Session One

Once Upon A Time

A Class At First Presbyterian Church of Aiken

At excavations in Mesopotamia and Egypt, Romer explores the cultural and religious milieu that shaped some of the Pentateuch's most powerful stories: creation, God's call to Abraham, and the Israelites' exodus.

Reading: Chapter 1. Romer, John (1989) Testament: The Bible and History. New York, NY: Holt & Henry.

Video Episode 1: Once Upon a Time

Study Questions:

  1. What does Romer mean when he talks about "archeology as myth"?
  2. Where geographicallly is Ur of the Caldees from wence Abraham migrated?
  3. To make peace with kings and rulers in the areas he traveled offered to give his wife Sarah as a concubine to these rulers. Why?
  4. Why have scholars sought for generations to place Abraham in contemporary history?
  5. What literary traditions in ancient Mesopotamia may have influenced the writing of Genesis?
  6. Explain how Egypt made its "state" a model of what it understood to be heaven?
  7. Romer presents the "Exodus" as an ancient immigration. Explain?
  8. Testament presents the bible as a narrative and not a history. How is that?