Week 07: Responses to Exile!

March 15-21: Responses to Exile

Responses to Exile, among the Latter Prophets and their exilic contemporaries. Here is a beginning list of “Big Ideas and Essential Questions” relating to prophecy and the Latter Prophets.

Resources

Readings:

Read Bandstra’s Chapter 12 Postmonarchy Prophets: Exile and Restoration. Or, in your Introduction of choice, read on the periods of the Babylonian Exile and the post-exilic restoration in the district of Judea (formerly the nation of Judah).

Recommended Reading:

Lectures:

View or listen to the two-part lecture, “Responses to Exile”:

“Make” of the Week

Pick one of the following options for this week’s “make,” sharing it on your blog, remembering to tag your post with our tag, “ootle16.” (Garrett students: Remember that your work is assessed according to the course rubric. You may need to add analysis or other elements that will allow you to include each element of the rubric. Remember too that you must have commented, thoughtfully and substantively, to at least three [3] other OOTLE-ers on Jeremiah & Jerusalem or on Responses to Exile by Sunday evening.)

Make Option 01: In the lecture, in the Bandstra reading linked above (or your textbook of choice), and in the recommended reading, find what is available on the “messiah” or on “messianic” ideas during the Babylonian Exile and in post-exilic Judea.

Pick someone whom you would like to teach about “The Messiahs of the Hebrew Bible.” (A colleague, a prospective MDiv student, a curious family member, or anyone else.) In about 1000 words, and using these course materials as a resource, write them a letter about what a “messiah” is (or what “messiahs” are/do?) in the Hebrew Bible. Be sure to cite appropriately, so that they can engage these materials themselves also. Don’t “lecture” (we all know how off-putting that is!), but do find compelling ways to include the relevant information. Anticipate their questions and concerns, and address them overtly.

Make Option 02: In the lecture, in the Bandstra reading linked above (or your textbook of choice), and in the recommended reading, find what is available on “Isaiah’s Servant” (or the Servant of YHWH, or the Suffering Servant) with regard to the book of Isaiah.

Pick someone whom you would like to teach about “Isaiah’s Servant.” (A colleague, a prospective MDiv student, a curious family member, or anyone else.) In about 1000 words, and using these course materials as a resource, write them a letter about what this “servant” is for the book of Isaiah. Be sure to cite appropriately, so that they can engage these materials themselves also. Don’t “lecture” (we all know how off-putting that is!), but do find compelling ways to include the relevant information. Anticipate their questions and concerns, and address them overtly.

Activity of the Week: Continuing Analysis of MLK “Letter from Burmingham Jail” as Prophecy.

For the three weeks of the Latter Prophets, we are joing in a shared annotation of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

During this third week, we will collaborate on a few paragraphs summarizing our observations. Working together, decide on a structure that allows you to 1) summarize your observations, and 2) comment on your several experiences of the project.

The challenge of this week is that none of you “owns” the paragraphs, or even your own contributions to them! Be respectul of one another’s contributions, but in the end, the reader will not see “Jim’s part” and “Angela’s part”…they will simply see the paragraphs as a whole.

(Garrett-Evangelical students, remember you will have opportunity to describe your activity in your weekly report.)

Our work continues, as before, on this shared Google Doc.

Google Hangout of the Week: Responses to Exile.

On Thursday, March 17, 2:30-3:30 pm Central Time, I will be joined by Dr. David Garber for an "On Air" live Google Hangout. We will talk what we love (or don’t) about the “responses to Exile” and its academic study, and what kinds of things we hope for students to get out of the Unit.

During the Hangout, follow the hashtag #ootle16 on Twitter, asking us questions, making comments, and discussing the conversation among yourselves.

Week 06: Jeremiah and Jerusalem (7th century prophecy)

March 8-14: Pre-exilic Prophecy

Prophecy, between the fall of Israel and the fall of Judah. Here is a beginning list of “Big Ideas and Essential Questions” relating to prophecy and the Latter Prophets.

Don’t go too crazy trying to understand "Deuteronomism" and the "Deuteronomistic History": we’ve got a whole Unit on that coming up on a couple of weeks. This week, you’re just trying to understand the historical narrative spanning the fall of Israel to the Assyrians and the ensuing period of “Judah alone,” as Assyria recedes in importance and Babylon becomes a threat. The Rollston article will also help you understand pre-exilic Israelite polytheism in this context.

