About This Course
Before the rise of kings and prophets, before the world’s great religions took shape, there was a story—a story of creation, covenant, and courage. Introduction to the Old Testament (Yale Open Course) invites you to step into that unfolding drama, where faith and history meet across millennia. This is not a passive reading of ancient texts; it’s a journey through the living pulse of the Hebrew Bible, where divine promise and human struggle intertwine.
We begin with the world’s first dawn—the Genesis narrative that has inspired poets, philosophers, and seekers for centuries. Students will explore how these foundational stories of creation, fall, and renewal shaped the moral imagination of entire civilisations. From Abraham’s call to Moses’ defiance before Pharaoh, the course traces the emergence of a people whose faith was tested in deserts, kingdoms, and exile.
The heart of the course lies in understanding the Old Testament as both literature and history. Each book—Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, Isaiah, and beyond—will be examined in its ancient Near Eastern context, revealing how myth, law, and prophecy reflected the realities of their time. You’ll see how the Israelites’ encounters with Egypt, Babylon, and Persia transformed their understanding of God, justice, and identity. The course highlights the nineteenth‑ and twentieth‑century scholarship that uncovered these connections, showing how archaeology and textual analysis illuminate the world behind the words.
But this is also a course about theology in motion—about how divine revelation was experienced, questioned, and reinterpreted. Students will engage with themes of covenant, sacrifice, wisdom, and redemption, exploring how they evolved through centuries of storytelling and interpretation. The Old Testament’s heroes and poets wrestle with timeless questions: Why do the righteous suffer? What does it mean to be chosen? How can humanity live in harmony with divine will?
Through lively discussion and guided readings, learners will discover how these ancient texts continue to speak to modern concerns—justice, leadership, community, and faith in uncertain times. Each session invites reflection and dialogue, encouraging students to see the Old Testament not as a relic of the past but as a living conversation that still shapes moral and spiritual thought today.
By the end of the course, you’ll have uncovered the origins of faith and history themselves—seeing how the Old Testament’s epic stories and enduring lessons continue to inspire, challenge, and transform those who seek understanding.
#Faith #History #Scripture #OldTestament #YaleOpenCourse
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Course Staff
Michael Williams
Educational Troublemaker
Michael Williams is the Chief Educational Troublemaker at World Mentoring Academy — a title he earned the hard way: by spending more than a decade poking, prodding, and occasionally drop‑kicking the traditional education system into the future. In 2010, long before “MOOC” became a Silicon Valley buzzword, Michael was building a free global college from a backpack, a stubborn belief in open learning, and whatever Starbucks Wi‑Fi he could borrow. The Orange County Register profiled him as a “homeless by choice educator to the world,” documenting his 12‑hour days assembling university‑level courses from MIT, Yale, NPTEL, and Stanford — all without charging a cent.
While the big platforms eventually traded “open” for “subscription,” Michael never budged. World Mentoring Academy remains one of the last true free MOOCs on Earth, offering more than 1,000 courses without paywalls, upsells, or fine print.
Michael’s LinkedIn essays — including “Harvard & MIT, Follow a Homeless Educator,” “The Future Won’t Wait for Academia,” and “Future of Education May Have Ancient Roots?” — have earned him a reputation as a futurist with calluses, someone who can explain why AI is breaking the job market, why teens are the workforce pipeline no one is using, and why the next education revolution will look more like ancient Athens than a modern lecture hall.
Across every WMA course, Michael appears as your unofficial guide, mentor, instigator, and occasionally your friendly academic arsonist — the guy who hands you the map, the compass, and the confidence to build a future that doesn’t depend on debt, gatekeeping, or waiting for institutions to catch up.
He helps learners find their place in a world that’s changing faster than universities can update their syllabi — and he does it with humor, humanity, and a refusal to accept that opportunity should be rationed.
If education needs a troublemaker, Michael is happy to volunteer.
