syllabus (1)

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New York University *

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Religion

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Oct 30, 2023

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Ancient Israel New York University, Autumn 2022 Professor Daniel Fleming Syllabus Teaching staff: Daniel Fleming, professor, df2@nyu.edu Nazeer Bacchus, nazeer.bacchus@nyu.edu Daniel Mackler, daniel.mackler@nyu.edu Isaac Rozsler, isr214@nyu.edu Office hours for the professor: Monday and Wednesday 1:45 – 2:30 PM Office hours for section instructors as set individually. Please make all contact with Prof. Fleming by email, which he will answer as quickly as possible. The Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies Main office, 212-998-8980 53 Washington Square South, first floor (enter at right of elevators, to right from atrium) Prof. Fleming’s office, room 204, second floor from inside department, front right Prof. Fleming’s mailbox, at foot of staircase, middle of top row (for turning in late papers) Welcome! This is our second fall semester back face-to-face after the 2020-21 year was held remotely. Many people are putting Covid behind them, and masks are far from the norm. NYU has decided to maintain the policy from last spring through the first month, which means that masks are required in class. Partly in consideration for my 94-year-old father, I will be teaching with a mask through the semester. It worked last fall and I trust we will all manage again. It is fantastic to be in class together. With the uncertainty surrounding Covid, I decided last year to organize the course so as to take advantage of a moment in 2011 when the university recorded my Ancient Israel class sessions and posted them on YouTube, where they still can be found. These recordings provide backup and a potential complement for our full-class meetings. My approach to the material will be new, but the topics track with 2011. The Subject : You may think you know ancient Israel quite well, or you may be sure you know nothing. In either case, this course is designed to make the acquaintance from scratch. My ancient Israel is strange, sometimes shocking, diverse, and mostly hidden. It can be approached from archaeology and non-biblical writing as well as from the Bible as its most famous artifact. I am a biblical

scholar and student of ancient literature, so this class will lean toward what is written. When it comes to ancient Israel, the Bible offers our only narrative. This can be something to shake off, to disprove or discount, and yet the stories are powerful and persistent. For this course, as I did in 2011, I will embrace the Bible as point of reference, and a recurring question will be how to gain the most from this approach, eyes open to the pitfalls. In a broadly chronological framework, we will ask what I hope to be unfamiliar questions, trying to get you to see things you had not considered before. The course assumes no prior knowledge, and all knowledge is built from the ground up based on “primary evidence,” the actual material from the ancient world – including the Bible. Every full-class meeting will involve conversation in response to some piece of primary evidence, with expectation that you have as much right as any scholar to figure out who these people are for yourself. I will look forward to seeing what you come up with, both in class meetings and in your papers. The Goal : I do not expect study of Israel, the Bible, or the ancient world to be part of your career plans. Nevertheless, I intend the course to contribute directly to your university education. The two in- class exams are designed to help you keep your bearings, and they are not the focus of the coursework. My goal is to help you learn to reason critically and write analytically: to evaluate evidence for yourself, to identify problems of interest; to construct innovative and convincing interpretations; and to persuade readers of their plausibility. All the work for the course is designed to serve this goal. Full-class meetings and sections : The NYU Core program is built around the combination of large sessions with the professor and smaller “sections” with a “preceptor,” usually an advanced doctoral student with considerable experience in the field. Over time, I have moved ever further from considering my role to be built around “lectures,” which are generally less useful to today’s students than more interactive experiences. Therefore I have labeled the large sessions “full-class meetings,” which will be the primary venue for setting the agenda of the course: defining an approach to studying ancient Israel; establishing a method with reliance on primary evidence; doing everything I can to ignite an interest in the material. Section meetings are equally crucial to successful completion of the course. There, you will be able to work more personally with an instructor who can make sure you are comfortable with the basics and who can help you develop skills for the writing projects that carry the main weight of learning for the course. Graded assignments : I consider every fraction of the 100% available to grade this course a precious commodity, a way for you, and then us, to measure what you are accomplishing in pursuit of its priorities. Participation is essential, but the direct grades will all belong to three categories of work: a. Daily projects and class engagement (30%);

b. Two in-class exams (one hour and fifteen minutes each) (15% each); c. Two six-page papers (20% each). The exams represent a basic tracking of the material for the course, defined above all by what transpires in the full class meetings. You must learn to take good notes – and when to take them. Each meeting will include considerable conversation, and I will flag the particular sections that demand notation for later recollection. The two papers are designed to cultivate essential skills in developing your own ideas and making a case for them, based on evidence and logic. More information on these will be provided separately. Daily preparations: The more unusual grading element is the 30% devoted to daily writing assignments as preparation for class. NOTE THE FOLLOWING: - I will give each assignment at the end of one class, to prepare for the next. I want the receiving of these to be part of your physical presence in class. - On the day they are due, before class, daily preparations must be submitted through the “Assignments” heading in Brightspace. This system was new to us last year but worked well, though it takes us more time than paper. We will sometimes get behind on grading these, so please be patient with us! - Preparations will be graded quickly on a scale of 1-10, to be multiplied as if by ten (8.5 = 85, a B; 9.5 = 95, an A). We will read them all, appreciating good work when we see it, but commentary will be minimal. This is a big load for all of us. - Above all, I aim to make these stimulating and demanding. They will not be drab reports on the reading. Let yourself enjoy them. Be creative. Think systematically and rigorously. PUT IN THE WORK. It will show and be recognized in the grade. Please take them extremely seriously, as we shall. The two exams: There will be a midterm and an end-term exam, each covering half the course, so no “final,” and each to be given during a 75-minute class session. The exams represent a basic tracking of the material for the course, defined above all by what transpires in the full class meetings. You must learn to take good notes – and when to take them. Each meeting will include considerable conversation, and I will flag the particular sections that demand notation for later recollection. There will be a study sheet for identifications to prepare, and essays will be based primarily on the class sessions. Midterm exam: Wednesday, October 26 End-of-term exam: Wednesday, December 14 (last day of class) The two papers: Instructions for each paper will be posted on the course site well in advance of each assignment. As with the daily preparations, we will undertake a fully digital grading system. This means that papers must be posted to the “Assignments” heading on Brightspace by the beginning of class on the due date. Here are brief descriptions of the two papers:

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