thematic with close reading of archaeological and written sources including texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament (substantially authored by Jews), later Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha, Philo, Josephus, and the early rabbinic corpus. Topics include biblical interpretation; creation, adaptation, and transmission of traditions; identity and self-definition; accommodation and resistance; sectarianism and the invention of Jewish and Christian orthodoxies; theories about messiahs, afterlife, and a world-to-come.
Modes of Inquiry
Analysis and Critique [AC], Historical and Social Inquiry [HS]
Writing Credit
No writing credit
INDS Program Relationship
IDCM - CMS Program
GEC This Course Belongs To
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