BI 121: The Bible as Literature – 2025-2026

• 3.00 Credit Hours

This course will study the English Bible on its merits as a piece of world class literature. Students will review the authorship and cultural context of the autographs, the history of and concerns surrounding canonicity, translation, and interpretation, the overarching themes of the English Bible as an anthology and the complementary themes found in its individual books, literary genres included, narrative styles used, and cultural currency. Students will ultimately examine their own knowledge and assumptions concerning the English Bible as a piece of literature and engage in interpretation and synthesis based on such review.Student Learning Objectives Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: 1. Identify a range of key terms essential to analyzing literature including: apostrophe, allegory, allusion, characterization, form/structure, genre, hyperbole, imagery, irony, literature, metaphor, narrative style, personification, plot, point of view, reference, rhyme, setting, simile, symbolism, theme, tone, etc. 2. Identify major characters in the Bible 3. Identify the literary genres found in the Bible including: biography, epic, genealogy, history, letter, myth, parables, poetry, proverbs, prophecy, sagas, wisdom, etc. 4. Identify and describe the major themes in the Bible as an anthology and in individual sections thereof. 5. Describe the historical and cultural influences impacting the Bible. 6. Describe the impact of the Bible on modern culture, especially English and American. 7. Describe the impact of and issues arising from translation. 8. Synthesize a response using critical secondary sources. 9. Synthesize a response which describes fully a portion of the Bible within its literary genre.