The courses offered here examine the historical, cosmological, and theological assumptions that shaped the development of the Old and New Testaments during the Second Temple Period.

Instruction is delivered through reading notes, recorded lectures, guided discussion, and recommended texts.

Students may proceed through the curriculum at their own pace.

Purpose

The Bible was written within a particular understanding of reality.

Its authors assumed a cosmology, a view of history, a conception of ordered time, and an understanding of divine rule that differ markedly from those of modern readers.

The purpose of this programme is to examine those assumptions directly through the study of primary sources and contemporary scholarship.

Commencing Study

Students beginning for the first time should proceed to:

Readings → IBC: Introduction to Biblical Cosmology

and then complete the assigned reading notes and lectures in sequence.

Current Areas of Study

• Biblical Cosmology

• Second Temple Judaism

• The Dead Sea Scrolls

• Divinely-Ordered Time and Prophecy

• Ancient Near Eastern Backgrounds

No prior theological training is required. Only a willingness to engage seriously with the evidence and follow the argument wherever it leads.