Course Catalog

REL346E History of the Bible (3 credits) 9727

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course on the history of the Bible is an in-depth study of how the books of the Old and New Testament were assembled and preserved for the Church, focusing primarily upon inspiration, composition, canonicity, transmission, and translation of the Scriptures.

LEARNING RESULTS
The learner will be able to:
• Understand essential terms relevant to the history of the Bible.
• Accurately articulate what orthodox theologians have historically taught with regard to inspiration and inerrancy.
• Explain the rationale used for determining canonicity of a book of the Bible.
• Sketch the history of the Old and New Testament texts.
• Explain what textual critics do and how their work relates to the transmission of the Bible.
• Understand the current debate over the King James Version and contemporary Bible translations.

REQUIRED TEXTS AND MATERIALS
The student is required to read the following materials in their entirety. These materials include the required textbooks as well as articles that are listed under specific assignments. They can be obtained at a college or public library through either their own holdings or on loan (as the librarian). Some (my own) can be obtained via my website. You will find my website listed in Course Links under the External Links section of this course. If you do not have access to ANY library at all, please notify me as indicated above as soon as possible. I will mail you a set of the articles at no cost.

• Paul Wegner, The Journey from Texts to Translations: The Origin and Development of the Bible (Baker,ISBN 0801021693)
• D.A. Carson, The King James Version Debate: A Plea for Realism (Baker, ISBN 0801024277)
• D.A. Carson, The Inclusive Language Debate: A Plea for Realism (Baker, ISBN 080105835X)

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INTEGRATION OF FAITH AND LEARNING
The integration of faith and learning is evidenced in this course through the required readings and the interaction of the student with those readings. Each reading informs the student about either a specific area of importance relating to the overall question of how we got our Bible. Specifically, the theologically difficult questions relating to accurately defining inspiration and inerrancy, how the books which are in our Bible were chosen, how the Bible was transmitted once written, and how scholars struggle with creating accurate translation are addressed.

LEARNING DOCUMENTATION
To determine if the course learning results have been attained, students document their learning by submitting papers on the following lessons:
• Assignment #1 – Inspiration and Authority
• Assignment #2 - The Canon
• Assignment #3 – Septuagint & the Dead Sea Scrolls
• Assignment #4 – History of the NT Text
• Assignment #5 - Translations
• Assignment #6 – The John 7:53-8:11 Debate
• Assignment #7 – Text of Jeremiah
• Assignment #8 – The David & Goliath Story & Inspiration
There are 8 lessons and 0 examinations for this course.

LEARNING EVALUATION

Evaluation is on a point system:
Assignment #1 100 points
Assignment #2 100 points
Assignment #3 100 points
Assignment #4 100 points
Assignment #5 100 points
Assignment #6 100 points
Assignment #7 100 points
Assignment #8 100 points
Total Possible 800 points