10544 - Philology and New Testament Exegesis (1)

Learning outcomes

The students will get basis knowledge of the structures and formation of the New Testament, and of its historical, philological, and literary place. In the second part of the course, they will learn the use of exegetical instruments (critical editions, lexica, concordances, commentaries; electronic data-bases) through researches applied to New Testament texts.

Course contents

The course aims to provide students with basic knowledge about the formation of the New Testament and its historical, philological and cultural place in the context of Jewish-Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman literature.

The course will focus upon:

i) The formation of New Testament as a collection of Jewish-Hellenistic writings (re-assessment of the notion of ‘New Testament’; sketch of the development from the oral teaching of Jesus and his first disciples to the progressive constitution, and later ‘canonization’, of a literary corpus of ‘apostolic’, authoritative writings; language, style, and literary forms characteristic of New Testament writings: 15 hours).

ii) Overview of the New Testament writings (real or supposed authors; dating; contents); selected, analytical case studies in New Testament exegesis (15 hours).

Readings/Bibliography

• Full reading of the New Testament in a modern Italian translation; the edition CEI (= “Conferenza Episcopale Italiana”), 2008 (freely downloadable; the text will be also uploaded by the teacher within teaching material). The CEI translation is printed also in Bibbia di Gerusalemme (1^a ed., EDB, Bologna 1974 [e rist.]; 2^a ed., EDB, Bologna 2009 [e rist.]), with a rich apparatus of notes.

• One of the following handbooks:

— R.E. BROWN, Introduzione al Nuovo Testamento, Queriniana, Brescia 2001 (solo le pp. 31-192; 553-593; 1063-1093).

— B.D. EHRMAN, Il Nuovo Testamento: un'introduzione, Carocci, Roma 2015 (solo le pp. 95ss.).

— R. MAISANO, Filologia del Nuovo Testamento. La tradizione e la trasmissione dei testi, Carocci, Roma 2014

• Additionally, students who cannot attend the lessons will substitute class notes with two articles/chapters of their choice from the following collections of essays:

— R.E. DeMARIS, The New Testament in Its Ritual World, Routledge, Abingdon 2008.

— S.R. HUEBNER, Papyri and the Social World of the New Testament, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2019.

— H.O. MAIER, New Testament Christianity in the Roman World, Oxford University Press, New York, NY 2018.

— E. PRINZIVALLI (a cura di), L’enigma Gesù. Fonti e metodi della ricerca storica, Carocci, Roma 2008 (rist.).

— R. PENNA (a cura di), Le origini del cristianesimo. Una guida, Carocci, Roma,2004 (rist.).

— R. PENNA, Le prime comunità cristiane. Persone, tempi, luoghi, forme, credenze, Carocci, Roma 2011 (rist.).

— F. VOUGA, Il cristianesimo delle origini. Scritti, protagonisti, dibattiti, Claudiana, Torino 2018.

Teaching methods

Lectures; use of bibliographic and electronic databases.

Assessment methods

Oral exam. Students will have to prove both that they have read the whole New Testament in a modern Italian translation and that they are able to discuss the main exegetical problems arising from a critical reading of the New Testament.

More to the point, skills will be assessed according to the following guidelines:
- failing grade (< 18): lack of knowledge of the New Testament corpus; inability to provide a correct interpretation of texts; lacking notions of literary history and the exegetical approaches relevant for the understanding and contextualization of the New Testament corpus and its formation.
- passing grade (between 18 and 24): elementary knowledge of the New Testament corpus; interpretation of texts is partially correct, but lacks accuracy and autonomy; schematic knowledge of the notions of literary history and the exegetical approaches relevant for the understanding and contextualization of the New Testament corpus and its formation.
- positive grade (between 24 and 30): good knowledge of the New Testament corpus; interpretation of texts is correct, but mostly superficial and not entirely autonomous; good knowledge of the notions of literary history and the exegetical approaches relevant for the understanding and contextualization of the New Testament corpus and its formation.
- excellent grade (30L): in-depth knowledge of the New Testament corpus; ability to interpret, contextualize and critically compare texts in detail and in full autonomy; full acquaintance with the notions of literary history and the exegetical approaches relevant for the understanding and contextualization of the New Testament corpus and its formation.

 

Teaching tools

Computer and projector; bibliographic and electronic databases; fotocopies; texts and segments of texts in PDF format uploaded by the teacher as teaching materials (downloadable from https://iol.unibo.it).

Office hours

See the website of Daniele Tripaldi