After taking off 18 months or so, I’m returning to teaching Institute in my free time. Beginning January 12, 8 PM in the Union Square chapel of Manhattan, I’ll be teaching a class called “Genesis, with an Introduction to Studying the Bible in Hebrew.” The Institute Director added the last part, but I don’t mind one bit. I’m quite looking forward to it.
Institute can really be a breath of fresh air, especially for those who are looking for a deeper exploration of the scriptures than Sunday School allows. After all, there’s no schedule to follow, no manual to adhere to, none of the constraints that people argue over. Instead of 45 minutes with ambivalent mostly non-readers, I get 75 minutes with a self-selecting group of slightly less ambivalent reading-a-bit-more.
This is not to say there are no constraints; in a lesser implementation of Helaman 10:4-5, teachers generally get vetted one way or another, and then are simply trusted to teach. I have reviews/recommendations from teaching for eight years under three different Institute Directors plus my three summers teaching at BYU, and they contact my Bishop and Stake President as well. After that… well, I teach the scriptures and the Gospel, and love it. And that’s all the local Powers That Be really care about. Are the students edified? Growing and learning? Reading their scriptures more? If so, they’re supportive.
This class will be selective. I anticipate spending several weeks on the first few chapters (along with framing and some study techniques/suggestions), skip the Flood (if I can get away with doing so), move on to the Tower of Babel, Abraham and covenants, Judah and Tamar, etc. But we’re not going to feel compelled to move on until we’re happy with the depth we’ve gotten wherever we are. We may never get past Genesis 15, which would be fine. The theme of the class, if there is one, is expressed well by Elder Widtsoe, quoting Brigham Young-
“Many Bible accounts that trouble the inexperienced reader become clear and acceptable if the essential meaning of the story is sought out. To read the Bible fairly, it must be read as President Brigham Young suggested: ‘Do you read the scriptures, my brethren and sisters, as though you were writing them a thousand, two thousand, or five thousand years ago? Do you read them as though you stood in the place of the men who wrote them?’ (Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 197-8). This is our guide. The scriptures must be read intelligently.”
We’re going to try to read Genesis as if we were Israelites, which means stepping into their cultural shoes sandals. We’ll talk about Gilgamesh, Atrahasis, Enuma Elish, Ugarit, covenant curses, and other fun stuff that relates directly to Genesis, which knowledge is assumed by the text. While we certainly won’t answer every question, approaching it this way will help make sure we’re asking the right kind of question, and in the process resolve (or at least, reframe in a more productive manner) some issues. And of course, I get to try out book material and see how people respond.
So if you’re in the New York area, come on down, and bring your scriptures.
Sounds great! Have fun with it Ben.
Seems like the kind of class that will spin off a few blog posts.
This sounds like a great class. I love Genesis. It is the part of the Old Testament that we have read most with our kids.
I did a year-long Genesis class (and, another year, a Psalms class) as an Adult Religion Class and absolutely loved the experience. Have fun!
I only there was an online option. Sigh. :)
If….
This is almost cruel Ben. What if we don’t live in New York?
I am entirely envious. Once upon a time I made the goal to study the entirety of scripture, starting with Genesis. I spent two years in Genesis. It’s such dense, rich scripture. Now I’m a bit ashamed that we do a quick job in Sunday School hitting a few highlights, repeating the main points, and then rock-skipping through the rest of Moses’ books.
In fact, now that I think about it, I think I left off just prior to Abraham. I was called as the Gospel Principles teacher and my personal study in chronological order was replaced with a topical study.
I wish I lived in New York, or could afford to fly there frequently.
My wife and I were students in Julie M. Smith’s Genesis and Psalms classes and they were indeed fun. When can we do Job or Isaiah or Ezekiel?
Why skip Noah if you are talking about Gilgamesh?
It seems to me that the sensible way to read Noah in light of Restoration scripture is as the story of a prophet fleeing a land where the people are destroyed due to wickedness and the prophet’s family are rescued and sail halfway around the globe to establish rhemselves in a promised land. The Jaredites are very conscious of replicating the experience of Noah, just in the opposite direction. The Lehite and Mulekite migrations are simular.
Dave (#2): “Seems like the kind of class that will spin off a few blog posts.”
One can hope!
Indeed. I promise to produce.
Love that you brought up that quote of Young. I think that’s the most difficult thing for people to do – to place themselves in the mindset of the original readers. So many people want the scriptures to be universal in a fashion I’m not sure is fair to the text.