What can be known -- from an historical perspective -- about the life and teachings of Jesus and his earliest followers? How did Jesus see himself and how did his followers see him? How did the lives, teachings, and deaths of Jesus and his followers come to form the heart of a new movement? If Jesus and the apostles were all Jews, how did Christianity emerge as a distinct religion? This course investigates these questions through a focus on the earliest sources for Jesus and his first followers, including and extending beyond the canonical books of the Christian New Testament. Our approach in this course is historical and literary, rather than theological or confessional: we ask what Jesus, his first followers, and their Jewish and pagan contemporaries did and believed, and we try to catch glimpses of the worlds in which they lived and the cultures which they took for granted.

Magic is perhaps not one of the first words one associates with Greco-Roman antiquity. Yet for most individuals living in the ancient Mediterranean, including philosophers, businessmen, and politicians, magic was a part of everyday life. Casting spells, fashioning voodoo dolls, wearing amulets, ingesting potions, and reading the stars are just some of the activities performed by individuals at every level of society. This course examines Greco-Roman, early Christian, and Judaic magical practices. Students read spell-books which teach how to read the stars, make people fall in love, bring harm to enemies, lock up success in business, and win fame and the respect of peers. Students also look at what is said, both in antiquity and in contemporary scholarship, about magic and the people who practiced it, which helps illuminate the fascinating relationship between magic, medicine, and religion.

An introduction to Classical Greek (Attic), which will prepare the student to read texts in Greek History, Philosophy, and Medicine as well as the New Testament. This course builds the foundations for readings in Greek Tragedy, Comedy, and Lyric poetry. Our goal will be to develop reading knowledge as rapidly and efficiently as possible. By the end of the year the student should be reading continuous Greek prose.

This course provides an introduction to the Coptic language in the Sahidic (southern) dialect. Coptic was the vernacular language spoken and written in Egypt during the Roman, Byzantine, and Arab periods (until about 1300 CE) and as such is important for studying the history of premodern Egypt. It preserves some of the oldest known translations of the Bible, many apocryphal and heretical books that illustrate the wide diversity of ancient Christianity (e.g., the Gospels of Thomas and Mary), as well as sermons, saints' lives, monastic instructions, and liturgical manuals that still constitute the literary culture of the Coptic Orthodox Church today. In addition, a plethora of magical papyri illustrate medical and religious practices; personal letters reveal the lives of everyday people; and troves of business documents (e.g., contracts, wills, governmental petitions, receipts) have proved important for understanding Roman and Byzantine economies. Because Roman Egypt was a highly bilingual society, there are even instances of Classical Greek literature translated into Coptic (e.g., selections of Homer and Plato), and these offer a unique witness to how such texts were received by Egyptians. The goal of this course is to cover 15 of the 20 lessons in the grammar book. The remainder will be covered in the second level of this course.