Resources

Readings:

Read Bandstra’s Chapter 11 Kings and Prophets 3: The Babylonian Crisis. Or, in your Introduction of choice, read on the 7th-century prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and on the historical period between 722 BCE (the fall of Samaria to the Assyrians) and 586 BCE (the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians). On Judah’s last years before its fall to Babylon, see too this handout.

Recommended Reading: I strongly recommend Christopher Rollston’s “The Rise of Monotheism in Ancient Israel: Biblical and Epigraphic Evidence.”

Optional Reading for Hangout: Dr. Bryan Bibb literally "wrote the book" on prophecy. He and I will discuss his introductory chapter, available to you here. Not a requirement, but enjoy it as you're able.

Lectures:

View or listen to the two-part lecture, “Jeremiah and Jerusalem”:

“Make” of the Week

Pick one of the following options for this week’s “make,” sharing it on your blog, remembering to tag your post with our tag, “ootle.” (Garrett students: Remember that your work is assessed according to the course rubric. You may need to add analysis or other elements that will allow you to include each element of the rubric. Remember too that you must have commented, thoughtfully and substantively, to at least three [3] other OOTLE-ers on the 8th-century prophets or on Jeremiah & Jerusalem by Sunday evening.)

Make Option 01: Read Jeremiah 20:7-13, the last of the “laments” of Jer 11-20. There, Jeremiah complains that God has “deceived” or “enticed” him: the word has elsewhere connotations of sexual entrapment, perhaps even rape (cf. Exod 22:16 [English verse numbers]; Judges 14:15; 16:5). Ezekiel says that God will “deceive” prophets in order to destroy them (Ezek 14:9), and Micaiah has a vision of God sending a “lying spirit” to “deceive” prophets and make them unwittingly prophesy falsehoods (1 Kgs 22:20-22). Other ancient Near Eastern religious texts also accept that the gods may deliver lying oracles.

Read Jer 20:7-13 again, holding in view his concerns about a God who lies. What do you think of Jeremiah’s “deceiving God”? What is his complaint? What is his petition? Can you think of modern examples of ways people contend with the possibility of God lying? How about withholding truth? Does Jeremiah have anything to offer someone who feels betrayed by a lying God?

Make Option 02: Read these passages from Jeremiah: 1:1-19; 2:1-13; 4:23-28; 5:1-5; 7:1-34; 8:18–9:3; 18:1-12; 20:7-13; 23:9-32; 31; 32:1-15. Which of these texts sound to you like prophecies of “doom”? Which, by contrast, of “hope”? What make the differences? Do you find it credible that these types of utterance could both come from the same prophet? To what of Judah’s political circumstances might each be appropriate during Jeremiah’s career? If you are someone who preaches, do you preach both “doom” and “hope”? Under what circumstances, and what makes the difference?

Make Option 03: Read the Rollston article from the recommended reading (above). What is Rollston trying to get across, using what evidence, and reasoning from it how? What differences emerge between the “world in the text” (the biblical narratives) and the “world behind the text” (the actual history that produces the biblical narratives)? How might a religious community of your own experience respond to Rollston’s piece...or to the discovery that the piece’s claims are not even slightly controversial in the field of biblical studies?

Activity of the Week: Continuing Analysis of MLK “Letter from Burmingham Jail” as Prophecy.

For the three weeks of the Latter Prophets, we are joing in a shared annotation of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

This week: During this second week, we engage and challenge one another on our annotations, on accuracy and in terms of how closely we engage course materials and methods. Reply to the Comments of your classmates. Dig into course materials to support, challenge, and extend their observations. Think of yourself as a team, all getting stronger together. (Obviously, many of you were already doing this in the first week, which is terrific.)

At the same time, continue making new annotations, using our course materials as a resource regarding the genres and activities typical of ancient Near Eastern and biblical prophecy. How does the letter’s form and content, historical setting and function “stack up” as prophecy (again in the senses of that word used in academic study of the Hebrew Bible)? How not? Annotate profligately! Where you are unsure of your observations, simply indicate that in your annotations. But engage course materials rigorously.

