Welcome to Teaching the Bible
Welcome to the monthly electronic publication, Teaching the Bible — TB for short. Designed to support teachers of high school Bible electives, it features easy to read and reliable resources that you can use in your classroom. Send your comments to: Moira Bucciarelli.

Ask an Expert
Have you wondered about the different creation accounts in Genesis? Or why the disciples in the gospel of Mark seem so clueless? Now you have the chance to “Ask an Expert.” Send your question(s) about characters, events, and conundrums in the Bible and a Bible scholar will respond. We will publish as many as we can in a regular Q & A column in the next issue.

Teacher to Teacher
Many of you are already experienced with teaching the Bible in your language arts courses, or as part of a world religions course, or in an elective course on the Bible. We want to feature an example of a lesson you teach— send us an example of how you teach the Psalms, the Prophets, or the Pauline Letters (to name a few) and we will feature it here so that your peers can learn from you.

Student Work
If you have a student who has produced exemplary work relating to the academic study of the Bible and its historical, linguistic, or literary contexts, encourage them to send in their project so we can highlight examples of student excellence. Artwork must be scanned and sent in GIF, JPEG or PDF format. Audio files must be mp3 format. Digital photos must be (72 dpi or higher).

About the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL)
The SBL was founded in 1880 and is an international academic membership organization for people who teach, study, or are interested in academic study of the Bible and its related contexts and literatures. The Society’s mission is to foster biblical scholarship and does not hold any denominational or confessional stance, though many of our members are religious leaders.

Feature Essays

On Recognizing Genre
by Robert L. Foster

Being able to recognize the different forms or types of writing within the Bible—poetry, story, law, or letter, for example—can help students know what to expect from the text, and how to read it. Read more >>

Mind the Gap
by Julia O'Brien

Sometimes the Bible doesn’t tell us everything we’d like to know and leaves us guessing. Professor Julia O’Brien has some helpful pointers on what to do when there’s NEI—not enough information. Read more >>

Reading Glasses

Literary Criticism
by Brennan Breed

Here we introduce a section on the methods that Bible scholars use to appreciate specific aspects of the biblical text. In this issue, we explore literary criticism. Read more >>

Active Learning
Help your students engage with the Bible through an “active learning” activity designed and tested by Bible scholars in the college classroom, adapted here for high school. Emory Professor Brent Strawn provides an example of how he introduces the idea of genre in his classroom.
Read more >>

Book of the Month
Review of the Cambridge Companion to the Bible
by by Douglas Estes
Read more >>

Audio
4 points on reading the Bible
by Brent Strawn

Emory Professor Brent Strawn has four simple points about reading the Bible (indicate length of audio clip)
Go to the site to listen >>

Teaching the Bible in Texas

Southern Methodist University Professor Mark Chancey recently spoke with Texas Public Radio about the status of Bible electives in the Texas Public Schools. Listen to the first 5-6 minutes to hear the relevant story.

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