According to the traditions themselves as well as their academic interpreters, a distinguishing feature of Western religious traditions is their attitudes towards and uses of scripture. This seminar will explore the various forms and uses of scripture in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, starting with the idea of scripture in modern cultures and tracing it back through early modern, medieval and late antique cultures. The seminar will end by exploring the religious, literary, and political factors that affected the development and canonization of scripture in ancient Judaism and early Christianity, and shaped the idea of authoritative scripture in all three Western religious traditions.

Course Requirements:
Students are expected to discuss in class all the required readings (listed below after Assignment) and as much additional literature (listed as Background) necessary to understand the developments under discussion.  In addition, each student will (1) prepare and present a report on one additional book or set of essays (listed after Report), and (2) write a substantive and original research paper on a subject related to the course topic, presenting the class with a preliminary summary during one of the last three class meetings.

Texts:
John Barton, Holy Writings, Sacred Text: the Canon in Early Christianity (Westminster John Knox, 1997)
David J. A. Clines, The Bible and the Modern World (Sheffield, 1997)
Moshe Halbertal, People of the Book: Canon, Meaning, and Authority (Harvard, 1997)
John F.A. Sawyer, Sacred Languages and Sacred Texts (Routledge, 1999)
    Most of the articles, except those preceded by an minus (-) in the list below, are available as a course reader at Marshall Square copy center, one copy of which has been placed in the Religion Department lounge. Most are also available on reserve in Bird Library, except those preceded by an asterix (*) in the list below.
    For further resources relevant to the topic of this course, consult the Supplementary readings, the other articles in the collections cited below and also the annotated bibliography in Canonization and Decanonization 435-506.

Topics and Readings (for full citations, see bibliography below):
 

Course Bibliography:

