The specific objective of this course is to introduce the student into the Old Testament / Hebrew Bible by means of summarising presentations, section by section and chapter by chapter. Topics to be tackled include the primeval and patriarchal periods, the exodus, the Sinai covenant, the desert wanderings. The course homes in on the interpretative enterprise en ensemble, which subsumes comprehensive knowledge about the authors and historical background of the individual books of the Old Testament / Hebrew Bible and its wider cultural milieu in the ancient Near East.