We will do our analysis on this shared Google Doc. As a group, you will decide how to order and organize analysis. You may use the Comments feature, interlinear additions (with or without hyperlinks), and anything else you think works well. Just be sure we can distinguish the original text from your annotations. And, be aware that dependence upon “color coding” can make your work unavailable to the visually or cognitively impaired. Keep it simple.

During the third week, we will collaborate on a few paragraphs summarizing our observations.

Google Hangout of the Week: Jeremiah and Late Pre-exilic Judah.

Wednesday of this week, March 9th at 1:00 pm Central Time, I will be joined by Dr. Bryan Bibb for an "On Air" live Google Hangout. We will talk what we love in this stretch of material (or don’t), and what kinds of things we hope for students to get out of a Unit on Jeremiah. We'll also range widely on the Hebrew Bible, its study and teaching, and on the guild of biblical studies.

During the Hangout, follow the hashtag #ootle16, asking us questions, making comments, and discussing the conversation among yourselves.

Week 05: Prophecy!

March 2-8: Prophecy

Prophets! Prophecy! 8th-century prophets in Israel and Judah. Institutional settings and functions of prophecy in the ancient Near East. Here is a beginning list of “Big Ideas and Essential Questions” relating to prophecy and the Latter Prophets.

Resources

Readings:

Read Bandstra’s Prologue to the Prophets. Also read his Chapter 10 “Kings and Prophets 2: The Assyrian Crisis”. Or, in your Introduction of choice, read on Prophecy, and on the 8th-century prophets (Amos, Hosea, Isaiah of Jerusalem, Micah).

Recommended Reading:

Lectures:

View or listen to the two-part lecture, “Prophecy”:

“Make” of the Week

Pick one of the following options for this week’s “make,” sharing it on your blog, remembering to tag your post with our tag, “ootle16.” If you would rather do your “make” as a voice-recorded mp3 file or a YouTube video, just be sure to create a properly-tagged blog post that hosts or links to your presentation. (Garrett students: Remember that your work is assessed according to the course rubric. You may need to add analysis or other elements that will allow you to include each element of the rubric. Remember too that you must have commented, thoughtfully and substantively, to at least three [3] other OOTLE-ers on either Daniel/Apocalyptic or Prophets by Sunday evening.)

Make Option 01: (Exercise 87 in Stanley.) Read Amos 2:6-16; 5:10-17; 6:1-8; 8:4-9:4. In about 750-1000 words, what does Amos say is wrong with Israelite society? What will happen to the people of Israel if they don’t change their ways? Is there anything that they can do to avoid this fate?

Make Option 02: (Exercise 89 in Stanley.) Read Hosea 4:1-14; 8:1-14; 10:1-8; 13:1-8. In about 750-1000 words, what does Hosea say is wrong with Israel? How does his picture compare with that of Amos?

Make Option 03: (Exercise 91 in Stanley.) Read Isaiah 1:1-31; 5:1-30; 10:1-27; 28:1-22. In about 750-1000 words, how does Isaiah’s message compare with that of Amos and Hosea?

Activity of the Week: Annotate MLK’s “Letter,” analyzing it as “Prophecy”

For the three weeks of the Latter Prophets, we are joing in a shared annotation of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

This week: Using our course materials as a resource regarding the genres and activities typical of ancient Near Eastern and biblical prophecy, analyze Dr. King’s letter as prophecy in that sense. How does its form and content, historical setting and function “stack up” as prophecy (again in the senses of that word used in academic study of the Hebrew Bible)? How not? Annotate profligately! Where you are unsure of your observations, simply indicate this in your annotations. But engage course materials rigorously. Cite, cite, cite.

We will do our analysis on this shared Google Doc. As a group, you will decide how to order and organize analysis. You may use the Comments feature, interlinear additions (with or without hyperlinks), and anything else you think works well. Just be sure we can distinguish the original text from your annotations. And, be aware that dependence upon “color coding” can make your work unavailable to the visually or cognitively impaired. Keep it simple.

