I like to use a Bible dictionary (Mercer Dictionary of the Bible, to be specific) in lieu of a textbook. It’s fairly easy to build a syllabus around the appropriate entries, but it doesn’t seem to detract from digging into as much of the biblical text as possible.

Just a thought, Charles. If you take any English lit. course, how much secondary lit do you read? Little, if any, I would presume. While I don’t equate Biblical Studies with English Lit., I think there’s something to be said about the approach taken there (it’s not like there aren’t multiple ways to “read Shakespeare.”) A student who signs up for Bible should expect to know a great deal more about the actual contents of the Bible after the course than they did going in. I’ve taught 3 semesters of Intro to the NT. I have tried to allow the students to wrestle with some of the more pertinent critical issues (as best I can for an OT guy), but have since realized that I was missing a golden oppotunity to let many students actually hear what the Bible says for the first time. I may or may not have it right – and I may change my mind again in 2 years, but for now I’m leaning towards Bible content, message, historical setting, characters, relationship between God and humanity. I’ll save the secondary issues for upper-level courses.

I think it all depends on one’s goals for the course. Personally, my goal in an intro class is to cultivate biblical literacy, which I understand not simply as knowledge of content, but how to read that content. So I would strive for lots of primary text reading and supplement with secondary materials that focus on things like genre and context. That said, I haven’t put together such a syllabus yet, so I am not sure what specifically I would use in terms of secondary readings.

I’ve always leaned toward more primary reading because students who have never read the Bible need to, and students who read it all the time don’t mind. I also make them keep a log, writing about 5 sentences for every 10 chapters–mostly for accountability and an aide to their memory at test time. So my students read about 2/3 of the Hebrew Bible in 15 weeks. For secondary literature, I have them read a brief introductory text book as we move through the canon. I used Brettler’s How to Read the Bible last time through. I lecture twice a week, during which I restate and extend what the textbook covers. Thus, they get it twice plus some extras. The third class period is a discussion oriented session in which we cover a more focused issue, e.g., David and Solomon in Sam-Kgs vs. Chron, the Balaam tradition and Deir Allah, etc. I don’t feel any need to try to introduce the whole field. That’s impossible. I even tell my students when we do source criticism, e.g., that we are working at a simplistic level and that advanced scholarship has moved well beyond what we do in class. Pedagogical “lies” are necessary. And as long as you tell students that there’s more to it than what you’re currently teaching, a more nuanced approach, I think they will respect that. But, I teach undergrads.

Charles,

I know one professor who just requires an atlas and the Oxford Study Bible. I think he is using the new Oxford Bible Atlas, but I don’t recall for sure. Personally, I think the new Carta abridgment would be a good choice

James

To All,
Very sage and helpful advice, I appreciate it. It sounds like the consensus is to stress the primary texts which fits into my personality methodological tendencies as well.