Part One: Bible
101
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Jan 17 |
Introduction to the Course
This course uses Blackboard
for announcements,
assignments, grades, etc.
Abbreviations:
HB/OT:
Hebrew
Bible/Old
Testament
SBLSB:
The Society
of Biblical
Literature Study Bible
NOAB: New
Oxford
Annotated
Bible (4th
ed.)
NT: New
Testament
Supplemental
Resource:
Dale Martin,
"Why Study the New Testament"
(Open Yale
Courses)
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Jan 22 |
Bible 101:
Canon
Formation
and the "Ends"
of the Bible
Reading: Sumney, 3-14 (From the beginning of chapter 1 through "The church's first canon")
Supplemental Resources:
SBLSB, 1-9;
Church Fathers;
Early Christian Writings;
Bible Odyssey; Sefaria
Supplemental readings are not required. They are resources to go further into subjects that
interest you.
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Jan 24 |
Bible 101:
Canon Formation
(Cont'd)
Reading: Sumney, 14-16 (From "The Criterion of apostolicity" to the end of the chapter 1)
Supplemental Resources: Luther's Treatment of the 'Disputed Books' of the New Testament; The Reformation; The Non-canonical Homepage
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Bible 101:
Texts and Translations Reading: Sumney,
19-31 (Chapter
2)
Assignment 1
(20 pts.): "The
Orthodox
Corruption of
Scripture" (See Assignments
in Blackboard)
Featured
Supplemental
Resource:
Can We Trust the
Text of the NT?
A Debate between
Bart D. Ehrman
and Daniel B.
Wallace
More Supplemental
Resources:
"Textual
Criticism"
(NOAB, 2192-97);
"Translation of
the Bible into
English" (NOAB,
2197-2201);
Farley, "Hart's 'The New Testament'"; Ian Paul, "Can we fix Bible translation?";
Experience Codex Sinaiticus; Gupta and Sandford, "Introduction to Textual Criticism"; for more, click
here.
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Jan 29 |
Bible 101:
Interpretive Contexts Reading: Sumney,
33-46 (Chapter
3)
The Sumney chapter provides a concise overview of the history of the concept of biblical inspiration.
Supplemental
Resources
Graves,
"Augustine and
the Inspiration
of Scripture"
Chesterton,
"C. S. Lewis on
the Bible"
Kamionkowski,
"Violence
Against Women in
the Hebrew
Bible"
Gnuse,
"Inspiration,"
2258-59 (See
Course Content)
Evangelical
Faith and the
Challenge of
Historical
Criticism (a
new book on a
recurring
problem)
Evangelical
Christianity has
had a long
debate about
historical
criticism of the
Bible. At
the
fundamentalist
end of the
interpretive
spectrum, the
method is
usually rejected
and even
vilified.
More moderate
evangelicals--often
referred to as
"conservatives"
as opposed to
fundamentalists--have
long used
historical
criticism with
caution.
Indeed, some of
the finest
historical-critical
commentaries
available are
written by
theologically
moderate to
conservative
biblical
scholars.
This online
article is an
interview with
the authors of a
recent book
about the use of
historical
criticism by
Evangelical
biblical
scholars.
The authors are
themselves
Evangelicals
writing to
convince fellow
Evangelicals
that historical
criticism of the
Bible is
necessary and
beneficial.
The
Interpretation
of the Bible in
the [Catholic]
Church
(Pontifical
Biblical
Commission,
Presented on
March 18, 1994)
This long but
quite readable
official
document
explains why the
Catholic Church
considers
historical
criticism to be
indispensable
for
understanding
the Bible.
"Applied Peshat:
Historical-Critical
Method and
Religious
Meaning"
Some of the
finest
historical-critical
biblical
scholars in the
world today are
Jewish but, as
in Christianity,
there are Jews
who object to
it. This
is an article by
Stephen
Garfinkel, a
professor at
Jewish
Theological
Seminary of
America,
defending the
importance of
historical
criticism.
