Curriculum/Sample Unit

FIRST-YEAR CURRICULUM
The first-year curriculum of the Simeon Course on Biblical Exposition is Biblical Exposition Through Literary Genre. This means that over the course of a year, students will develop the skills for reading, understanding and teaching the Bible according to literary genres. There are six, five-week units after a preliminary unit on the Principles of Exposition. Follow the link to "Apocalyptic Literature" to see a sample unit.

Semester 1

Preliminary Unit: Principles of Exposition

Unit 1: Epistles

Unit 2: Old Testament Narrative

Unit 3: Prophetic Literature

Semester 2:

Unit 4: Apocalyptic Literature

Unit 5: Gospels & Acts

Unit 6: Hebrew Poetry & Wisdom

Each unit consists of instructional lectures and demonstrations, model expositions, readings and the opportunity for interaction and practice.

INSTRUCTIONAL LECTURES AND DEMONSTRATIONS
Each unit begin with instructional lectures from an experienced preacher or professor who has done extensive work within the genre. The instructional lectures convey the basic tools for working within the genre, its characteristics, how Christ and the gospel relate to the literature within the genre and other tools for teaching from within the genre. Each lecture is video recorded and available to students on the website. After the instructional lectures, the students will be presented one or more demonstrations. In these lectures, the instructor will take a single Biblical text from within the genre and demonstrate how the tools conveyed in the instructional lectures work.

MODEL EXPOSITIONS
The students will also be presented with model expositions from a variety of texts within the Biblical literary genre as examples of completed work within the genre. These sermons will be recorded for the course or collected from the expositors associated with the course.

READINGS
There are two types of readings for the course. The first is a study guide for each genre unit. These study guides will present, in written form, the tools for reading, understanding and teaching from within the literary genre. Additionally, if you are taking the course for graduate credit, two books on preaching will be assigned each semester. The students will be expected to write short papers on each of these books.

INTERACTION
In addition to the main teaching content each week (instruction, demonstration, exposition), the students will be in discussion about the course material being presented to them in person or via multi-party video-conferences. The goal of these discussion venues is to give the students an opportunity to interact over the Course content and their own practice work.

PRACTICE
Along the way, the students are asked to put into practice what they are learning from the lectures and readings. During each unit, students will present to their groups both sermon outlines on a text (chosen by the instructors) from within the genre and actual sermons with the intention that each student is getting and giving critical feedback.