Course Syllabus
FATHER ABRAHAM (GENESIS 11:10-25:18)
Course description
Christians, Muslims and Jews all look to the patriarch Abraham as the father of their faiths, but these religions draw very different conclusions from his biography. This course explores the account of Abraham’s life in Genesis 11:10-25:18 from a distinctly Christian perspective in order to analyze what these stories meant for those who first received them and what they mean for us today. It is based on the lecture series, Father Abraham, produced by Third Millennium Ministries and presented by Dr. Richard L. Pratt, Jr.
Dr. Richard L. Pratt, Jr.
Dr. Pratt is the president and founder of Third Millennium Ministries. He received his M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary and his Th.D. in Old Testament Studies from Harvard University. He formerly chaired the Old Testament department at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida. Then he transitioned in 2006 from his teaching role at RTS to work full time with Third Millennium Ministries. Among his published books are: Every Thought Captive, Pray With Your Eyes Open, He Gave Us Stories, and Designed For Dignity.
Goals and Objectives
GOALS
In this course, we would like to accomplish the following:
1. We hope that you will make use of all the instructional elements of the course to learn the key information regarding the literary structure, original meaning, and modern application of Genesis 11:10-25:18.
2. We hope that after studying this lesson you will have greater joy and thankfulness for the grace of God in your life.
3. We hope that you will apply the teachings of Genesis 11:10-25:18 to your own life, especially living with greater faith and loyalty to God, in response to His grace.
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 the key information regarding the literary structure, original meaning, and modern application of Genesis 11:10-25:18. You will be able to identify the main purpose of Moses in writing this story, explain how Christ fulfills the promises regarding the seed of Abraham, and show how the promises also apply to the Church today.
2. Complete the study guides and the other assignments of the course, expressing your sentiments regarding the grace of God, and showing how you have applied the teachings of the course to your own life, especially living with greater faith and loyalty to God, in response to His grace.
Thematic Outline of the Course
1) Structure and Content
2) Original Meaning
3) Modern Application
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