During the second week, we will engage and challenge one another on our annotations, on accuracy and in terms of how closely we engage course materials and methods. During the third week, we will collaborate on a few paragraphs summarizing our observations.

Google Hangout of the Week: "Office Hours" on Prophecy and 8th-century Prophets!

On Thursday, March 3, 10:00-11:00am Central Time, all learners are welcome to join me for an "On Air" live Google Hangout. We will talk about Prophecy and the 8th-century prophets (or we may not), and what sorts of discoveries we're making (or not) about the Hebrew Bible and its study at this point in the course.

I am emailing invitations Tuesday morning and again when the Hangout begins. To join the Hangout: You must click the link that's on your email invitation, or find the invitation in the "Notifications" area of your own Google pages. Clicking the link in the previous paragraph won't join you to the Hangout: that link is for observers. Also, don't invite me or others to a video call. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

During the Hangout, follow the hashtag #ootle16, asking us questions, making comments, and discussing the conversation among yourselves.

Week 04, the Writings: Daniel and Apocalyptic

February 23-29: Daniel and Apocalyptic

Apocalyptic! Daniel, with its court legends and apocalypses. Hellenism. Institutional settings and functions of apocalyptic literature in the ancient Near East.

Resources

Readings:

Read Bandstra’s Chapter 16, Daniel: From History to Apocalypse. If you haven’t already, read too is Prologue to the Writings. Or, in your Introduction of choice, read on the Book of Daniel, Apocalyptic, and Hellenism. Regarding Daniel and Hellenism, please also consult this handout.

Recommended Reading:

Lectures:

View or listen to the two-part lecture, “Daniel and Apocalyptic”:

“Make” of the Week

Pick one of the following options for this week’s “make,” sharing it on your blog, remembering to tag your post with our tag, “ootle16.” (Garrett students: Remember that your work is assessed according to the course rubric. You may need to add analysis or other elements that will allow you to include each element of the rubric. Remember too that you must comment, thoughtfully and substantively, to at least three [3] other OOTLE-ers, by Tuesday morning. You may comment to their Wisdom posts or Daniel/apocalyptic posts.)

Make Option 01: (Based on Exercise 118 in Stanley.) Read Daniel 7:1-28; 10:1-14; 11:1-12:13. Using our course materials as a resource and citing these where appropriate, make a list of all of the elements of apocalyptic literature that you find in these passages, noting (chapter and verses) where you find each element. Use the lecture and your textbook of choice to learn what "elements of apocalyptic literature" to look for. For the sake of your reader, do not format this post as a bulleted or numbered list. Instead, write in sentences and paragraphs.

Make Option 02: (Based on Exercise 119 in Stanley.) In about 1000 words, imagine that you are a member of a Christian or Jewish group, in modern times, where people like you face serious abuse and repression. Do you think that your group may find a piece of ancient apocalyptic literature helpful in that situation? Why or why not? (Or better yet: Why AND why not?) Be specific about the circumstances you presuppose. Also, cite course materials and biblical or ancient non-biblical apocalyptic texts where appropriate.

Make Option 03: “Son of Man.” In about 1000 words, write up the results of your research into the phrase “son of man” (Hebrew ben-adam) in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, including Daniel 7:13 (Aramaic bar enosh). Note that translations might include “son of man,” “mortal,” “human being,” and others. Texts include not only Daniel, but Ezekiel, Psalms, Proverbs, and several other books. (Just be sure to cover its use in Daniel, since this is our week on Daniel!) A comparative term to investigate is “son(s) of god(s)” (Hebrew bene-elohim and similar); cf. Daniel 3:25 Aramaic bar-elohin. Use course materials, resources from our Resources page, and any other academic (non-sectarian) resources available to you.

Activity of the Week: Build an OER bibliography for Daniel

This week, we’re plundering our Resources page and the rest of the Web to construct a bibliography of “Open Academic Resources” (OER) on Daniel, apocalyptic, and Hellenism. Hopefully, we’ll all walk away with a shared resource that we can use and share in our future ministries and careers, whatever those may be.

We will create the bibliography on this shared Google Doc. As a group, you will decide how to order and organize your finds, what headers to use, etc. (I recommend the Comment feature as a way to discuss edits. Please do not delete the work of others without their permission.)

