Dr. Jeffrey Seif, Instructor

General Introduction

This mini-course will survey the Torah, Nevi'im, K'tuvim and the Brit Hadashah-both their respective worlds and their words. As for the Bible's “worlds,” we'll pay special attention to biblical history, in the process of which we will consider various geographical, political and social pressures that had a direct effect on Israel and Judah, and provided the backdrop for the various prophetic exhortations given by the Nevi'im, which were then recorded and preserved in our Hebrew Bibles. We'll assess the literature in chronological order, after which we'll briefly consider the four hundred year inter-testamental period. That attended to, we'll then focus on Roman occupied Judea, and the New Testament's story that was played out therein. In the process of so doing, we will become formally acquainted with the synoptic Gospels and John. Moving beyond Judea, the story and literature of Rabbi Paul (called the “Pauline Corpus”) will be the object of considerable attention-both the doctrinal and rabbinical (or “pastoral”) epistles, collectively and individually. With the Gospels and the Pauline literature attended to, we'll then close with a consideration of the Messianic Jewish (or “General”) epistles, which we'll probe for context and content. By means of the above, we should become better acquainted with the complete Jewish Bible and, as a result, be better able to minister the life-giving Word by virtue of our having been formally and systematically introduced to it.

Module Two: A Survey of the B'rit Hadashah

Herein, the “New Testament”-so called-will be assessed historically and theologically. Special attention will be given to its chronological order (as opposed to its canonical order), as with its congruence with the hopes, expectations and yearnings of the Hebrew people. Students will come to terms with the literature in relation to its family of origin-i.e., in Jewish culture. This module will follow Module One (see above) and will be taught over two days, over an eight-hour period.

Approx. 8 hours of teaching on 4 DVDs or Online Streaming. (2010)