2024 Old Testament Study – The Book of Judges
"No other book of the Bible is quite so R-rated. No other book is quite so ugly or grotesque. Judges offers its reader not a roster of angelic saints, but an astonishing tempest of brutality, feces, slaughter, assassinations, conspiracy, genocide, child sacrifice, rage, betrayal, mass graves, gang-rape, corpse mutilation, kidnapping, and civil war" (Stulac, Gift of the Grotesque). In this six-session course on the book of Judges, you will follow an experienced biblical scholar into the heart of Israel's theological Dark Age, encountering there the transformative Word of God in ways you do not expect. Special attention will be placed to the idea that the violence depicted in Judges can be interpreted as a staging ground for Jesus Christ's eventual crucifixion in the New Testament. The prophetic book of Judges, writes Stulac, "wants to gut you like a fish, because on the far side of that unenviable prospect, it wants you alive like you've never lived before."
This six-session course will engage students in a close study of the biblical book of Judges, in conversation with the instructor’s recent book on this subject. Students should strive to finish the weekly reading prior to each online session. These sessions will take place on alternating Wednesday evenings from 7:00-8:45 pm (see the Course Schedule below).
Instructor
Daniel J. D. Stulac is assistant professor of the Old Testament at Briercrest College in Caronport, Saskatchewan. He holds degrees from Dartmouth College (BA, 2001), Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv, 2012), and Duke University (PhD, 2017), and is the author of several books and essays, including History and Hope: The Agrarian Wisdom of Isaiah 28–35 (Eisenbrauns, 2018), Life, Land, and Elijah in the Book of Kings (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Gift of the Grotesque: A Christological Companion to the Book of Judges (Cascade, 2022), and Tragedy of the Commons: A Christological Companion to the Book of 1 Samuel (Cascade, 2023). Daniel and his wife, Danielle, moved to Saskatchewan in July 2022 from Durham, North Carolina, where Daniel had been serving as an assistant professor of Old Testament at Duke Divinity School. They have two daughters, Abigail (age 5) and Susannah (age 3), and are active members of the St. Aidan community in Moose Jaw, SK.
Texts
• A standard translation of the Bible, such as the NIV, NRSV, CEB, etc.
• Daniel J. D. Stulac, Gift of the Grotesque: A Christological Companion to the Book of Judges (Eugene: Cascade, 2022).
Course Schedule
Wed Apr 17, 7:00-8:45 pm – Session #1: A Theological Dark Age
Wed May 1, 7:00-8:45 pm – Session #2: Ehud, Deborah, & Jael
Wed May 15, 7:00-8:45 pm – Session #3: Gideon & Abimelech
Wed May 29, 7:00-8:45 pm – Session #4: Jephthah & His Daughter
Wed Jun 12, 7:00-8:45 pm – Session #5: Samson & the Philistines
Wed Jun 26, 7:00-8:45 pm – Session #6 : Reading Atrocities in Light of Christ
