Admission requirements
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Description
Jesus of Nazareth is certainly one of the most influential, but also one of the most controversial personalities from antquity - reason enough to take a critical look at the sources that describe his life and message (the four NT gospels and other contemporaeous literature). Equipped with an arsenal of modern philological and archaeological methods, we will try to look behind two millennia of reception history, pious faith and ecclesiastic doctrine and aim at reconstructing Jesus’s "profile" as preacher of the coming Kingdom of God and miracle worker. Our reference system will be Jesus’s regional Mediterranean culture, politics ad religion. What was Jesus' message? How did he fit into the turbulent times of social upheaval and cultural transformation? What do miracle stories and provocative feasting and drinking have to do with God? Why was he executed and his disciples were not? What does it mean when people claimed Jesus was raised from the dead? Jews and Romans, farmers and priests, the poor and the rich, men and women all played their perculiar roles in this very Mediterranean drama of salvation and community. So: careful listening to old and new sources, thinking through the sources and make up your mind from argumets instead of the ususal sensationalism!
Course objectives
Knowledge:
of the major cultural and political developments in ancient Palestine during the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman Empire;
of the major groups and trends in Palestinian Judaism at the time of Jesus (apocalypticism, John the Baptist, social and religious "rebels");
of the roles of the Roman and Jewish authorities in the trial against Jesus and their political agendas;
of the most important literary and archaeological sources of Jesus of Nazareth and his time (Gospels, synoptic problem, Galilean archaeology);
of examples of how the "formative period" of the Jesus movement is picked up in modern European research and popular culture (film).
Insights:
into the complexity of the political, social ad religious world Jesus was born in and how far this influenced his message and hjow he was perceived by his contemporaries;
how far Jesus’s controversial profile influenced the various trends in modern reception history.
Skills:
research: independent formulation of a complex research question, collecting materials, analyzing results, constructing arguments, formulating conclusions;
critical assessment of primary and secondary literature and constructive overcoming ov conflicting opinions I current research; putting forward one’s own opinion in an oral presentation: the oral presentation will give a clear and well-argued interpretation of specific textual passages, making effective use of a handout and/or PowerPoint;
written presentation: the paper will offer a clear and well-structured presentation of original research.
the student must demonstrate his or her grasp of critical issues in recent scholarship, and assess recent scholarly contributions by confronting them with the original source material;
Develop individual and group-related communicative skills by working together in small student groups and / or putting up insights for discussion in class;
this course aims at active participation and preparation: the student demonstrates involvement in the topic by asking well-informed and constructive questions and making contributions to the collective progress, on the basis of antecedent independent preparation.
The requirements for MA and ResMA students are differentiated:
MA students may expect more help in choosing their topic, literature and research question, and when preparing their presentation (with handout). Their paper may consist of an assessment of the status quaestionis on a given topic.
ResMA students are expected to come up with their own original topic, literature and research question for the presentation (with handout). Their paper will be slightly longer (3500 instead of 3000 words) and more have the form of a scholarly report on a given issue discussed in current research. In addition to that, ResMA students will write a proposal / abstract for a paper to be held at a (fictitious) conference.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar with in-class lecture elements by instructor, assignments to students or groups of students, supervised or unsupervised self-study, presentations In class and discussions with class mates.
Assessment method
Assessment
Assignments (e.g., a report on research question and a specified bibliography), for ResMA students also a proposal for (fictitious) conference paper.
Oral presentation in class;
Written final paper of ca. 3000 words (3500 for ResMA students), based on original research in primary and secondary sources and worked out according to the formal requirements of the Reader Academic Skills CAC (2022) or equivalet Instructions from the program Ancient History (2022).
Weighing
To complete the final mark, please take notice of the following:
Class contribution and assignments: 10%
In-class oral presentation: 30 %
Written final paper: 60 %
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.
Resit
Should the overall mark be unsatisfactory, the paper is to be revised after consultation with the instructor. Only the final paper can be re-taken.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Textual basis:
E. Nestle / B. Aland / K. Aland (eds.), Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th ed., Stuttgart 2012 (there are also editions with facing German or English translation).
Very helpful is a Synopsis (edition in which the four gospels are printed side-by-side so that one can more easily compare the various versioins of a story.
If you do not read Greek, contact me about good Dutch or English translations.
Secondary Literature:
E.P. Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus, London 1993.
S. Freyne, Jesus, a Jewish Galilean. A New Reading of the Jesus Story, London / New York 2004.
J. Schröter / C. Jacobi (eds.), The Jesus Handbook, Grand Rapids 2022.
More literature will be announced in class.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal
Remarks
Participants who miss more than two sessions without excuse will have to repeat the course.