A Flavor of the Old Testament

Engage your faith, uncover hidden meaning in ancient stories, and develop tools for reading and making sense out of the Old Testament in this 6-week online course. Join a community of curious learners from both Minnesota and Wisconsin to dive into our story as the people of God. Joan Mitchell is your flavorful guide through this Old Testament study. Joan has an M.A. in Old Testament from Luther Seminary and loves the study of Hebrew.  She lives in Northeast Minneapolis.

In describing her plan for this course, Joan said:

“This course is a sample buffet of the Old Testament. It will cover some of “the who, the what, the where, the when and the why” of the Old Testament. Some of what you learn will be like salt and pepper. You are familiar with some of these flavors and may have tasted them before.  Some morsels you will taste for the first time. We will study the Torah (the Pentateuch, the first 5 books), the Nevi’im (the Prophets) and the Ketuvim (the Writings-the poetry, the wisdom, and the history). We will taste the savories in Genesis, the bitterness of Naomi and the sweetness of Ruth, the smack of the wilderness, the sourness of the prophets, and the honey of the Psalms. Come and find a new flavor in the Old Testament.”

What you will need:  

A Bible.  Pick a translation (or two) you like. I will also provide you with my translation where & when we mark up the text.

Colored pencils.  Really.  If you do not want to mark up your Bible, make a copy or use the one provided.  Make several copies of it because flavors change in the course of a week.

Recommended Text:  The Literary Guide to the Bible.  Edited by Robert Alter and Frank Kermode.  Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1990.

Register Now through September 23. This six week course begins on Wednesday October 2 and ends on Wednesday November 13. It will meet entirely online using an online learning platform called Moodle.