More Historical
Criticism Links
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Jan 31 |
Bible
101:
Interpretive
Contexts
(Cont'd)
Reading: SBLSB,
9-12; Given,
"The
Interpretive
Spectrum" (See
Course
Documents)
Supplemental
Resources:
The Society of
Biblical
Literature;
Bible Odyssey;
Fiddler on the
Roof - Tradition
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Bible
101:
Interpretive
Contexts
(Cont'd)
Assignment 2
(20 pts.):
"Personal
Introduction and
Reflection on
Biblical
Interpretation"
(See Assignments
in Blackboard)
Supplemental
Resources:
The Society of
Biblical
Literature
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Part Two: The
Backstory
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Feb 5 |
The Greco-Roman
Period
Reading: Sumney 197-206 (From the beginning of chapter 10 through "Hasmoneans and Sadducees")
Supplemental Resources:
SBLSB, 1327-34 ("The Hellenistic World"); Sumney, 148-52; click
here for more.
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Feb 7 |
The Greco-Roman
Period
Reading: Sumney, 207-212 (From "Roman Domination of Palestine" in chap. 10 through "Summary")
Supplemental Resources: Sumney,
142-70;
158 (Map 7:2); 175-80 (From
the beginning of
chap. 8 through
the Job portion); Siege of Jerusalem
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The Greco-Roman
Period (Cont'd)
Reading: Sumney, 212-22 (From "Parties within First-Century Judaism" in chapter 10 to the end of the chapter)
Assignment 3 (20 pts.): "Understanding the Parties within First-Century Judaism" (See Assignments in Blackboard)
Supplemental Resources:
Sumney,
173-94; 180-83 ("Esther"); "The Roman Period" (NOAB, 2247-53); Hillel and Shammai; Hillel; Shammai; 151 (Box 7.5, "The Servant Songs"); "Servant of the Lord" in The New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible (Course Documents); "Servant of the Lord" in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Course Documents); Burns, "Pharisees and Rabbinic Judaism" (Bible Odyssey); Lim, "Essenes in Judaean Society: the sectarians of the Dead Sea Scrolls" (OUPBlog)
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Part Three: The
Apocalyptic
Jesus and
Churches
(ca. 30-70 C.E.)
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Feb 12 |
The Nature of
the Gospels and
the Problem of
the Historical
Jesus
Reading: Sumney, 245-48 (From the beginning of chapter 12 through ""Theological Accounts");
Three Gospel Synopsis
The link takes you to an online synopsis of the gospels. Don't read the whole thing, just test drive it. For example, find "The Temptation" in chapter 1 of Mark and click on the little color-coded Bibles at the beginning of the account.
Supplemental Resources: Sumney, 53-54 ("Varieties of Genres"); "A Table of Parallel Passages in the Gospels" (HSB, 1653-63); "Introduction to the Gospels" (NOAB, 1743-45); The Two Source Hypothesis;
The Synoptic Problem; More Supplemental Synoptic Problem Reading; Supplemental Synoptic Problem Exercises; Harris, "The Continuing Quest for the Historical Jesus" (See Course Content, Supplemental Reading); Licona, "Why are there differences in the Gospels? Ancient biography, Plutarch & the Gospels"; McKnight, The Jesus We'll Never Know; Search for the Historical Jesus
The first two links take you to lots of info supplementing the basics you get in the textbook and presenting alternative theories.
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Feb 14 |
The Nature of
the Gospels and
the Problem of
the Historical
Jesus (Cont'd)
Reading: Sumney, 248-58 (From "The Search for a Historical Jesus" to the end of chapter 12);
Three Gospel Synopsis
Supplemental Reading: SBLSS, 1725-31; E. P. Sanders, "Jesus" (Britannica); The Jefferson Bible;
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The Nature of
the Gospels and
the Problem of
the Historical
Jesus (Cont'd)
Assignment 4 (20 pts.): "Summary and Response to the Ehrman and Licona Debate, Part 1" (See Assignments in Blackboard)
Supplemental Resources: Ehrman & Licona: Are the Gospels Historically Reliable? Part 1; Ehrman & Licona: Are the Gospels Historically Reliable? Part 2; Ehrman-Bass Debate Did the Historical Jesus Claim to be Divine; The Historical Jesus: Four Views;
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Feb 19 |
Presidents' Day
Holiday |
Feb 21 |
Mark's Story of Jesus, the Danielic
Son of Man
Reading: Sumney, 259-68 (From the beginning of chapter 13 through the Mark section); Mark 1:1-10:52; Daniel 7
Supplemental Resources: Sumney, 166-69 ("Daniel")
Mark tells us that Jesus never taught without using parables. We will not focus on the parables of Jesus in this introductory class, but here is a podcast interview with Dr. Amy-Jill Levine about her highly praised book on them:
The parables of Jesus, with Amy-Jill Levine
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The
Wisdom of Jesus
(Q, the Logia
Source)
Reading: QLuke and QMatt (In Course Documents)
Most NT scholars believe that the authors of the Gospels attributed to Matthew and Luke used a lost written source made up mostly of sayings of Jesus. This source is referred to as "Q," an abbreviation for the German word "Quelle" which means source. Plausible dates for composition of this source range from the 40s to the 60s C.E., making these materials common to Matthew and Luke among the earliest surviving traditions about Jesus. Though written in Greek when incorporated into Matthew and Luke, it may have been composed originally in Aramaic, the language of Jesus and his disciples. Even if the Q source theory were ever proven wrong, the inclusion of these similar materials in two Gospels would seem to confirm their importance for understanding the message of Jesus.
