New Test Sem:History/Apocalypt

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The New Testament shares in the human endeavor to preserve the past and to hope for the future. It accomplishes these goals with two distinct literary genres, history and apocalyptic. This course focuses on two books which dedicate themselves to each genre, the Acts of the Apostles and Revelation. Acts narrates the growth of the Jesus movement after the resurrection, as it moved from Jerusalem to Rome. Revelation employs myth, symbolism, and prophecy to describe a hopeful future for a group of Jesus followers in Asia Minor, who were burdened by the restrictions placed on them by the Roman Imperial system. This course will analyze each text in light of the socio-political contexts in which they were composed to determine what their authors hoped to achieve with their compositions. Additionally, we will explore how these texts have been interpreted over time, up to the present.