Impressive, intelligent, intimidating, and understanding. What he has to say is both interesting and insightful. His lecture style is unique in that you'll often spend the entire time wondering when he'll start telling you something you should take notes on - he very much believes that you should be reading, interpreting, and learning the books on your own, so his lecture is an amalgam of his opinions, opinions of other scholars, historic background, and his favorite details. If you have trouble focusing in classes that provide no visual aides or clear structure, then you will definitely have trouble listening to his lectures. I took 108B; 50% of the grade was from a 7-12 page paper due finals week (he verbally gave us some rough ideas about topics in second week, but it was pretty much a free for all) and the other 50% of the grade was from a final (very predictable, he gave us ~110 terms ahead of hand and told us to expect 20 or so of them on the test, plus we were told in advance to "specialize" in a book of the bible of our choice that we would then answer an essay question about on the test). In my opinion, Maniquis organizes his class like every class should: it encourages students to explore their interests and learn and research on their own. However, when taking other traditional classes with more tests, assignments, quizzes, paper etc. this one kind of falls to back burner.

Maniquis' class was definitely a memorable one. His approach to studying the Bible was enlightening. He had a few major themes that he outlines in the beginning and did an excellent job of clearly communicating at times very complex ideas.

He was realistic in that he could not possibly cover the New Testament in depth in only 10 weeks time. Thus, he required effort and serious reading on the part of the class.

I am not an English major but found this class very helpful nonetheless. You will be equipped to think critically and be prepared to dissect narratives in a more detailed way.

There was no mid-term and therefore the grade was based on a research paper and final exam - each worth 50%. If you keep up with the readings and start your paper early there is no reason why you shouldn't do well.

Although lectures can be redundant at times, they are always enjoyable. The more questions you ask the better it will become.

Overall, 108A was a really great class that gave me a firm grasp of the Old Testament. Maniquis is a brilliant professor who made connections that I never would have considered. He also was really helpful in his office hours and entertained my questions for over an hour. He really cares about individual learning for individuals who want to learn. The first paper was graded extremely harsh, but then the second paper and final were a lot easier to get better grades on. You really have to keep up with the readings to do well in the end, but just listening to the lectures was really informative even if you haven't read for that class.Definitely one of the best professors and classes I have taken at UCLA.