You may work on this Activity throughout the week, but be aware that folks working later may need to dig deeper in order to avoid duplicating the prior entries of their peers.

Google Hangout of the Week: Office Hours!

This week, I do not have an interview. So, how about we invite YOU to a Hangout? I will plan to offer a Google Hangout "Office Hours" session, at whatever time works for the most learners who are interested. Go to this Doodle poll on Tuesday or Wednesday, and tell us the best times for you. I will select the most popular option, and send you invitations to that Google Hangout, with instructions for joining and participating.

Or, during the Hangout, simply follow the hashtag #ootle16, asking questions, making comments, and discussing the conversation among yourselves.

Week 03, the Writings: Conventional and Dissenting Wisdom

February 16-22: Wisdom

Wisdom! Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes. Wisdom psalms and other odds and ends. Institutional settings and functions of Wisdom literature in the ancient Near East. Here again is a beginning list of “Enduring Understanding and Essential Questions” relating to the Writings.

Resources

Readings:

Read Bandstra’s Chapter 14, Proverbs and Job: The Wisdom of Israel, as well as his short section on Ecclesiastes. If you haven’t already, read too is Prologue to the Writings. Or, in Stanley or your Introduction of choice, read on the Wisdom Literature, Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes.

Recommended readings:

Consider any or all of these readings in terms of our topic for the week.

Lectures:

View or listen to the two-part lecture, “Wisdom”:

“Make” of the Week

Pick one of the following options for this week’s “make,” sharing it on your blog, remembering to tag your post with our tag, “ootle16.” (Garrett students: Remember that your work is assessed according to the course rubric. You may need to add analysis or other elements that will allow you to include each element of the rubric. Remember too that you must comment, thoughtfully and substantively, to at least three [3] other OOTLE-ers by Tuesday morning.)

Make Option 01:

Go to the Professional Left Podcast, and select Episode 270. Listen to their converstation about faith, blasphemy, and the Book of Job, beginning at time 22:15 and ending at time 32:00 (Note: Explicit Language.) Writing as a biblical scholar, fact-check their discussion regarding the Book of Job:

  • What do they get right? Demonstrate their accuracy, citing (where appropriate) the book of Job, your textbook, our lecture, and any other high-quality academic resources.
  • What, if anything, do they get wrong? Demonstrate these inaccuracies, citing (where appropriate) the book of Job, your textbook, our lecture, and any other high-quality academic resources.
  • How might you say the discussion is incomplete? What information can you offer about the book of Job--its details, the historical context of its writing (not its narrative setting!), its genre(s), and other relevant scholarly information about the book--that may inform the conversation that Blue Gal and Driftglass are having?

Make Option 02:

In the lecture “Wisdom,” I suggest that the book of Ecclesiastes frequently “sets the bait” of conventional wisdom (Eccles 3:1–8; 7:1–13) in order to “spring the trap,” confronting the reader with a dissenting wisdom that subverts that conventional wisdom (Eccles 3:1–8 is surrounded by 2:1–26; 3:9–22; Eccles 7:1–14a is followed by 7:14b–29). Write an original composition that uses modern examples of conventional wisdom to "set the trap" for a dissenting perspective that subverts the conventional wisdom. Some examples of conventional wisdom that may prove useful:

Remember, your goal is to “fool” your reader (at least briefly) into assenting to such conventional wisdom, before surprising the reader by subverting the conventional wisdom with a dissenting perspective.

In a few follow-up paragraphs, explain to your reader how the biblical examples serve as templates for you. Describe briefly, citing course materials, the ways that conventional and dissenting wisdom function (sometimes called “speculative wisdom”) in the books of Job and Ecclesiastes.

Make Option 03:

Using course materials, as well as any other quality academic resources, describe the ancient Near Eastern literature that helps us better understand biblical Wisdom. (For example, the oft-cited "Discourse between a Man and his Ba" Where and when do these works come from? What are their titles? What are they about, and what happens in them? How and why do they improve our understanding of the biblical material? Be specific, citing resources and relevant biblical texts. Some resources:

Activity of the Week: “Job v. God: the Twitter Game”

Job versus God! Who’s right? Who wins? What’s with those friends, anyway? Finally, it all gets decided, once and for all, on Twitter.