• The Cambridge History of the Bible (CHB), 3 vols., eds P. R. Ackroyd, C. F. Evans, S. L. Greenslade and G. W. H. Lampe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963, 1969, 1970) (available in Bird Library Reference section and in the stacks)
• Canonization and Decanonization, with An Annotated Bibliography by J. A. M. Snoek, eds. A. van der Kooij, K. van der Toorn (Leiden: Brill, 1998)
• The Image and the Book: Iconic Cults, Aniconism and the Rise of Book Religion in Israel and the Ancient Near East, ed. K. van der Toorn (Louven: Peeters, 1997)
• The Impact of Scripture on Early Christianity, ed. J. den Boeft & M. L. van Poll-van de Lisdonk (Leiden: Brill, 1999)
• The Use of Sacred Books in the Ancient World, ed. L.V. Rutgers et al (Leuven: Peeters, 1998)
• Al-Azmeh, A. “The Muslim Canon from Late Antiquity to the Era of Modernism” in Canonization and Decanonization (Leiden: Brill, 1998), pp. 191-228.
• Alexander, Philip S. "`Homer the Prophet of All' and 'Moses our Teacher': Late Antique Exegesis of the Homeric Epics and of the Torah of Moses," in Use of Sacred Books 127-142.
• Bainton, Roland H. "The Bible in the Reformation," CHB 3:1-37.
• Barton, John. Holy Writings, Sacred Text: the Canon in Early Christianity (Louisville: WJK, 1997)
• Biderman, Shlomo. Scripture and Knowledge: An Essay on Religious Epistemology (Leiden: Brill, 1995)
• Borg, M.B. ter. “Canon and Social Control”,  in Canonization and Decanonization (Leiden: Brill, 1998), pp. 411-423.
• Campenhausen, Hans von. The Formation of the Christian Bible (tr. J. A. Baker, Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972)
• Childs, Brevard S. “The Problem of the Christian Bible” in Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992), pp. 55-69
• Clines, David J.A. The Bible and the Modern World (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997)
• Cornelius, Izak.  "The Many Faces of God: Divine Images and Symbols in Ancient Near Eastern Religions," in The Image and the Book 21-43.
• Crehan, F.J. "The Bible in the Roman Catholic Church from Trent to the Present Day," CHB 3:199-237.
• Dael, P.C.J. van. “Biblical Cycles on Church Walls: Pro Lectione Pictura,” in J. den Boeft & M. L. van Poll-van de Lisdonk (eds.),  The Impact of Scripture on Early Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 122-132.
• Davies, Philip R. Scribes and Schools: The Canonization of the Hebrew Scriptures (Louisville: Westminster, 1998).
• Denny, Frederick M. "Recitation of the Quran," Islam and the Muslim Community (San Francisco : Harper & Row, 1987), pp. 78-88.
• Dijk, S.J.P. "The Bible in Liturgical Use," CHB 2:220-251.
• Frei, Hans. The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative: A Study in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hermeneutics (New Haven: Yale, 1974).
• Frei, Peter. "Persian Imperial Authorization: A Summary," trans. by J.W. Watts, forthcoming in Persia and Torah: The Theory of Imperial Authorization of the Pentateuch (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2001).
• Greenberg, Moshe. "On the Political Use of the Bible in Modern Israel: An Engaged Critique," in D. P. Wright et al (eds.), Pomegranates and Golden Bells: Studies ... in Honor of Jacob Milgrom (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1995), pp. 461-471.
• Greenspahn, Frederick E. "Biblical Scholars, Medieval and Modern," in J. Neusner et al (eds.), Judaic Perspectives on Ancient Israel (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), pp. 245-258.
• Griffiths, Paul J. Religious Reading: the place of reading in the practice of religion (Oxford, 1999)
• Halbertal, Moshe. People of the Book: Canon, Meaning, and Authority (Harvard, 1997)
• Hallo, W.W.  The Context of Scripture. Vol. 1: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World (Leiden: Brill, 1997)
• Hendel, Ronald S. "Aniconism and Anthropomorphism in Ancient Israel," in The Image and the Book 205-223.
• Hettema, Th. L. “The Canon: Authority and Fascination” in Canonization and Decanonization 391-398.
• Hill, Doug. "Charles Augustus Briggs, Modernism, and the Rise of Biblical Scholarship in Nineteenth-Century America," in V.L. Wimbush (ed.), The Bible and the American Myth: A Symposium on the Bible and the Construction of Meaning (Macon: Mercer University Pres, 1999), pp. 71-104.
• Horst, Pieter W. van der. "Sortes: Sacred Books as Instant Oracles in Late Antiquity" in Use of Sacred Books 143-173.
• Kooij, A. van der. "The Canonization of Ancient Books Kept in the Temple of Jerusalem," in Canonization and Decanonization 17-40.
• Kugel, James L. "The Bible in the University," in W. H. Propp et al (eds.), The Hebrew Bible and Its Interpreters (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1990), pp. 143-165.
• Lamb, J.A. "The Place of the Bible in the Liturgy," CHB 1:563-586.
• Lambert, W. G. "Ancestors, Authors, and Canonicity," Journal of Cuneiform Studies 11 (1951), pp. 1-14.
• Lang, B. "The 'Writings': A Hellenistic Literary Canon in the Hebrew Bible," in Canonization and Decanonization 41-65.
• Legendre, P. “La totémisation de la société: Remarques sur les montages canoniques et la question du sujet,” in Canonization and Decanonization 425-433.
