Numbers: Encountering Wilderness BIB548 / B
Instructor: Jackie Wyse-Rhodes, PhD
The book of Numbers is a mosaic of narratives, poems, legal material, and instruction. It is also a profoundly human book that speaks to modern concerns about justice and equity. In this course, students will discuss Numbers as a historical product, clarify its relationship to other texts in the Hebrew Bible, and explain how awareness of its literary conventions can shape interpretive practice. Students will also identify and appraise diverse ways the Book of Numbers has been interpreted over time. Together, the class will explore how Numbers might inform contemporary conversations related to integrity in leadership and the complexities of life in community.