RS 212 Great Texts in the Jewish Tradition

Religious Studies (2009-2010)

This course will trace the development of biblical exegesis in the Jewish tradition. Interpretive methods and approaches to problems in the text such as redundancy, contradiction, and gaps will be surveyed, commencing with the Bible itself, through the classical period of the Talmud and concentrating on major medieval commentators. (The biblical episode of the 'Binding of Isaac' will be used as a paradigm to illustrate various approaches to the text.)