Master the Old Testament from beginning to end
A scholar's framework, a pastor's warmth, and zero assumed background — this is the rigorous, book-by-book, theme-by-theme survey serious learners have been waiting for.
"The Old Testament rewards exactly the kind of serious, unhurried attention most people have never been given the tools to bring to it — and that is what I'm here to teach."— Carla Paton
What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Navigate every major division of the Old Testament — Torah, historical books, wisdom literature, poetry, and prophets — understanding the distinct purpose and literary character of each
- Situate Old Testament texts within their ancient Near Eastern world, drawing on geography, political history, and cultural context to deepen interpretation
- Trace the Bible's central theological themes — covenant, creation, holiness, kingship, exile, and hope — across different periods and books of Israel's story
- Evaluate questions of authorship, genre, literary structure, and canonical placement using the tools of responsible biblical scholarship
- Compare how Jewish and Christian interpretive traditions have approached the Hebrew Scriptures, and articulate a faithful Christian reading that respects original context
- Enter advanced study in biblical theology, hermeneutics, exegesis, or individual biblical books with a confident, well-structured framework for the whole Old Testament
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
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A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
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Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
6 modules · 22 lessons
Foundations for Old Testament Study
Establishes the essential groundwork for everything that follows. Students are oriented to the Old Testament's scope, structure, and canonical shape before encountering its individual books. The ancient Near Eastern world is introduced as the interpretive backdrop for Israel's story, and core methods of responsible scholarship — including attention to genre, authorship, and canonical context — are taught before students apply them in later modules. This sequencing ensures learners are equipped with the right tools before engaging the texts themselves.
- 1.1What Is the Old Testament and Why Does It Matter?Included
- 1.2The World of the Ancient Near EastIncluded
- 1.3The Canonical Shape of the Old Testament: Structure, Formation, and ArrangementIncluded
- 1.4Reading the Old Testament Responsibly: Genre, Authorship, and Interpretive MethodIncluded
The Torah: Creation, Covenant, and the Formation of Israel
Guides students through the Pentateuch — the foundational five books of the Old Testament — tracing the great theological themes of creation, fall, promise, redemption, law, holiness, and covenant renewal. Students encounter Genesis through Deuteronomy as a purposeful literary whole that narrates Israel's origins, establishes the covenant relationship between God and his people, and shapes the theological categories that all later Old Testament literature presupposes. Lessons follow the canonical order of the books while attending to their distinct literary characters and theological contributions.
- 2.1Genesis: Origins, Ancestors, and the Covenant PromiseIncluded
- 2.2Exodus and Leviticus: Redemption, Revelation, and HolinessIncluded
- 2.3Numbers and Deuteronomy: Wilderness, Failure, and Covenant RenewalIncluded
The Historical Books: Land, Kingdom, Exile, and Return
Traces Israel's story from the conquest of Canaan through the return from Babylonian exile, reading the historical books as both historical witness and theological narrative. Students examine how these books evaluate Israel's leaders, institutions, and covenant faithfulness according to the standards established in the Torah — particularly Deuteronomy. The module covers the turbulent period of the judges, the establishment and collapse of the monarchy, and the post-exilic community's struggle to rebuild identity and covenant life. Students also encounter the historical books' diverse literary forms: battle accounts, court narrative, genealogy, prayer, sermon, and memoir.
- 3.1Joshua, Judges, and Ruth: Conquest, Chaos, and Covenant FaithfulnessIncluded
- 3.2Samuel and Kings: The Rise, Glory, and Fall of the MonarchyIncluded
- 3.3Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah: Exile, Return, and Reestablished IdentityIncluded
Wisdom Literature and Poetry: The Life of Faith in Everyday Reality
Introduces students to the wisdom and poetic literature of the Old Testament — a body of writing that shifts from Israel's national story to the universal terrain of human experience: suffering, joy, work, love, doubt, and praise. Students learn to identify the distinctive features of Hebrew poetry (parallelism, imagery, lament structure) and the wisdom tradition's characteristic approach to life, which grounds ethics and meaning in the 'fear of the LORD.' The module reads Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, Psalms, and Song of Songs as distinct voices in conversation, each offering a different angle of vision on the life of faith.
