Academic Teaching v. Churchly Teaching

I’m getting my first taste of classroom teaching this semester, and though I am enjoying it, I am learning just how much work it involves. Teaching in the classroom is a whole different “ball of wax” than teaching in the Church. Though I am teaching Introduction to the Old Testament, I am teaching it at a state-run institution, to students who are paying money to get college credit (as opposed to Christians who come because they want to grow in their knowledge of God’s Word). Most of the students have some exposure to the Bible, but they come from a variety of backgrounds and traditions, so I have to try to keep the teaching somewhat ecumenical.

So far, I think it has gone pretty well. There are days when I feel like things really clicked, and there are days (like today) when it seems as though the minutes drag by. Trying to cover the entire Old Testament (and Intertestamental Period) in one semester is a quite a bite to swallow. Determining what material to teach and what to leave out can be a frustrating endeavor. There is so much that one could say! I do try to weave into my lectures various Christian themes and parallels to the New Testament. It’s hard not to when you see the Old Testament as Christian Scripture. I make no bones about the fact that everything in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms points to and is ultimately about Christ (Luke 24; John 5). Peter Leithart’s book A House for My Name has come in handy in understanding the “storyline” of the Old Testament.

Needless to say it is a constant learning experience. I use all sorts of resources to prepare my lectures. I try to use some power point presentations to supplement my lectures. One of the things that is challenging for me is that I am used to having a lot more discussion when I teach. In Bible classes I tend to engage the people a lot more and they tend to offer a lot more throughout the course of a Bible study. So far I have not been able to do this successfully in my class. I realize this goes with the territory, but I am not used to standing up and speaking for an hour and fifteen minutes.

I’m sure things will improve over time. I hope to gain more experience with this in the future. And I hope I’m not completely boring my students to death!

Moses: a New Noah

I’m reading a delightful book right now by Peter Leithart called A House for My Name (Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2000). It’s a required text for my Introduction to the Old Testament course. Leithart’s grasp of the relationship between Old Testament figures and events is remarkable. While writing my S.T.M. thesis I dabbled quite a bit in the textual and thematic parallels between the Patriarchal Narratives, but Leithart takes it to a different level. Here is one snippet that really caught my attention regarding Moses and his basket:

Jochebed puts her “beautiful son” in a basket lined with pitch. This reminds us of Noah’s ark. In Hebrew, the word for “basket” is the same as the word for “ark,” and this word is used only in these two places in the Old Testament. Noah’s ark, like Moses’, is lined with pitch (see Genesis 6:14). Moses is a new Noah. All around him the children of Israel are drowning, but Moses’ ark passes through the waters of death and gets to safety. The same water that kills other Israelite children saves Moses. After the flood, Noah and his family come out from the ark and enter a new creation. Moses, the one who has passed through the waters in an “ark,” is going to bring Israel out of Egypt and into a new world.

I’ll post a few more nuggets as I encounter them.