Course Syllabus
KINGDOM, COVENANTS AND CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
Course description
This course gives a brief survey of the Old Testament, examining the themes of kingdom, covenants and canon. We will see that the Old Testament is not a random amalgam of episodes, genealogies and prophetic tidbits. Instead, it is unified around the central theme of the kingdom of God which was administered through covenants and applied to life through the Old Testament Canon. This course is based on the lecture series, Kingdom, Covenants & Canon of the Old Testament, 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 you will make use of all the elements of the course to grasp the unity of the Old Testament, as expressed in the theme of the Kingdom of God, to understand the purpose of God in the history of the Old Testament, as expressed in the covenants, and to discern how the Old Testament should be applied in our lives today.
2. We hope you will develop a new interest and greater confidence in studying and teaching from the Old Testament.
3. We hope you make changes in your life as a response to the teachings of this course. It should help you interpret and apply passages from the Old Testament.
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 concepts of the Kingdom of God, as expressed in the Old Testament, that you can identify the key covenants of the Old Testament and explain their relationships, and that you can identify valid principles for using the Old Testament today.
2. Complete the study guides and other assignments of the course, expressing your thoughts and attitudes regarding the Old Testament, and showing how you have applied the teachings of the course to your own life, especially that you are taking into account the unity of the Old Testament, the history of the covenants, and the theme of the kingdom of God to interpret and apply passages of the Old Testament.
Thematic Outline of the Course
1) Why Study the Old Testament?
2) The Kingdom of God
3) Divine Covenants
4) The Canon of the Old Testament
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 Required 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 recommended additional reading. The student should do the reading, complete the study guides, and take the corresponding quizzes and cumulative test based on the reading. These will be 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.
Additional 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.