If the funding comes through, I’ll be teaching Old Testament Introduction this time next year. This would be my first time teaching the Jewish Bible, so I’m in the earliest stages of rummaging through old class notes and putting together a syllabus. Did you know there’s a whole lot of material in the Old Testament? If anybody out there has some good ideas for covering as much as is fruitful with a class of college freshmen, I’m not too proud to take your advice!
Here’s what I think the basic skeleton of the course is going to be. It looks like an awful lot, even though some books are overlooked entirely and others will get only the barest of coverage.
- A Bird’s Eye View of the OT
- Biblical Criticism
- Pentateuchal Criticism
- Gen 1-11: Creation, Fall, and Grace
- Gen 12-25: Abraham (and Isaac)
- Gen 26-50: Jacob and Joseph
- Exodus (and a smidge of Numbers)
- Approaches to Israelite Law (Holiness Code, Leviticus)
- Deuteronomy
- FISHBOWL 1: Women in the Patriarchal Narratives: Gen 16:1 – 18:15; 19:29 – 21:21
- EXAM 1
- Joshua, Judges, and the Settlement of Canaan
- 1 Samuel: Saul and the Rise of David
- 2 Samuel: David’s Reign
- 1-2 Kings: Solomon and the Divided Kingdom
- The Prophetic Tradition (Amos and Hosea)
- Isaiah
- Historical Interlude: The Exile
- Jeremiah (and Ezekiel??)
- Post-exilic prophets: Haggai, Zechariah
- FISHBOWL 2: Jews and Gentiles: Jonah 1-4
- EXAM 2
- The Megilloth: Lamentations
- The Megilloth: Ruth and Esther
- The Megilloth: Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes
- Psalms
- FISHBOWL 3: Rebuilding the Nation: Neh 8-11
- Wisdom Literature (Job, Proverbs)
- Apocalyptic Literature (Daniel)
- Formation of the OT Canon
- FINAL EXAM
FYI, a “fishbowl” is a group-discussion exercise, essentially a student-led day. Also, I’m debating enlisting a few students for a Purim play on the day we talk about Esther 
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I don’t know if I have “advice”. I have a much smaller-scale struggle with the same material as we’re going through the Old Testament lessons in Sunday school. I struggle on getting the right balance between “Bible as information” and “Bible as lifeline” and “word of God as the words we live”, the right balance between “Old Testament has a meaning” and “Old Testament foreshadows”. I’ve been taking some liberties that probably aren’t open in an academic setting with more of a set syllabus, like flipping back and forth between the study of the Law and the study of what Christ and the NT writers said about the Law, between the Temple Service and what the book of Hebrews says about the Temple service. I think when I do Psalms (up next) we’re going to be studying prayer, thanksgiving, and penitance at the same time we study the Psalms.
The Purim play for Esther is a great idea. I can almost see a whole class doing all the “yea!” and “boo!” when the hero and villain come on set.