See my instructions for the game, “Job vee God.” When you are ready, announce your entry into the game by tweeting “I’m in!” (or similar) with the hashtag #JobvGod.

The game will begin Tuesday and Wednesday as players announce that they are in. Game play concludes Saturday night at midnight Central Time. On Sunday and Monday, players are free to “debrief” using the game hashtag, discussing what they learned, suggestions for future play, etc.

Google Hangout of the Week: Wisdom Literature!

On Wednesday evening, February 17th, 7-8 pm Central Time, I will be joined by Joseph Scrivner for an "On Air" live Google Hangout (click that link to see the web page where the Hangout will be available). We will talk about why we love the Hebrew Bible and its academic study, and what kinds of things we hope for students to get out of an "Introduction to Old Testament/Hebrew Bible" course.

During the Hangout, you are invited to follow the hashtag #ootle16 on Twitter, asking us questions, making comments, and discussing the conversation among yourselves. If your schedule does not permit you to follow live, please feel free to watch it later (link coming) and "continue the conversation" on the hashtag #ootle16 as you have opportunity.

Week 02, the Writings: Psalms of Complaint

February 9-15: Psalms of Complaint, or "Lament Psalms"

Psalms! The Book of Psalms. Complaint psalms and other genres. Institutional settings and functions of psalms in history. Hebrew poetry and its forms.

This is our first of three weeks on "The Writings" in the Hebrew Bible. Here is a list of the "enduring understandings and essential questions" that motivated the instructor when creating this Unit.

Resources

Readings:

Read Bandstra’s Prologue to the Writings, and his chapter Psalms: Complaint and Thanksgiving. Or, in Stanley or your Introduction of choice, read on the Writings, the Psalms, and on Biblical Hebrew poetry. Regarding Complaint Psalms, please also consult this handout.

Recommended readings:

Lectures:

View or listen to the two-part lecture, “Psalms”:

“Make” of the Week

Pick one (1) of the following options for this week’s “make,” sharing it on your blog (remembering to tag your post with our tag, “ootle16”). Garrett students: Remember you must comment, thoughtfully and subsantively, to at least three (3) other OOTLE16-ers by Sunday evening, to a post on their blog that is less than one week old at the time of your comment.

  1. Read Psalm 44, using the NRSV or CEB translations. Referring above to “How to Read a Poem” in this week’s readings, see the questions listed in the section, “Talking Back to a Poem.” In a blog post (or a YouTube video, or mp3 recording to which you link in a blog post), bring each of the listed questions to Psalm 44. Write the answers that Psalm 44 seems to provide. As always, be specific, and cite your evidence from Psalm 44. In a follow-up paragraph or two, write in such a way as to round out the elements of our course rubric.

  2. Using the readings and handout offered above, study the formal features of the genre “Complaint Psalm” (often also called a “Lament Psalm”). Then, write your own Complaint Psalm. Some suggestions:

    • Notice how the Psalms do not specify their situation too closely: the idea is that generations of readers should be able to speak your complaint psalm in their own circumstances. At the same time, don’t make it too broad (or else we would only ever need one!).
    • Use the formal features, or else it isn’t a complaint psalm. At the same time, play against the form: what happens if you emphasize some of the formal elements while minimizing others? What happens when you break one formal element into parts, allowing it to surface and re-surface throughout the psalm?
    • Don’t look only for “pious” situations. Anything that causes pain is fair fodder for complaint: illness, death, unemployment, underemployment, theft, betrayal, heroes who prove to have clay feet, banks that charge you $3 to access your own damned money, children who heart-breakingly refuse to learn lessons that would make them happier, getting your car keyed…use anything! Just be sure that the end result plays broadly enough that other readers can “feel it” in their own similar (but not identical) circumstances.
    • In a follow-up paragraph or two, write in such a way as to round out the elements of our course rubric.

  3. Write any poem using Biblical-Hebrew poetic parallelism. The Bandstra reading above includes a section on parallelism, and this article shows how grammatical parts of speech can be your friend in generating parallels. Use as many kinds of poetic parallelism as you can.