• Levenson, Jon D. "Theological Consensus or Historicist Evasion? Jews and Christians in Biblical Studies," in R. Brooks & J. J. Collins (eds.), Hebrew Bible or Old Testament: Studying the Bible in Judaism and Christianity (U. of Notre Dame, 1990), pp. 109-145.
• Levinson, Bernard. Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation (Oxford, 1997)
• Lieberman, Stephen J.  "Canonical and Official Cuneiform Texts: Towards an Understanding of Assurbanipal's Personal Tablet Collection," in Tsvi Abusch et al (eds.), Lingering over Words: Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Literature in Honor of William J. Moran (HSM 37; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), pp. 305-336.
• Lust, J.L. “Quotation Formulae and Canon in Qumran”  in Canonization and Decanonization (Leiden: Brill, 1998), pp. 67-77.
• Mettinger, Tryggve N.D.  "Israelite Aniconism: Developments and Origins," in The Image and the Book 173-204.
• Morey, James. Book and Verse: A Guide to Middle English Biblical Literature (Urbana: U. of Illinois, 2000).
• Neil, W. "Criticism and Theological Use of the Bible, 1700-1950," CHB 3:238-293.
• Nöldecke, Theodor. Geschichte des Qorans, Leipzig, 1909-1938.
• Neusner, Jacob & William Scott Green, Writing with Scripture: the Authority and Uses of the Hebrew Bible in the Torah of Formative Judaism, Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989.
• Oxtoby, Willard G. "`Telling in Their Own Tongues': Old and Modern Bible Translations as Expressions of Ethnic Cultural Identity," in W. Beuken & S. Freyne, The Bible As Cultural Heritage (London: SCM, 1995), pp. 24-35.
• Phy, Allene Stuart. "The Bible and American Popular Culture: an Overview and Introduction," in The Bible and Popular Culture in America (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985), pp. 1-23.
• Pulcini, Theodore. Exegesis as Polemical Discourse: Ibn Hazm on Jewish and Christian Scriptures (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998.
• Reventlow, Henning Graf. The Authority of the Bible and the Rise of the Modern World (tr. J. Bowden, Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984)
• Roberts, C.H. "Books in the Greaco-Roman World and in the New Testament," CHB 1:48-66.
• Rosenthal, Erwin I.J. "The Study of the Bible in Medieval Judaism," CHB 2:252-279.
• Rothberg-Halton, Francesca "Canonicity in Cuneiform Texts," Journal of Cuneiform Studies 36 (1984) 127-144.
• Rutgers, Leonard V. "The Importance of Scripture in the Conflict between Jews and Christians: The Example of Antioch," in Use of Sacred Books 287-303.
• Sawyer, John F.A. Sacred Languages and Sacred Texts (London: Routledge, 1999)
• Sheppard, Gerald T. “Canon”, in M. Eliade, ed. The Encyclopedia of Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1987.  3:62-69.
• Smalley, B. "The Bible in the Medieval Schools," CHB 2:197-219.
• Smith, D. Moody "When did the Gospels become Scripture?" Journal of Biblical Literature 119 (2000) 3-20.
• Smith, Jonathan Z “Canons, catalogues and classics,” in Canonization and decanonization (Leiden: Brill, 1998), pp. 295-311.
• Smith, Jonathan Z. "Sacred Persistence: Toward a Redescription of Canon," in Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown (Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1982), pp. 36-52.
• Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. "Scripture as Form and Concept: Their Emergence for the Western World," in Rethinking Scripture: Essays from a Comparative Perspective (ed. M. Levering; Albany: SUNY Press, 1989), pp. 29-57.
• Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. "The Study of Religion and the Study of the Bible," in Rethinking Scripture: Essays from a Comparative Perspective (ed. M. Levering; Albany: SUNY Press, 1989), pp. 18-28.
• Spatharakis, I. “Early Christian Illustrated Gospel Books from the East,” The Impact of Scripture on Early Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 102-121
• Toorn, Karel van der. “The Iconic Book: Analogies Between the Babylonian Cult of Images and the Veneration of the Torah,” in The Image and the Book 229-248
• Ulrich, E. "The Bible in the Making: the Scriptures at Qumran," in The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), pp. 17-33.
• Ulrich, E. "The Canonical Process, Textual Criticism, and Latter Stages in the Composition of the Bible," "Sha`Arei Talmon": Studies in the Bible, Qumran and the Ancient Near East Presented to Shemaryahu Talmon (eds M. Fishbane and E. Tov; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1992), pp. 267-91.
• Vermes, G. "Bible and Midrash: Early Old Testament Exegesis," CHB 1:199-231.
• Watts, James W.  Reading Law: The Rhetorical Shaping of the Pentateuch (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999).
• Wheeler, Brannon. Applying the Canon in Islam: the Authorization and Maintenance of Interpretive Reasoning in Hanafi Scholarship (New York: SUNY Press, 1996)
• Wimbush, Vincent L.  "Introduction: And the Students Shall Teach Them ...", in V.L. Wimbush (ed.), The Bible and the American Myth: A Symposium on the Bible and the Construction of Meaning (Macon: Mercer University Pres, 1999), pp. 1-11.
• Wiseman, D.J. "Books in the Ancient Near East and in the Old Testament," CHB 1:30-48
• Zevit, Ziony. “The Second-Third Century Canonization of the Hebrew Bible and Its Influence on Christian Canonizing” in Canonization and Decanonization (Leiden: Brill, 1998), pp. 133-160.