Our 2020 fourth quarter study group will complete the overview of the Old Testament we have been working through this year, utilising some excellent online lectures and materials from Christine Hayes at Yale University. These lectures provide a solid introduction to the OT as a whole as well as an introduction to critical historical work done on the OT over the last two centuries.
The material for each week is given on the ‘Illuminating Faith’ links here, the first five weeks’ material in Part 3 and the final weeks’ material in part 4:
Illuminating Faith – PART 3 of Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures
Illuminating Faith – PART 4 of Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures
The version of the transcript Yale provided here is reformatted for printing, with added paragraph numbers for reference in our discussions. (The original lecture series and its associated resources can be found here. The ‘Sessions’ tab brings up the full list of lectures, and clicking on each brings up the video, text and any other resources (occasional handouts, etc.) relating to that session.)
There are two groups running; feel free to shift around between groups as you need to! The groups will again meet via the ZOOM video conferencing platform. The Wednesday group will meet at 7.45pm via Zoom (starting October 7), and the Friday group via Zoom at 1.30pm (starting October 9) . If you are not already on the reading group list or have not otherwise received the meeting link, you can request it here: <minister@marktheevangelist.unitingchurch.org.au>. Meetings will be open a few minutes before the start time for you to check your connection. For info about setting up Zoom, see here.
Prior to each session, watch the lecture via the links below, or read the transcript. There is also an audio-only version of the lectures available on the Yale course homepage under the ‘Sessions’ tab — click on the session you want and the audio can be downloaded at the bottom of the session page. For most sessions there is a section of biblical text which it would be helpful to read in conjunction with Hayes’ lectures, and usually a reference to the Jewish Study Bible (JSB) which will assist those who have a copy.
A book companion to the series as a whole, which some might consider buying, is The Jewish Study Bible: Second Edition. It is not exactly cheap – being around $AU65 new. As well as providing a Jewish reading of the Hebrew Bible, it has a great deal of comment in the margins of each page as well as introductory essays to each of the Old Testament books and scholarly articles on history, interpretation, and so forth. It is a book which will likely serve purchasers well for a long time. A look at the ‘Look Inside’ feature for the book on Amazon might be worthwhile, if you’re considering getting a copy. See here for a range of online sources for this book.
On Thursday 04/06/20 the following food parcels were provided by Hotham Mission:
– 30 x St. Joseph’s Flexible Learning Centre
– 25 x Unison Housing
– 25 x Wombat Housing
– 15 x The Venny
– 15 x Hope Co-op West Melbourne
– 8 x Mount Alexander College
– 8 x African-Australian Multicultural Employment and Youth Services (AAMEYS)
– 6 x West Melbourne Baptist Church
– 6 x Asylum Seekers accommodated by Hotham Mission
Total = 138 food parcels, including 70 fresh ready-made meals donated by the RACV.
This is a ‘value-added’ study series based on an excellent online resource from Professor Christine Hayes at Yale University: an engaging undergraduate lecture series providing a broad introduction to the Old Testament as a whole. As well as covering (albeit necessarily briefly) the content of the Old Testament, this course is particularly useful for introducing lay people to modern historical critical methods developed over the last two centuries for interpreting these texts .
The whole series and its associated resources can be found in its original form on the Yale site. The ‘Sessions’ tab on that page brings up the full list of lectures, and clicking on each brings up the video, an audio-only version, transcription text, and any other resources (occasional handouts, etc.) relating to that session.
This IF version uses the Yale videos and a version of the Yale transcript reformatted into an easily printable PDF with paragraph numbering for easy reference in conversation groups. The main supplementary material is gathered together below under each session. The full lecture series is quite long — 24 sessions! — and so is broken up in this IF version into several parts for use either consecutively or in shorter series with breaks in between.
For an introduction to the series and presenting it in your local context, download our introductory document:
Prior to each session, watch the lecture via the links below, or read the transcript. There is also an audio-only version of the lectures available on the course homepage under the ‘sessions’ tab — click on the session you want and the audio can be downloaded at the bottom of the session page.
A book companion to the series as a whole, which at least group leaders and perhaps group members might consider buying, is The Jewish Study Bible: Second Edition. It is not exactly cheap – being around $AU65 new [July 2020]. As well as providing a non-Christian text of the Hebrew Bible, it has a great deal of comment in the margins of each page as well as introductory essays to each of the Old Testament books and scholarly articles on history, interpretation, and so forth. It is a book which will likely serve purchasers well for a long time. A look at the ‘Look Inside’ feature for the book on Amazon might be worthwhile, if you’re considering getting a copy. See here for a range of online sources for this book.
Also included among the additional resources below are links to The Bible Project’s introductions to each of the biblical books Professor Hayes considers. These come from rather a different theological and interpretative perspective than of Hayes but are a quick and useful overview of the biblical books.
The collection of lecture transcripts can be downloaded individually from the session details below, or as a zipped file here:
The Yale material is reproduced here according to the associated terms of use.