- 4.1Hebrew Poetry and Wisdom: Reading a Different Kind of LiteratureIncluded
- 4.2Proverbs and Ecclesiastes: Wisdom, Its Limits, and the Fear of the LordIncluded
- 4.3Job: Suffering, Divine Justice, and the Limits of TheologyIncluded
- 4.4Psalms: Israel's Prayer Book and the Full Range of FaithIncluded
- 4.5Song of Songs: Love, Desire, and the Sanctity of Human RelationshipIncluded
The Prophets: Judgment, Hope, and the Shape of God's Future
Introduces students to Israel's prophetic literature — the largest and most theologically rich body of writing in the Old Testament — reading the prophets as covenant prosecutors, pastoral preachers, and visionaries of God's future. The module opens with a lesson on how prophecy works before tracing the prophets chronologically through Israel's major historical crises: the Assyrian threat, the Babylonian exile, and the post-exilic period. Students learn to read prophetic texts in their historical settings without reducing them to mere historical documents, and to appreciate the prophets' enduring vision of divine justice, restoration, and hope.
- 5.1Understanding Biblical Prophecy: Covenant, Critique, and CallIncluded
- 5.2Amos, Hosea, Isaiah 1–39, and Micah: Justice, Judgment, and the Assyrian CrisisIncluded
- 5.3Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Lamentations of ExileIncluded
- 5.4Isaiah 40–66, the Minor Prophets, and Daniel: Exile, Restoration, and Eschatological HopeIncluded
Synthesis: Theological Themes, Interpretive Traditions, and the Old Testament's Enduring Witness
Draws together the threads of the entire course into an integrative capstone module. Students revisit the Old Testament's major theological themes with the full canon now in view, examine how Jewish and Christian communities have read these texts across history, and articulate a responsible, faithful approach to reading the Old Testament as Christian Scripture. The module concludes by orienting students toward further study in biblical theology, hermeneutics, exegesis, and individual biblical books — ensuring they leave with a strong, well-structured framework for everything they have encountered.
- 6.1Tracing the Great Themes: Covenant, Creation, Holiness, Kingship, Exile, and HopeIncluded
- 6.2Jewish and Christian Readings: Hermeneutics, Tradition, and Faithful InterpretationIncluded
- 6.3The Old Testament as Foundation: Preparing for Further StudyIncluded
Who it's for
Is this you?
Seminary-bound students
Build the structured Old Testament framework your graduate program will expect before you ever set foot in a classroom.
Lay theologians
Move beyond surface familiarity and into the kind of rigorous, book-by-book comprehension that serious self-study deserves.
Ministry leaders & teachers
Teach Scripture with greater depth, accuracy, and confidence by understanding every major division and its theological stakes.
Lifelong curious Christians
Satisfy the intellectual hunger that years of church attendance and personal reading have never quite reached.
Adult new believers
Receive the comprehensive, honest foundation that makes the entire Old Testament — not just familiar passages — intelligible for the first time.
Interfaith & comparative religion students
Engage the Hebrew Scriptures with scholarly rigor, understanding both Jewish and Christian interpretive traditions on their own terms.
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
Carla Paton
If you have ever opened the Old Testament with genuine desire to understand it — and closed it feeling more confused than when you started — I want you to know that is not a failure of faith or intelligence. It is a failure of introduction. The Hebrew Scriptures are ancient, complex, and deeply foreign to modern readers in ways that no amount of devotional goodwill can fully overcome on its own. What you need is not more motivation. You need a map, a framework, and a guide who will take the whole territory seriously.
That is precisely what this school is designed to give you.
We begin at the foundation — not with Genesis chapter one, but with the questions every responsible reader must first ask: What kind of literature am I holding? How was this canon formed and arranged? What world produced it, and how does that world illuminate what the text is actually saying? These are not questions that undermine faith. They are questions that serious faith demands. From there, we move through the Torah with careful attention to its covenant architecture; through the historical books with an eye on the theological interpretation of Israel's story; through wisdom and poetry with the literary sensitivity that genre requires; and through the prophets with the historical grounding that makes their oracles legible rather than opaque.
I will not pretend the Old Testament raises no hard questions. Questions of authorship, historical accuracy, divine violence, and canonical development are real, and I will address them directly with the honesty they deserve. But I will also show you, unit by unit, how the great themes of covenant, creation, holiness, kingship, exile, and hope weave through the entire canon with a coherence that rewards exactly this kind of sustained, structured attention.
My conviction — the one that shapes every lesson in this school — is that you are a capable adult thinker, and the Old Testament deserves your most serious engagement. Not passive reading. Not proof-texting. Not anxiety about difficult passages. Genuine, disciplined, intellectually humble study that produces real comprehension.
If you are preparing for seminary, I want to hand you the framework your professors will assume you have. If you are a lay theologian or ministry leader, I want to give you the depth that makes you genuinely useful to the people you serve. And if you are simply someone who has always suspected the Old Testament was richer and more coherent than you had been shown — you are right, and this is where we begin.
— Carla Paton
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- 6 modules, 22 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
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