In this unit students will be given an introduction to the Judaeo-Christian traditions, the Bible, Biblical history and the Biblical disciplines such as archaeology and textual criticism. Students will focus upon the New Testament and events in Palestine in the first century CE. Specific attention will be given to the development of the Gospel literature and to the 'Synoptic problem' in particular. Some attention will be given to recent controversies such as those surrounding the discovery of the so-called 'Dead Sea Scrolls' and to the quest for the historical Jesus that has occupied a central place in Biblical scholarship over the last 200 years. In the unit we aim to provide essential background for the study of later, derivative periods of Western civilisation and culture.

Subject rules