The list will not archive messages, as is the practice of some other scholarly lists. Anyone interested in New Testament Studies is invited to subscribe, but the list will assume at least a working knowledge of Biblical Greek. Anyone interested in Old Testament Studies is invited to subscribe, but the list will assume at least a working knowledge of Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic. All of the above lists send out weekly commentaries on the weekly torah portion. The archive of course materials of continuing interest may be found on the ccat.sas.upenn.edu gopher.
Subscribers range from students just beginning to learn the aleph-bet to doctorates in semitics.
The Judaic Seminar has been formed to provide a forum in which Tanach will be discussed on an advanced level by researchers and serious students of the Bible. This is a panel moderated forum, led by a group of Bible instructors, that will be of value to those pursuing a better understanding of the Biblical text. This seminar operates in the classical Jewish tradition that recognises that all fields of knowledge may contribute to a better understanding of the intent and message of the Torah. To that end, postings that incorporate research including the fields of ancient Near Eastern history, archaeology and philology are welcome. As the intent of the forum is to arrive at and explicate the peshat of the text, any submission whose aim is to provide this meaning will be considered for publication to the list.