OLLI0020 - Six of the Bible's Most Misunderstood Texts

Course Description

Sometimes you know a story so well that you don’t know it at all. This is especially common when it comes to Biblical stories. You learn them in Sunday School; you watch them on television and in the movies; you hear them preached from pulpits…you know them, right? Probably not. In this course we will explore six well-known and often misread and therefore misunderstood stories from the Bible: the Creation of the Universe (Genesis 1-2); the Expulsion from Eden (Genesis 3); The Giving of the Ten Commandments; The Patience of Job, Elijah and the Still Small Voice (I Kings 19:11-13); Barabbas and the Trial of Jesus (the Gospels). Drawing on rabbinic midrash, Jewish mysticism, and contemporary scholarship, Rabbi Rami leads us into a deeper reading of these classic texts and invites us to discover new meanings in these ancient and timeless stories. This is a course for anyone interested in learning about alternative readings of biblical texts.