OVERVIEW

The course aims to provide an overview of ancient Jewish culture through the study of the biblical text and the Hebrew language

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The teaching of Hebrew aims to provide knowledge about the Hebrew language and Israel's ancient history, as well as linguistic and philological skills to address the reading of the Hebrew Bible as the primary source for five study perspectives: 1) A comparison of Biblical Hebrew to other Semitic languages; 2) the objective and documentary history of a significant people in the Ancient Near East (including clarification of the Bible's limitations as a possible historical source); 3) Jewish literature and culture that extends beyond the Bible; 4) The inclusion of Judaism in the historical, cultural, and linguistic phenomenon of Hellenism, as opposed to the Greek translation of the 1970s; 5) The relationship between Israel's tradition and late ancient Greco-Roman culture in subsequent translations (also in the Christian context, beginning with the Geronymian Vulgate). Another goal is to raise awareness of the Bible of the Seventy as a product of Hellenistic Judaism as well as its exemplary status as an interlingual transcoding of a cult text from the perspective of Theory and History of Translation.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, the student will be able to:

• use the elementary grammar of biblical Hebrew to be able to read simple narrative passages from the Pentateuch (Torah) or from historical books (earlier prophets);

• evaluate the importance of the history of the Jewish people in the context of the history of the Ancient Near East and, more recently, of the history of the Jewish people in Europe;

• understand the peculiarity of the Hebrew language compared to other Semitic languages;

• distinguish in the biblical narrative a historical source or a theological rereading of the history of Israel.

PREREQUISITES

No prerequisites are required

TEACHING METHODS

Frontal lesson; practice of writing and reading texts, distribution of material and slide projection.

Lessons will be held in presence. Attendance, although not compulsory, is recommended. Only those who attend lessons in  

presence will be deemed attending students.

The teacher, upon specific request by single students, could allow them to attend lessons remotely and to access the recordings of the lessons via Teams.

Any non-attending students are requested to contact the teacher.

All students are required to register on Aulaweb.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Highlights of Ancient Jewish History from the Judges to the Fall of Jerusalem

Fundamentals of Biblical Hebrew Grammar

The Old Testament and its Relations with the Near East

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Slides and papers of the teacher Serafini, Corso di Ebraico biblico, San Paolo, 2006 (2 voll) Further reading will be indicated durong

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

GIUSEPPE MINUNNO (President)

PIA CAROLLA

GUIDO GIOVANNI BORGHI (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

18/09/2023

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral examination. For the exam, in addition to the part on the history of the Jewish people, it is necessary to study a short passage in the language, analyzed and prepared in class, which helps the student to carry out the interview on both the historical and linguistic parts.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

To facilitate students, it will be possible to divide the exam into two parts: the historical part and the linguistic part; the linguistic part can be replaced by ongoing checks only for attending students.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Students with a certified DSA, disability or other special educational needs are advised to contact the lecturer at the beginning of the course to agree on teaching and examination methods that, while respecting the teaching objectives, take into account individual learning modes and provide suitable compensatory tools