A video of the lecture that I gave at Trinity University on “Who Read the Bible in Antiquity” to kick off their Lennox Seminar. Meeting faculty colleagues there and interacting with the students in the seminar were both a lot of fun for me, although I wish that someone told me that my collar was askew before starting the lecture.
Ezra: Role Play Exercise
Each time I teach “How the Bible Became Holy” I spend a day role-playing the response to Ezra’s return to Jerusalem in 458 BCE. We focus on the aftermath of Nehemiah 8 but students have read all of Ezra and Nehemiah. This year we had to break the class into three groups, each simultaneously conducting the same role-play. The results were different in each one. I live-tweeted the group that I was leading and the Storified version of those tweets (#EzraSim) below should give an idea of what transpired.
And the Other…. Syllabus for course on the Mishnah and Tosefta
The second course I will be teaching this semester is a graduate student oriented course on the Mishnah and Tosefta. You can find a copy of the syllabus here.
If you would prefer a copy in Word in order to modify for your own needs, please contact me. As always, suggestions are welcome.
How the Bible Became Holy: Course Syllabus
This spring I will once again be teaching my course, “How the Bible Became Holy.” This is an undergraduate survey that spans from the biblical period to around the third century CE. As always, I have tweaked a little. A copy of the syllabus is here. Should you desire to teach a version of this and would like the syllabus in Word to allow for editing, please contact me directly. Any suggestions, as always, are also welcome.
Gary Anderson Lecture on Jewish Attitudes Toward Wealth and Poverty
In early November I convened a workshop on Jewish Attitudes Toward Wealth and Poverty. We spent most of our time at the workshop discussing translations of Jewish texts and we are in the process of assembling those (and other) texts to publish together as a kind of source book.
One of the highlights of the workshop was a lecture by Professor Gary A. Anderson (Notre Dame). Professor Anderson spoke on “Metaphysics or Morals: The Place of Charity in Second Temple Judaism.” The video of the lecture was just edited and is accessible above.