The Exodus in the Bible's Teaching and Our Teaching of the Bible: Helping to Reconcile Faith and Critical Study of the Bible Through Threshold Concept Theory

Abstract

For students coming from a religious background to Biblical Studies, it can sometimes be difficult to reconcile faith and critical study of the Hebrew Bible, struggling with the concepts of multiple voices within the text, and multiple methods of interpretation in scholarship. This article will explore the use of the Exodus event as a Threshold Concept in the Bible's teaching, and propose that it can be used as a helpful model for students encountering critical study of the Bible. It will be shown that the Exodus event has differing accounts and multiple interpretations throughout the Bible, and that these function according to the characteristics of a Threshold Concept, by being transformative, integrative, troublesome and affective [Meyer, Jan H. F., and Ray L. Land. 2006a. ‘Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: An Introduction’. In Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts an Troublesome Knowledge, edited by Jan Meyer and Ray Land, 3-18. London: Routledge]. This analysis of a Threshold Concept within the Bible can be used as a model in the classroom for the transformative nature of story, providing a framework for contemporary interpretation of the Biblical texts.

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