MA in Jewish Studies

TH 9910, Intertestamental Literature

Credits:  				30

Course Lecturer:  	Professor George Brooke 

e-mail:					George.Brooke@man.ac.uk

Course Aims::

This course unit aims to introduce students to the non-biblical Jewish literature of the late Second Temple period.

Course Objectives:

By the end of the course, students will normally

1. have become familiar with the full range of Jewish literature which has survived from the period;
2. have studied some compositions in depth;
3. have appreciated the way in which the Dead Sea Scrolls form part of a wider literature, and;
4. have interacted with recent scholarly advances in the understanding of this material.

All the compositions are studied in English. The course pays particular attention to identifying the characteristics of a wide range of literary genres including stories, poems, wisdom literature, testaments, apocalypses, philosophy, and history writing. Literary works both from early Palestinian Judaism and also from the Jewish diaspora are studied. Some elementary knowledge of the history of the period 200 BCE-200 CE is covered briefly at the beginning of the course.

Reading:

G.W.E. Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature between the Bible and the Mishnah, Fortress Press 1981

H.F.D. Sparks (ed.), The Apocryphal Old Testament, Clarendon Press 1984

G. Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, Penguin 1997 (5th edition)

New Revised Standard Version Bible with the Apocrypha.

Weekly					Fridays 9-10 (WLG13), 1-2 (WLG18)

Taught in: 			Both Semesters

Assessment:			2 x 4,000 word essays

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e-mail: Bernard.Jackson@man.ac.uk