    • Couplets are your friends!
    • Again, don’t feel compelled to select only “pious” or religiously-themed topics (though you certainly can use these). In fact, you might find a more "secular" topic easier for breaking out of habitual associations. Write want you want, and see what’s possible with parallelism. Let the poem surprise you by telling you what it wants to say. Brainstorm, draft, and revise, while listening to what the poem wants to become.
    • In a follow-up paragraph or two, write in such a way as to round out the elements of our course rubric.

Activity of the Week: Tweet Workshop

Tuesday through Wednesday, each of us will draft a Tweet that relates to this week’s topic. On Thursday through Friday, each of us will offer suggestions for improvement to at least three (3) of our classmates. On Saturday through Monday morning, each of us will launch our Tweets into Twitter.

Here is the Google Doc where we will do our work, and where instructions are written.

Note again that there are "cascading deadlines" for this Activity. That is, there is a stage to be done on Tuesday-Wednesday, and stage to be done Thursday-Friday, and a stage to be done Saturday-Monday morning.

Most of you will not yet have many Followers on Twitter. If you DO have followers, help your fellow OOTLE16-ers get things rolling by re-tweeting their tweets!

Hangout

I do not have an interview scheduled for this week. Stay tuned for the next week.

Week 01: Getting Started with the Hebrew Bible and OOTLE16

February 2-8, 2016

Resources:

  1. See Dave Cormier's very short YouTube video, "Success in a MOOC." It will give you a great idea about how you might approach an open course like this one.
  2. Read Bandstra's introductory chapter, or the introductory chapter(s) in your textbook of choice (whatever chapters talk about the shape and content of the Hebrew Bible, and about its "composition history" in broad strokes). If you're feeling crazy, you might look at Bandstra's concluding chapter, "After the Hebrew Bible," as it gets into books that are part of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox canons but not part of the Protestant canon, plus the Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament, and some other stuff.
  3. View or listen to the two-part lecture, "Introducing the Tanak A" and "Introducing the Tanak B." View on YouTube, or get them as MP3s back at the OOTLE15 site. (Weekly lectures will normally be in two parts, each part about 25-30 minutes in length.) Sound quality is uneven on some of these early efforts on my part, but they are audible, and it gets better.

Activities:

OOTLE16 Week One Treasure Hunt!

See how many of these you can do:

  • Orient Yourself: If you haven't already, follow our instructions to "Get Involved" with OOTLE16, creating a blog and a Twitter account, and signing up to participate. Browse around this site, including our Twitter feed, and our learners' blog posts so far at our aggregation page.
  • Declare Yourself: On your blog, respond in some way to this week's resources: What surprises did they hold for you? What, if anything, bothers you? What excites you? What further questions do you have now about the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament that you did not have before engaging this week's resources? (Remember to tag your post with the "ootle16" tag, so that your post appears in our aggregation page!)
  • Make Connections: Visit the aggregation page, and find some posts that look interesting to you. Visit those blog posts, and make comments: ask questions, thank the writer for their insights, start a conversation.
  • Housewarm your blog! If you haven't already, write some information into your About page on your blog. Even if you use a pseudonym and avoid including identifiable information, you can communicate some of your loves and interests.
  • Housewarm your Twitter! If your avatar is still the "Egg," replace it with a photograph or some other image. Not sure where to find images that you're allowed to use? Start with sites like Public Domain Images. Also remember to write up your short bio. Want to take it further?
    • "Follow" someone else who is participating in OOTLE16.
    • Retweet somebody else's tweet.
    • @-mention ("at-mention") somebody else in a tweet.
    • Promote somebody else's blog post by writing a tweet that includes that post's URL (web address). Remember also to use our course hashtag, #ootle16.
  • Invite a friend: Know anybody who is "Hebrew Bible curious"? Let them know we're here, and help them get started.

Biblical Scholar OOTLE16 Hangouts!

Beginning in our second week (hopefully), I plan to start interviewing other biblical scholars in a series of Google Hangouts. You will be invited to watch and listen in real time, sharing questions and comments with us via Twitter. Or, you can watch and listen to the recorded Hangout later.

On weeks when we do not have an interview lined up, maybe we can invite learners to "Hangout" as a kind of "office hours." Stay tuned for more information.