Assignment 5 (20 pts.): "The Kingdom of God in Q" (See Assignments in Blackboard)
Supplemental Resources:
Papias;
Q Source (Wikipedia)
The Papias link takes you to the earliest surviving traditions concerning Papias (ca. 135 C.E.), including his comments about the writing activities of Mark and Matthew. Since what he ascribes to Matthew here does not sound like the book of Matthew we know, but rather a collection of Aramaic "sayings" later "translated" (or "interpreted"), some scholars think that the disciple Matthew could have been the author of the earliest edition of Q.
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Feb 26 |
Mark's Story of Jesus, the Danielic
Son of Man (Cont'd)
Reading: Mark 11:1-16:8; review Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Jeremiah 31:31-34
Supplemental Resources: Sumney, 152-54 ("Jeremiah"); Goodacre, "Did Jesus have a house in Capernaum?"
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Feb 28 |
Luke's Story of the Early Church I: the Beginnings (Acts 1-7)
Reading: Sumney, 299-305 (From the beginning of chapter 14 through "Peter's Leadership"); Acts 1-7
Supplemental Resources: NOAB, 1919-21; Click
here for more.
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Exam Prep |
Mar 4 |
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Mar 6 |
Luke's Story of the Early Church II: the Rise of Saul/Paul
(Acts
8-15, Cont'd)
Reading: Sumney, 305-314; Acts
8-15; Galatians
2:1-14
Supplemental Resources: Cf. Gal 2:15-3:18 with James 2:14-26; Was James Being Legalistic in Acts 15? or Can I Eat a Rare Steak?
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EXAM
Mar 7 |
Midterm Exam
See Assignments on Blackboard. This 90 minute timed exam can be taken online anytime between 8 am and 11 pm on March 7th.
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Mar 9-17 |
Spring Break |
Mar 18 |
Introduction to New Testament Letters -and-
The End of Hope (1 Thessalonians)
Reading:
Sumney, 315-21 (From the beginning of chapter 15 through "1 Thessalonians: Context")
Supplemental Resources: Dr.
Mark's Annotated Chronology of Paul; E. P. Sanders, "Paul" (Britannica)
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Mar 20 |
The End of Hope (Cont'd)
Reading: Sumney, 321-24 (The rest of the 1 Thessalonians section in chapter 15); Acts 16:1-18:1; 1 Thessalonians; Dolansky, "The Immortal Myth of Adam and Eve"
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More on
Holiness in Paul
(1 Corinthians)
Reading: TBA
Assignment 6
(20 pts.):
"Paul the
Covenantal
Theologian?"
(See Assignments
in Blackboard)
Supplemental Resources:
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Mar 25 |
The End of Faith I: Righteousness
(Romans 1-5)
Reading: Sumney, 342-45 ("Romans: The Context" through ""The Edict of Claudius" in chapter 15); Romans 1:1-3:20
Supplemental Resources: Acts 19:21-20:3; Sumney, 60-62 ("The Fall" in chapter 4), 311-15; Luther, "Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans"; Galatians; Galatians Supplemental Links;
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Mar 27 |
The End of Faith II: Fulfillment of the Law
(Romans 511)
Reading: Sumney, 345-47 ("Three Images of Salvation" through "Israel's election remains, but salvation is through Christ" in chapter 15); Romans 3:20-11:36
Supplemental Resources: Mattison, "A Summary of the New Perspective on Paul"
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The End of Faith III: Sacrificial Living
(Romans 1216)
Reading:
Sumney, 347-48 ("The Life of Faith" section through the "Conclusion" of chapter 15); Romans 12-16
Assignment 7 (20 pts.):
"Paul and 'Homosexuality'" (See Assignments in Blackboard)Supplemental Resources: Sumney, 69-71 ("Sodom and Gomorrah" and "Abraham Bargains with God" in chapter 4); Given, Homosexuality and the Bible;
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Part Four:
The Less
Apocalyptic
Jesus and Churches (ca.
