As a person who is considering a Christ centered career, it is nice to see and study the history of the bible and know more deeply why it is the way it is. Even reading the recourse information has answered questions I had, and as I finish the class I hope to learn a LOT more.

This is, by far, the best and most interesting course I have taken to date, and I have multiple graduate degrees and seminary coursework under my belt. I have been wanting and waiting for a complete interdisciplinary approach for decades, and finally, this is it!

Thank you, Professor Wright! If only I could take more courses from you!

I enjoyed this class and was amazed by how the Bible came about and the fact that it survived 2.5 millennia. I will be reading the Bible with a new understanding because of this course. I wish there were additional courses on the Bible on Coursera.

A deeply thought provoking and challenging course that exceeded my expectations, chiefly, by the way it helped me connect the ancient past with the present.

Participating in this course I was able to develop a way of interpreting the Bible of a historical-sociological character that enables the understanding of its literary-theological value as a pedagogical instrument whose use becomes fundamental for the construction of identity ethical-religious, economic-social and political-legal of the nation after the process of destructuring imposed by the Assyrian-Babylonian subjugation, which relegates the people of Israel to exile and deconstructs the material and symbolic references of their existence as such. In this way, the process of identity disintegration to which the people of Israel are relegated becomes the very condition of their existence as such to the extent that biblical authors institute an interpretation of the reality that turns exile and political-military defeat into assumptions of the choice of the Hebrews to participate in the covenant established with the patriarch Abraham and whose terms determine the relationship of God with his descendants, demanding, then, the construction of a pan-Israelite identity, namely, an identity capable of covering all family groups that, in a state of dispersion throughout the diaspora, lose the ethical-religious and economic-social bonds that make up a nation and need to restore them through the concept of God, known as Yahweh , is the only historical-cultural legacy that has the possibility of restoring the collective consciousness of the nation.

Caros amigos do curso

A pré-história, o propósito e o futuro político da Bíblia!

Emory University

Quero expressar minha profunda gratidão por esta incrível oportunidade de participar do curso "A pré-história, o objetivo e o futuro político da Bíblia!", Ministrado pelo professor Dr. Jacob L. Wright, professor associado de Bíblia Hebraica na Candler School of Theology e Tam Institute for Jewish Studies da Emory University.

Também gostaria de agradecer a todos os funcionários da Emory University & Coursera que trabalharam juntos para tornar essa parceria uma verdadeira loja de aprendizado, tão importante e significativa para os dias atuais.

O aprendizado mais profundo deste curso é o propósito e a resposta à derrota, os centros da civilização, o Levante-Sul como ponte terrestre, a queda de Israel, a queda de Judá, a construção e organização da história, a preservação da pessoas, reforma educacional em face da derrota e as razões da origem da Bíblia em Israel e Judá.

Que Deus abençoe ricamente!

Abraço fraterno!

Márcio Monteiro Rocha

Compared to lectures offered by various seminaries, Professor Wright has organized the course in a way that has included both biblical sources and extra-biblical sources which are not permitted by seminaries. The part I love the most is the interviews by Professor Wright with leading scholars of different expertise.

It is not hard to tell the effort the professor has exerted to put the course together. I would love to take more courses from Professor Wright regarding OT and relevant areas and am wondering how I can access them.

Really interesting thesis about the impetus behind the formation of the Hebrew Bible. Makes a convincing case by linking the historical, geographical, archaeological, and textual evidence. Great lectures and guest lectures. Also provides a case for why studying the bible is important even for secular humanists and atheists. Includes really interesting ideas about the genesis (pun intended) of modern conceptions of nations and states.

As a casual participant with a general interest I found this course to be enlightening - it helped me ground the fragments that I had already learned here and there about the Bible in historical, social, geographic (in particular) and political contexts and thus weave those fragments into a narrative that makes sense to me. This JW thanks Emory's JW!

Este curso representa una buena manera de introducirse en los estudios bíblicos. El único problema que le he visto es que a muchos vídeos que no están subtitulados al castellano, y en otros, la calidad de la traducción de los subtítulos no es muy buena. Pero en términos generales es un magnífico curso, y el profesor lo orienta de forma muy amena.

In my opinion Bible's Prehistory, Purpose, and Political future is a fantastic course. If you are a believer or an atheist this course will definitely help you to read Bible from a political perspective which is completely different from the conventional way of looking at Bible as a religious or holy text only.

This course is an excellent way of going about the history of Israel/Judah from a political perspective. It also presents many archeological evidences and compared them to the Bible. The discussions are quite interesting and multidisciplinary and the professor is really has a very practical approach.

I am very impressed by the completely different perspective of approaching the Hebrew Bible, completely different from the way I learned in Romania. I am a graduate of theology, a master in Hebrew culture, and this perspective will be of real benefit to me. Thank you from all my heart.

Professor Wright TRULY "knows his stuff." I am sure that he is brilliant and in the videos you can just see his brain racing ahead of his speech. One senses that there is so much more he wishes he could convey to his students in the limited amount of time. Very interesting course.

Professor Wright is an inspirational teacher and a superb scholar. This course motivated me to pursue additional knowledge in this area.

I did not take the course for credit. I complete the course although the Coursera website mistakenly indicates otherwise.

Awesome, awesome, awesome course. There is a wealth of information contained in this course, the way the course is presented conducive to learning, and the professor goes out of his way in explaining things very easy to understand terms. Highly recommended.

Excellent information, well taught and definitely a must course to understand why and how the bible was written. I like how professor Jacob L. Wright approaches the bible from a different perspectives and how he synthesized everything to make sense.

This course is very involved but logical and follows a nice path of learning. Anyone wishing to see and understand how life was and how it was perceived and reported is quite interesting and gets the grey matter working. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Really fantastic. A lot of great information and insight and interesting interpertations. A lot of superb thoughts to think about. Very well taught. Kept my interest through the entire series. Professor was easy to follow. A lot for me to

I just started this class this morning and Professor Wright is great. Usually I find the professors in a one on one lecture such as this, either speaking too fast or just boring. He is terrific. I have enjoyed the lessons very much.

It helped me so much not only in interpretation of Bible but also in my understanding of formation of Nationalism. It even helped me to study early North American history and New England colonists' psychology and life.

Enjoyed the historical context of the creation of Biblical texts and their redaction. Interesting perspective on the fundamental purpose of the texts from our vantage point 2.5 millennia down the pipe.

Excellent course, I strongly recommend it for everyone. I didn´t have previous knowledge about the topic and I learn a lot and manage to pass it. Excellent videos with subtitles in different languages.

It's a very good course if you want to know how the bible came into being, events that happened from the very beginning and how the bible continues to remain and be read even today. Wonderful!

El profesor es muy dinámico y ayuda a ver la situación geo-política de Israel, las ventajas y desventajas de estar en el cruce de camino de dos potencias rivales.