Tanakh -- I need some help...

[Kate in Arabia]

I am currently fleshing out plans for my 9th grader; as I've mentioned here before, with my high-schoolers I create a Middle Eastern studies course than runs roughly concurrently (timewise) with World History stretched over three years, and it dips into English each year as I tie in correlating literature readings.

So, 9th grader, means this year we are back with the ancient period.  In World History she is reading SWB's History of the Ancient World and coupling that with a wide range of different movies (all genres, all periods -- classic, modern, historical, somehow tied to historical topics, etc.); in ME studies we are sort of pinning it to the stories of the prophets in the Islamic tradition, but tying in articles and readings that discuss Christian/Jewish beliefs, the archaeological evidence, etc., and are arranging field trips each week to visit local archaeological sites that roughly correspond to the time periods under study; and as one element of her English credit I am pulling together literature readings that relate to either the World History or ME studies courses.

I have a copy of the JPS Tanakh, and I have pretty much decided I'd like for her to do some reading from Psalms, but that's a pretty big book and I'm not exactly sure what I should include in a "selected readings."  Also I've been debating whether I should include selections from other books... I don't really need historical narratives, I think that's covered between the readings in both history courses, it's more "religious text as literature" that I'm aiming for.

As an additional tangential note, I will probably also include some readings from the NT Bible, perhaps the Parables of Jesus?  I feel like she should at least be familiar, from a literary allusion perspective, with stories like the Good Samaritan, etc.

It would be great if anyone has any advice or suggestions they could share, it's been a long time since I've looked at the Jewish/Christian scriptures...

 

 

[almondbutterandjelly]

Psalm 23 The Lord is My Shepherd Psalm is probably the most famous and popular.  A must read.

From the NT, the Golden Rule, the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and the Parable of the Prodigal Son are probably must reads from a literary perspective.

 

[Lori D.]

For the New Testament, just as a quick overview for deciding which books to read or skip: 
- the 4 gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) provide the life and acts of Jesus, and his teaching and parables
- Acts is the history of the apostles and the early church
- Revelation is the last prophecy, about events still to come (end times, final judgment, heaven)
- and the remaining books are epistles (letters) with doctrine and addressing specific issues within the early churches

From a religious text as literature perspective... If you have the time, I'd recommend reading all four of the gospels in their entirety, as they interlink and flesh out one another, and then Revelation, as there are many images and ideas in Revelation that are frequently alluded to and that are very well known in culture at large. (For example, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.)

If that is more than you have time or interest in, then I'd suggest reading all of the two gospels of Matthew and Luke and some or all of the book of Revelation. 

And if that is still more than you have time for, then I'd narrow it down to just one gospel (all of it, for context) -- either Matthew OR Luke (both contain most of Jesus' most famous parables) -- and then excerpts from Revelation -- I'd suggest chap. 4-21, as these contain the most frequently alluded to images and ideas. All together, that would not be more than about 3 hours of reading.

For Psalms... first, as a quick introduction to the literary aspects of Psalms, check out these 3 articles from different perspectives for history/background of the Psalms, and for how they tend to be grouped:

- article in the online Jewish Encyclopedia (medium-length web article) explains the different types of psalms and their purposes, and categorizes them in 5 broad categories: hymns of praise; elegies; didactic psalms; liturgical songs; pilgrim songs

- Catholic perspective (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) (short web article) gives a quick historical background to the psalms and classifies them in 5 broad groups: psalms of praise, psalms of thanksgiving, psalms of lament, "royal" psalms, and wisdom psalms.

- Bible Study Tools website (non-denominational Christian) (long article) provides history of their writing and how the psalms were collected and arranged; it then goes on to classify the psalms under 10 types: prayers of the individual; praise from the individual; prayers of the community; praise from the community; confessions; praise of God's majesty/virtues; celebration of God's reign; songs of Zion; "royal" psalms; pilgrimage psalms; liturgical; didactic (teaching)

So one way of narrowing selections would be at least one of each of the different types of hymns. (The above articles list specific Psalms that fit into the different categories). Another way to do "excerpts" would be to select psalms that are the most frequently read or quoted or alluded to, or have individual verses that widely known. Here are 15 (10% of the psalms, lol) of the most widely-known or alluded to psalms, from the different "categories":

Psalm 2 - "royal" psalm -- by or for the king, the Lord's annointed; also prophetic of Jesus Christ as the King of Kings
Psalms 8 and 19 - psalms of God's glory
Psalm 22 - the "messianic psalm" -- prophetic picture of Jesus Christ as the suffering savior
Psalm 23 - psalm of trust in God ("The Lord is my shepherd") -- this is the most well-known of the psalms
Psalm 24 - liturgical psalm 
Psalms 34 and 73 - didactic (instructional) psalms
Psalm 46 - song of Zion -- declares God's might and works
Psalm 51 - psalm of confession of sin
Psalm 103 - psalm proclaiming the character of God and his love for people
Psalm 118 - psalm of thanksgiving
Psalm 130 - pilgrimage psalm -- cry for help / waiting
Psalm 139 - a psalm of David -- God's creation of each individual, and intimate knowledge of each person
Psalm 150 - psalm of praise -- a very short but triumphant conclusion to the book of psalms

 

Edited September 27, 2019 by Lori D.

[Lori D.]

PS -- If not already planning to, I strongly recommend also including the first 12 chapters of the Old Testament book of Genesis, as the ideas and stories are incredibly archetypal and widely alluded to in other literature throughout the ages, as well as in current popular culture.

Genesis chap. 1-12 includes: creation, Adam and Eve the serpent/apple/tempation in the Garden of Eden; Cain and Able; Noah and the flood; the tower of Babel; start of the story of Abraham the father of many nations.

Edited September 28, 2019 by Lori D.

[Kate in Arabia]

Thanks for both your comments..