70-110 C.E.)
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Apr 1 |
Matthew's
Story of Jesus the Mosaic Messiah
Reading: Sumney, 268-76 (Chapter 13, the Matthew section)
Supplemental Reading: QLuke and QMatt (In Course
Documents)
Most NT scholars
believe that the writers of
the Gospels we call Matthew
and Luke used a lost written
source made up mostly of
sayings of Jesus.
This source is referred to
as "Q," an abbreviation for
the German word "quelle"
which means source. Plausible dates for
composition of this
source range from the 40s
to the 60s C.E., making
these materials common to
Matthew and Luke among the
earliest surviving traditions about
Jesus. Though written
in Greek when incorporated
into Matthew and Luke, it
may have been composed
originally in Aramaic, the
language of Jesus and his
disciples. Even if the
Q source theory were ever proven
wrong, the inclusion of
these similar materials in two
Gospels would seem to
confirm their importance for
understanding the message of
Jesus.
Supplemental Resources: Sumney, 148-49 ("Christian Interpretation"); HSB, 1666-67;
Papias;
Q Source (Wikipedia)
The Papias
link takes
you to the
earliest
surviving
traditions
concerning
Papias (ca.
135 C.E.),
including
his comments
about the
writing
activities
of Mark and
Matthew.
Since what
he ascribes
to Matthew
here does
not sound
like the
book of
Matthew we
know but
rather a
collection
of Aramaic
"sayings"
later
"translated"
(or
"interpreted"),
some
scholars
think that
the disciple
Matthew
could have
been the
author of
the earliest
edition of
Q.
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Apr 3 |
Matthew's Story of Jesus the Mosaic Messiah
(Cont'd)
Reading: Matthew 1:12:23; 5:1724,
2748; 6:18, 1618;
7:6,1220, 28; 8:1617; 10:58, 2325, 4041; 11:2830; 12:57, 1721, 34, 3637; 13:1415, 2430,
3652; 14:2833; 16:1112, 1719; 17:2427; 18:1535;
19:1012; 20:116; 21:45, 1017, 2832, 43; 22:114; 23:136; 25:113, 3146; 26:5254;
27:310, 2425, 5153, 6266; 28:120
Since almost all of Mark is repeated in Matthew, and
you have already read the materials found in both Matthew and Luke designated
Q, the reading assignment only includes material unique to Matthew. Of
course Matthew's form of the material in Mark and Q is
often significantly different. I will include a few examples in class.
Supplemental Resources:
Bar
Mitzvah (from Judaism 101); Burns, "Pharisees and Rabbinic Judaism" (Bible Odyssey)
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The End of the Church (Ephesians)
Reading: Sumney, 353-55 (Chapter 16, Introduction); 359-62 (Chapter 16, the Ephesians section); Ephesians
Assignment 8 (20 pts.): "The Expansive Ecclesiology of Ephesians" (See Assignments in Blackboard)Supplemental Resources:
Sumney, 330-33; 1 Thessalonians; 333-34; Colossians; Click
here.
Apocrypha/Pseudepigrapha: Old Testament Pseudepigrapha; New Testament Apocrypha
Some people like to say we cant know what ancient Greek music sounded like, but there is in fact solid scholarship that yields something well beyond mere educated guessing about instrument construction, scales, and rhythm. Theres a fascinating short video about the oldest surviving Greek music manuscript on this page:
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Apr 8 |
Luke's
Story of Jesus the Prophetic Christ Reading: Sumney, 27682 (Chapter 13, the Luke section); HSB, 1759-61;
Luke 1:1-3:38; 4:14-30
Supplemental
Resources:
Sumney, 146-48 ("Micah"); Goldberg,
"The
Josephus-Luke Connection"
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Apr 10 |
Luke's Story of Jesus the Prophetic Christ (Cont'd)
Reading: Luke 5:111; 6:2426, 43; 7:15, 1117, 3650; 8:13; 9:4445, 5156; 10:1, 1720, 2542; 11:58, 2728; 12:1321, 3353; 13:117, 3133; 14:114, 2533; 15:117:21; 18:114, 3134; 19:111, 4144; 21:2024, 3738; 22:1516, 31, 3538; 23:249; 24:153
Since a large percentage of Mark is repeated in Luke, and you have already read the materials found in both Matthew and Luke designated Q, the reading assignments only include material unique to Luke. Of course Luke's form of the material in Mark is often significantly different. I will include a few examples in class.
