Course Syllabus
THE BOOK OF HEBREWS
Course description
This course explains the background, purpose, structure and content of the book of Hebrews, one of the most challenging books in the New Testament. Many of its topics and themes are difficult to understand, but it helps when we recognize that the original audience was facing persecution and that they were tempted to turn away from Christ. That’s why the author of Hebrews placed his emphasis on standing strong in the faith, and it’s why this book is one of the most valuable and encouraging to Christians in every age. This course is based on the lecture series, The Book of Hebrews, produced by Third Millennium Ministries and hosted by Dr. Stephen Um with contributions from a variety of professors.
Goals and Objectives
GOALS
In this course, we would like to accomplish the following:
1. We hope you will make use of all the resources of the course to learn key things about the background, purpose, structure, and content of The Book of Hebrews. Who wrote it, and why? What are the main themes, and how should we apply them today?
2. We hope you will be encouraged in your Christian life by studying The Book of Hebrews, especially as you face false teachings.
3. We hope you make some changes in your life as a response to the teachings of The Book of Hebrews, especially doing your part to help encourage Christians who are confronting false teachings and being tempted to turn away from Christ.
OBJECTIVES
When you have done the following, it will show that the goals are met:
1. Obtain satisfactory grades on the tests, demonstrating that you can identify key information about the background, purpose, structure, and content of The Book of Hebrews.
2. Answer the application questions in the study guides, in which you express your own responses and opinions, demonstrating how this course has affected your life, especially that you are doing your part to help encourage Christians who are confronting false teachings and being tempted to turn away from Christ.
Thematic Outline of the Course
1) The Background and Purpose of Hebrews
2) Content and Structure
Explanation of Assignments
The Multimedia Lessons
1. Study the lessons, watching the video, listening to the audio, or reading the text.
2. Complete the study guides for each lesson. These study guides will prepare you for the online quizzes and help you apply the teachings of the lesson to your own life. (For those students associated with a particular institution wishing to track the completion of the completion of the Study Guides, a drop box has been provided at the end of the course.)
3. Take the online quizzes on each section of the lessons. The quizzes may be taken as many times as you want, but you must wait five days between each attempt, and the official grade will be from the first attempt.
4. Optional: We recommend that you look through the glossaries and use the learning games to become familiar with special names and technical terms used in the lessons.
5. Take the cumulative test for each complete lesson. You may take the test again as many times as you want for review, but you must wait five days between each attempt, and the official grade is from the first attempt.
6. When you have finished all the lessons on the multimedia lectures, take the final exam on the lectures.
Other Activities
1. Complete the supplementary lessons for each lesson. These lessons give you additional background information and provide other learning aids related to the lessons. You may repeat these lessons as many times as you want, and the official grade will be the highest score out of all the attempts.
2. Complete the questionnaires for the lessons to help assimilate the teachings and apply them to your own life. These are not quizzes. The answers are more subjective. The grade is for completing the assignment.
3. There is a final lesson based on additional readings. These are optional readings designed to supplement the main lesson materials. The student should do the reading, complete the study guides, and take the corresponding quizzes and cumulative test based on the reading. These are graded as extra credit. (For those students associated with a particular institution wishing to track the completion of the Reading Study Guides, a drop box has been provided at the end of the course.)
We recommend that you work on these reading assignments and quizzes during the entire course, instead of waiting until you finish all the lessons based on the video lectures. For each lesson, do the percentage of the work on them that corresponds to the number of lessons in the course.
Optional Activities
Some institutions may require you to do one or more of the following optional assignments. If so, read the instructions in lesson 1 and follow the specific guidelines given in the instructions for each lesson.
1. The Written project
2. Essay Questions
3. Journal Questions
4. Optional Additional Reading
Grades
The final grade will be calculated as follows:
1) The quizzes on the lectures are each worth 10 points.
2) Each cumulative test is worth 30 points.
3) Each supplementary lesson is worth 10 points.
4) Each questionnaire is worth 10 points.
5) The final exam on the lectures is worth 100 points.
6) Each quiz on the reading assignments is worth 10 points (extra credit).
7) The cumulative test on the additional reading is worth 30 points (extra credit).
The final grade of the course will be calculated by adding the corresponding percentages of all assignments and tests, making a total of 100% possible.
A total course score above 70% is considered passing.
Greek and Hebrew
Some lessons in our courses make reference to words in Greek or Hebrew. If you have not studied these languages, you might want to at least become familiar with the alphabets.
For the Greek alphabet, see:
https://www.billmounce.com/greekalphabet/greek-alphabet
For the Hebrew alphabet, see:
http://hebrew.billmounce.com/BasicsBiblicalHebrew-01.pdf
List of Contributors to The Book of Hebrews
Dr. Constantine R. Campbell is Associate Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Dr. D.A. Carson is Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Co-founder of The Gospel Coalition.
Rev. Michael J. Glodo is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Reformed Theological Seminary's Orlando Campus.
Dr. Dennis E. Johnson is Academic Dean and Professor of Practical Theology at Westminster Seminary California.
Dr. Barry Joslin is Associate Professor of Christian Theology and Program Coordinator for Biblical and Theological Studies at Boyce College in Louisville, Kentucky.
Dr. Edward M. Keazirian is Assistant Professor of Greek and Director of the Greek Language Program at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Dr. Craig Keener is the F.M. and Ada Thompson Chair of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary.
Dr. Fredrick Long is Professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary.
Dr. Sean McDonough is Professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Dr. Alvin Padilla is Dean of Hispanic Ministries and Professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Dr. Eckhard Schnabel is the Mary F. Rockefeller Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Dr. Mark Strauss is Professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary's San Diego Campus.
Dr. K. Erik Thoennes is Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Biola University.
Rev. Dr. Simon Vibert is the former Vicar of St. Luke's Church, Wimbledon Park, UK, and is presently the Vice Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and Director of the School of Preaching.
Dr. Stephen Wellum is Professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Dr. Stephen E. Witmer is Adjunct Professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.