Robert D. Miller II

Great course in a sea of christian apologetics; here you instead get a perspective more grounded in the jewish story, but without becoming strictly jewish theology. It's a mix of the Bible read as literature, with some historical background to flesh out the events, and perhaps that's the most fruitful arena compared to other offerings, as it repeatedly refers to the influence of Babylonia and Caanan, including their gods, on the content - something sorely missing from many other courses (and books). Miller doesn't go quite as deep into the idea of judaism as steeped in reactions to its religious environment as I would have liked, and some of his defense of hard to interpret books like Job get a bit too 'just so' for me. Still it's very different in trying to cover an evolving religion caught on the page, rather than the much more common post hoc view of judaism (and christianity) as a finished product delivered in complete (if not perfect) form.… (més)

Miller is an excellent lecturer, and his knowledge of Hebrew (and other languages) makes his analysis of the true meaning of some passages of the Old Testament quite fascinating. He acknowledges some problems with the text itself, but he concentrates on deciphering it in the form(s) we have it now, frequently providing his own translation in place of the one more prevalent in various published versions of the Old Testament. I liked his explanation the Book of Job, especially calling out that it talks about "the Satan" rather than just Satan, and explaining the significance. As a faculty member of Catholic University, you can't expect him to come down too hard on Christian interpretation of passages in the Old Testament as foretelling the coming of Christ, but he does describe the Jewish point of few when relevant. It would be interesting to have a similar course taught from a Jewish perspective, but there is very little to complain about in this one. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as well as learning a good deal.… (més)