OBST 830 Prophets I

A study of select portions of the Former Prophets, which include the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. The course provides a treatment of introductory issues, aspects of historiography in the ancient Near East, hermeneutical principles regarding narrative literature, and a functional analysis of key interpretive issues in the study of Joshua through Kings. The course engages with current evangelical scholarship on critical issues that relate to the study of the historical books of the Old Testament. Special emphasis is placed on biblical theological motifs within the Former Prophets, and expositional strategies to integrate standard exegesis with biblical theological awareness.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Textbook readings and lecture presentations

No details available.

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions (4)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the doctoral seminar courses require discussion and participation, which will be demonstrated both through the Reading Assessments and the Discussion Assignments. For each discussion, the student must create a thread of no fewer than 450 words responding to the prompt. The student must support his/her assertions with at least 3 scholarly sources in current Turabian format. The student must also reply thoroughly to one other student in no fewer than 300 words. Each reply must incorporate as many scholarly citations as he/she deems necessary in Turabian format. (CLO: A, B, C, D)

Reading Assessment Assignments (4)

The reading assessments are summaries that demonstrate the student’s understanding of and interaction with the reading. The required readings must be summarized here, not quoted (few quotes are permitted, and no long quotes are permitted). The student must paraphrase and summarize the material to demonstrate competency. The student must provide thorough summaries of the content with his/her own thoughts and interactions interspersed throughout. The student may submit the assessment in either written format (must be no fewer than 500 words in current Turabian format) or as an audio file (a minimum of 2-3 minutes in length). (CLO: A, B, C, D)

Short Paper Assignments (3)

The short papers are designed to assess the student’s ability to interact with various issues related to the study of a particular biblical book from the Former Prophets. Short Paper: Background Issues Assignment and Short Paper: Theological Themes Assignment must be 1,250 words minimum (not including the footnotes, title page, bibliography, etc.). Short Paper: Issues Outline Assignment does not have a set word count requirement. The paper must incorporate at least 6 new scholarly resources from journal articles or books (the student may include resources such as the course textbooks and resources used in previous papers, but he/she must also include 6 new resources for each short paper). All papers must be written following current Turabian format. (CLO: A, B, C, D)

Research Paper Assignment

The Research Paper is an assimilation of the Short Paper: Background Issues Assignment, Short Paper: Theological Themes Assignment, and a new short paper covering the critical-interpretive issues first mentioned in the second half of the Short Paper: Issues Outline Assignment. This new section on critical-interpretive issues must be a minimum of 1,250 words that includes 6 new scholarly resources (the student may include resources such as the course textbooks and resources used in previous papers, but he/she must also add 6 new resources). Additionally, all previous Short Papers (except the outline) must be edited, updated, and corrected before adding them to the Research Paper. The total length of the project, including introduction and conclusion, must be at least 3,750-4,500 words with no fewer than 24 scholarly resources. This paper must be written in current Turabian format. (CLO: A, B, C, D, E)