Some possible topics for Paper #1

These are just suggestions. Most need to be narrowed

1. Testing and temptation—by God: what’s the point?
2. The Lot family and their neighbors—characterizations of the relatives
3. The theme of dreams: Abraham’s and Jacob’s.
4. Deception and disguise—as used by God,
   Abraham, Jacob.
5. Patterns of repetition and symmetry in Ruth
6. Text and subtext—what’s stated and unstated in dialogues between Ruth and Boaz, Abraham and Isaac, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Laban and Jacob.
7. Symbolic itineraries—the travels of Abraham and Jacob
8. Varieties of sexual deviance and their place in Genesis
9. Lyric passages—poems within prose, e.g. Genesis 2:23-4 and Ruth 1:16-17
10. Character development in Abraham or Jacob
11. Who is Isaac?
12. Brothers
13. Symbolism in the Noah story
14. God as parent