Word of God or Aesop’s Fables:

Modern Scholarship Meets the Bible

Instructor:  Thomas G. O’Brien III

Course Description:  Some people think the Bible is so esoteric that only “experts” can read it.  Others believe that no training is needed to understand the Bible and that the “plain meaning” of the text is evident to everyone.  Some see the Bible as dictated by God and channeled to the humans who wrote down the “Words of God.”  Some secular persons see the Bible as a collection of stories with no more importance than Aesop’s Fables.

This course rejects all those positions and presents information about the Bible that is supported by modern Biblical scholarship.  If thoughtful people have reliable information about the Bible and the different ways to read it, the Bible will become a gateway to a more profound (and mystery-filled) relationship with the Sacred, other persons, and the Universe.  The course considers not only information about the Bible, but why this information is important and how it can deepen our appreciation of Scripture.

A handout will be provided to assist participants in following the lectures and as a written record of the information covered in the lectures.

Six Lectures

1.  Goals, Premises, Assumptions and the History of Israel
2.  Structure, Canons, Literary Genres and the Authorship of the Torah
3.  Authorship of the other books of the Jewish Bible and of the Christian Scriptures
4.  Text “Criticism” (determining best texts) and Translations since 500 BCE
5.  The Need for Historical Analysis and Ways of Reading the Bible
6.  Using what we have learned to read the Bible.

Biographical Information: Tom O’Brien received his B.A. magna cum laude from Notre Dame and graduated from Yale Law School.  After four years in the U. S. Navy, he practiced corporate law in New York and Florida for more than 30 years.  He was a frequent lecturer on corporate law and mergers and acquisitions and wrote the Prentice-Hall treatise on Florida Corporate Law.  He retired from law and received an M.A. in Theology summa cum laude from St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach.  Tom is the Examining Chaplain for Holy Scripture for the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida, teaches Theology and Scripture Courses at Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach and leads Interfaith Dialogues for the Palm Beach Fellowship of Christians and Jews.