RELG 204: Bibles before The Bible

This course introduces students to the array of manuscripts and written traditions from the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean that predate the modern canonized scriptures of Judaism and Christianity. Students will become familiar with the Greek Septuagint, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and a wide range of apocryphal texts including gospels, vision narratives, and pseudonymous writings, all of which circulated as religious literature among Jewish and Christian communities before the existence of any Bible known today.