Lecture 21. Biblical Poetry: Psalms and Song of Songs

Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) (RLST 145) with Christine Hayes
After a detailed explanation of the requirements for the paper assignment, Professor Hayes turns to the Writings - the third section of the Bible - and considers a recent approach to the study of the Bible, called canonical criticism. The books in this section of the Bible explore various questions associated with suffering and evil. An example is the book of Ecclesiastes which constitutes a second attack on the optimism and piety of conventional religious thinking. The lecture concludes with a discussion of a number of Psalms, their genre, purpose, and language.
00:00 - Chapter 1. Remarks for Final Paper
08:37 - Chapter 2. The Problem of Dating; Canonical Criticism
13:18 - Chapter 3. The Book of Ecclesiastes
25:52 - Chapter 4. Introduction to the Book of Psalms
34:40 - Chapter 5. Themes and Formal Characteristics in the Book of Psalms
Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: oyc.yale.edu
This course was recorded in Fall 2006.