Now that ... Keep Moving On With The TaNaK!

Wow, it’s just been  over three months since the first day of class. Now that I have finished this course, I will be able to do my biblical interpretation better in the future; and of course, I will be more confident to sleep early and get up a bit late from tomorrow on without dreaming critically. I have learned a lot from this class. It has cleared many of my concerns and questions I had before. I hope I am now able to read and study the Hebrew Bible with historical criticism as well as I will be able to think, write and even dream critically regarding this sphere. 

The class was very interesting but sometimes too much to absorb so it might become stressful for me (for English is not my mother tongue). But thank God that I made it with the help of the Professor and his Teaching Assistant. I am also thankful to have great classmates who have posted a lot of good stuff on their blogs regarding the course works and assignments. They have been very helpful and inspirational. 

I hope to keep contact with my classmates via twitter or email in order to exchange questions, thoughts or insights concerning anything in or about the Tanak.  My plan for this Summer is to review some of the sections that I think I need to dig deep into; for instance, the Torah or the Pentateuch. I view it as the backbone of the Hebrew Bible as Bandstra writes, “The Torah is the foundation document of Judaism and the heart of the Hebrew Bible.” (Bandstra, 16). I will spend some time to reread the course textbooks and re-watch Dr. Lester’s lecture videos. They are all great and very much worth reading and listening again and again. I also will try to ask one or two pastor friends of mine to meet once a month to discuss different sections of the Hebrew Bible. Let me admit to you the truth that the theory of the Deteuronomistic History (DH) has kept bugging me and he has sometimes gotten on my nerves when I read from Deuteronomy to Kings (except for Ruth). I will be spending more time to do some extra research about this Deuteronomic Historian and his plot elements. It seems that he emerged during King Josiah’s reign in Judah. Josiah was known in the Bible as the best king of Judah. “Did this best king produce the best historian or vice versa?” I hope to get an answer to this question for myself after I will have discovered that all the tales and characters in these books of the Tanak are myths and legends (including King David). It’s very knowledgeably interesting and challenging to me. I think I will develop a plan to help my traditionalist friends out with what I have learned from this course. 

Finally, I am so blessed and happy to have all of you classmates in this online class. Though I do not know each you by face but at least by name, I pray that God will bless you richly and reveal himself to you in a personal encounter with him as he did with Moses, and all the faith/faithful heroes in the Tanak. Have a great Summer and keep moving on. Amen.