Overview
Dr. John Walton guides students through the types of literature in the Old Testament. Beginning with narrative and continuing through prophecy, apocalyptic literature, wisdom literature, and the Psalms, this course explains how to best read and understand the Old Testament. Students should walk away with a strong interpretive framework through which they can grapple with the Old Testament. The course guides students into asking broader questions about the overall purpose of the Old Testament and God’s revelations throughout it.
Grow your understanding in the Old Testament. Earn a Mobile Ed Certificate of Completion when you invest in your education. Learn more about the Old Testament Certificate Programs.
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion you should be able to:
- Define key concepts about the nature of the OT as God’s Word
- Identify the various genres of the OT and describe their features
- Discuss the purpose of the OT law and its significance for us today
- Explain how OT narrative functions as God’s self-revelation
- Describe the purpose and function of OT prophecy
- Define “wisdom” and describe its role in the OT
- Discuss the relationship between theology and faith
Course Outline
Unit 1: Foundations
- Introduction
- Identifying Old Testament Genres
- About the Old Testament
- Introduction to Authority, Inspiration, and Revelation
- Authority
- Inspiration
- Revelation
- Literary Analysis
- Identifying Emphasis in Old Testament Narratives
- What Sort of Reader?
- Ethical Reading
- Unit 1 Quiz
Unit 2: Genres: Law
- Law: Part 1
- Law: Part 2
- Finding English Translations of Ancient Legal Texts
- Law: Part 3
- Unit 2 Quiz
Unit 3: Genres: Narrative
- The Significance of Story
- Misreading Biblical Narrative, Part 1
- Using Visual Filters to Identify God as the Subject
- Misreading Biblical Narrative, Part 2
- Finding Practical Ways to Preach Old Testament Narratives
- Writing History
- Ancient History Writing
- Unit 3 Quiz
- Midterm Exam
Unit 4: Genres: Prophecy and Apocalyptic
- Prophets
- Using the Bible Facts Report to Research the Role of a Prophet
- Prophecy for the Present
- Kinds of Prophetic Illocution
- Search Parameters for the Prophetic Literature
- The Message of the Prophets
- Focusing on the Message
- Prophecy and the New Testament
- Locating Prophecies about Jesus
- Apocalyptic Literature
- Unit 4 Quiz
Unit 5: Genres: Wisdom and Psalms
- Introduction to Wisdom
- The Book of Job
- Discovering Ancient Near Eastern Parallels to the Book of Job
- The Book of Ecclesiastes
- Song of Songs
- Speaker Identifications in English Translations
- Psalms
- Unit 6: Theology and Faith
- God’s Presence
- Faith
- Unit 5–6 Quiz
- Final Exam
Product Details
- Title: OT201 Old Testament Genres
- Instructor: John H. Walton
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Publication Date: 2014
- Product Type: Logos Mobile Education
- Resource Type: Courseware, including transcripts, audio, and video resources
- Courses: 1
- Video Hours: 4
About John H. Walton
Dr. John H. Walton is a professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College Graduate School. Before teaching at Wheaton, Walton taught at Moody Bible Institute for 20 years.
His primary focus is in areas of comparison between the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East, particularly Genesis. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament, IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, and A Survey of the Old Testament.
Getting the most out of Mobile Ed
Logos Mobile Education is a highly effective cross-platform learning environment that integrates world class teaching with the powerful study tools and theological libraries available in Logos Bible Software. Every course provides links to additional resources and suggested readings that supplement the lecture material at the end of every transcript segment.
This course was produced with screencast videos. These videos provide tutorials showing you how to use Logos Bible Software in ways that are tied directly into the content of the course. We are now producing Activities resources as a replacement for screencast videos. We plan on updating this course to include this additional Activities resource in the future for no extra charge.
