DTH019 Introduction to Pentateuch

COURSE OUTLINE

UNITY 1: THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND NATIONS

• Lecture 1: The Two Accounts of Creation
• Lecture 2: The Fall of Man
• Lecture 3: The Tower of Babel

UNITY 2: THE PATRIARCHAL PERIOD

• Lecture 4: The Call of Abraham and Abrahamic Covenant
• Lecture 5: The Lives of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph
• Lecture 6: The Settling of the Covenant Clan in Egypt

UNITY 3: MOSES AND THE EXODUS FROM EGYPT

• Lecture7: Moses’ Birth, Preservation, Preparation and Commission
• Lecture8: The Plagues and the Exodus Event

UNITY 4: LEGISLATION AT SINAI AND THE WILDERNESS EXPERIENCES

• Lecture 9: The Sinaitic Covenant and the Giving of the Law
• Lecture 10: Establishment of the Levitical System
• Lecture 11: The Wilderness Wanderings
• Lecture 12: The Report of the Spies and the Ensued Judgement
• Lecture 13: The Cryptic Description of Moses’ Death and Burial

UNITY 5: ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF PENTATEUCH (AUTHORSHIP, DOCUMENTARY HYPOTHESES AND ARCHAEOLOGY)

• Lecture 14: Authorship of the Pentateuch
• Lecture 15: Documentary Hypotheses and Biblical Archaeology

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this lecture, the students should be able to

INTRODUCTION

Two separate creation tales are told at the beginning of the Bible. The creation of people, animals, and plants is described in both stories, which makes them comparable. But they differ in a number of ways, and to some, it appears as though they disagree on important points.

For instance, although describing some of the same events, the stories present them in a different sequence. In Genesis 1, God first creates vegetation, then animals, and then man and woman at the same time. In Genesis 2, God first makes plants, then animals, and then he separates people into males and females.

The deity is also referred to by different names in the two tales. In the first story, the name Elohim, which is Hebrew for “God,” is used; in the second, YHWH (commonly referred to as “Lord”) is.

The literary styles of the stories are also highly dissimilar. In the first narrative, there are three days of planning and then three days of real formation. The formulaic phrase “and there was X” always ends the day. The seventh day marks the completion of creation, at which point God rests.

This symmetrical pattern implies a symmetrical cosmos. The concentration and organisation of the first creation narrative are absent from the second story, which runs from the second part of Genesis 2:4 until the conclusion of chapter 3. It is far less formulaic and instead tells a dramatic story in a sequence of seven scenes.

CERTIFICATION

At the end of this course, the student will be entitled to a certification issued from Anchor University, Lagos.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Access this lecture here: Introduction to Pentateuch