FOR THE INCOMING PENTATEUCH STUDENTS (Semester 1: 2009-2010)

From: Fr. Randolf C. Flores, SVD, SSL
Visit: www.torah2009.blogspot.com

TO SURVIVE THIS COURSE….

Prepare the following during this looooong summer vacation (March 29 - June 8):

Read Anthony Ceresko, Introduction to the Old Testament: A Liberation Perspective (revised and expanded Edition; Quezon City: Claretians, 2001), "Part 2: Pentateuch", pp. 29-93. There will be a major exam on this reading on July 10, 2009. BUY your copy now before you go out for the summer break.

Attention:
This is an examination of reading comprehension and so the content will not be discussed in class. Questions found at each end of a chapter will be considered as examination questions.

DO NOT review the prepared answers from past reviewers which very often perpetuate wrong and “wowowee type” of answer. Read yourself the assigned pages!

This examination assures the professor that the student has a basic or college-level knowledge of the Torah/Pentateuch before tackling advanced and critical studies of the subject.

A student who fails in this examination will be gently but honestly advised to drop the course. Should the failing student decide to remain in the course, he/she can for that is his /her right.

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As additional but important preparation to survive the course, please read and master the following:

1. Selected Biblical Texts from the Pentateuch

Genesis

Gen 1-3 (creation and sin); 6:5 - 9:17 (flood); 12:1-3 (call of Abraham); 15 (Covenant of YHWH with Abraham; 18:1-15 (vision at Mamre); 22:1-19 (the Akedah); 28:10-22 (vision at Bethel); 32:23-32 (Jacob's destiny); 37 (Joseph and his brothers); 45:1-13 (Joseph reveals himself to his brothers); 50:15-31 (Joseph's reconciliation with his brothers).

Exodus

Exod 2:1-10 (birth of Moses); 3:1-15 (3:1 - 4:17) (call of Moses); 7:1 - 10:11; 12:29-36 (the plagues); 14:1-31 (the crossing of the sea); 19:1-19 (theophany at Sinai); 20:1-17 (the decalogue); 24:1-11 (covenant at Sinai); 32-34 (golden calf,vision of Moses, the renewal fo the covenant).

Leviticus
Lev 19:1-19 ("Be holy as I am holy").

Numbers

Numbers 13-14 (exploration of the Promised Land); 22-24 (Balaam).

Deuteronomy

Deut 4 (the significance of Sinai); 6:1-9 ("shema Israel"); 8 (the temptations in the holy land); 30:11-14 (the word is near); 30:15-20 (the two ways).

2. MICHAEL GORMAN (ed.), Scripture: An Ecumenical Introduction to the Bible and Its Interpretation (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 2005), pp. 23-44 "The Geography, History, and Archeology of the Bible" (by K. J. Wernell); pp. 45-70 "The Character and Composition of the Books of the Old Testament" (by D. A. Leiter),

3. JEAN-LOUIS SKA, Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2006). This is the main reference of the course and there will be a weekly quiz based on my lectures and on this book. A copy is found on reserve in the Arnoldus Library.

http://torah2009.blogspot.com/