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Luke's
Christology: A
Closer Look
Assignment 9 (20 pts.): "Lukes Deviations from Marks Passion" (See Assignments in Blackboard)
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Apr 15 |
John the Prophet's Story of Jesus the Conquering Lamb (Revelation)
Reading: Sumney, 389-96 (From the beginning of chapter 18 through "Summary")
Supplemental Resources: Click
here.
The following links offer explanations from conservative biblical scholars of the problems with the doctrine of "the Rapture"
Ben Witherington III: Where Did Rapture Theology Come From?; Is the Rapture Doctrine Biblical?; Revelation and Apocalypticism
N. T. Wright on the Rapture; Middleton, "Does Tom Wright Believe in the Second Coming?" (The answer is yes; he just doesn't believe in "the rapture" version of it.)
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Apr 17 |
John the Prophet's Story of Jesus the Conquering Lamb (cont.)
Reading: Sumney, 396-408 ("The Book of Revelation: Author and Date" to the end of chapter 18); Revelation 1-7; 12-22
Supplemental Resources: Revelation 8-11; Sumney, 143 (Box 7:1); Koester, "Interpreting the Mystery" (See Course Content, Supplemental Reading); click
here for more on Revelation; Sumney, 353-56; Jude, 2 Peter; A scene from the moive Pi (Math is Everywhere); A Coo Coo Clock (listen for this sound in the Pi clip ☺)
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More on
Resurrection in
the New
Testament
Extra Credit Assignment (20 pts.): "The Resurrection Bodies of Paul and the Gospels" (See Assignments in Blackboard)
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Part Five: The
Least Apocalyptic
Jesus and
Churches (ca.
110-140 C.E.)
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Apr 22 |
John's Story of Jesus the Incarnate
Word
Reading: Sumney, 287-91 (From "John: Incarnational Christology" through "The Woman at the Well" in chapter 13); John 1-11
Supplemental Resources:
Origen on the Differences Between the Gospels;
The Gospel of John Film;
The Five Gospels Parallels;
The
Johannine Literature Web; The Gospel of John:
Conflicts and Controversies;
Allegory of the Cave Links; The
Gnostic Archive;
Heracleon:
Fragments from his commentary on the Gospel of John;
The
Gospel of Thomas; Click
here;
Supplemental Video: Johannine Christianity: The Gospel (Dale Martin, Yale University)
More information on Dale Martin and his Yale NT course, click here.
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Apr 24 |
John's Story of Jesus the Incarnate Word (Cont'd)
Reading: Sumney, 291-95 (From "'The Jews' in John" to the end of chapter 15); John 12-21
Supplemental Resources:
Origen on the Differences Between the Gospels;
The Gospel of John Film;
The Five Gospels Parallels;
The
Johannine Literature Web; The Gospel of John:
Conflicts and Controversies;
Allegory of the Cave Links; The
Gnostic Archive;
Heracleon:
Fragments from his commentary on the Gospel of John;
The
Gospel of Thomas; Click
here for more;
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INET
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The End of Ministry (The Pastoral Epistles)
Reading: Sumney, 362-66 ("1 and 2 Timothy, Titus (the Pastoral Epistles)" to the end of chapter 16); 1 TimothyAssignment 10 (20 pts.): "Paul and Women" (See Assignments in Blackboard)
Supplemental Resources:
2 Timothy; Titus;
Sumney, 60-62 ("The Fall"); Ian Paul, "Can we fix Bible translation?"
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Apr 29 |
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May 1 |
The End
of Patience
(2 Peter)
Reading: Sumney, 377-79 ("2 Peter" through "A motivation for moral behavior" in chapter 17); 2 Peter
Supplemental Resources: Sumney, 379-81; Jude
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Final Exam
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REL 102-1 Final
Exam
Wednesday, May 8, 8:45 am to 10:45 am
For final exam
description and preparation instructions, see Assignments.
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