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New Book and New Classes

Monday, May 11th, 2009

In the process of writing an exegesis paper on Lamentations 2:18-22 this past semester, I came across an intriguing book: Daughter Zion Talks Back the Prophets: A Dialogic Theology of the Book of Lamentations, by Carleen R. Mandolfo.

I did not have the chance to read the book thoroughly in the course of writing my paper, but what I did read interested me enough that after turning in my paper, I returned the library’s copy and ordered my own, which just arrived. I hope to be able to read completely and review the book sometime this summer.

I also hope to be able to devote a little more time to blogging in general, now that summer is here. I will be taking 3 classes throughout the course of the summer: Interpreting the New Testament, Gospel of John, and Contemporary Theology and Theologians. None of these are my area of study (darn degree requirements), but I expect I’ll find them at least mildly entertaining. Maybe I’ll at least get some blogging fodder out of them!

Posted in Book Reviews, Christian Scriptures, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Posts by Mandy, Theology | No Responses »
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Greek and I

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

As many already know, I am in my second semester of Biblical Greek here at GCTS. Calvin has a jump start on me in this language, having already taken Greek I and II (twice, in fact!), Intermediate Greek, and the required “Interpreting the NT” class.

So far, I have been doing very well in the class. On good days I like Greek; on bad I despise it. Most of the time, I’m ambivalent. Ultimately, Hebrew is my first love, and Greek is a rather poor substitute. Nevertheless, though I balked at having to take Greek initially, I’ve found it’s not as bad as I had believed, and Greek and I have developed a uneasy camaraderie of necessity, if not love.

That being said, I’m about to actually take the Greek I’ve learned and for the first time use it in my study of the Hebrew Bible. That’s right, I’m going to attempt to translate the passage I’ve chosen for my exegesis paper this semester (Lam. 2:18-22) from the LXX, and then retrovert it (this should be…interesting) back into Hebrew.

I just thought this momentous occasion of actually using what I’ve been learning for the first time required special note.

Posted in Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Greek, Hebrew Bible, Posts by Mandy | 3 Responses »
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The Semester So Far – Spring 2009

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

It is the time of the semester when I normally give an update about how classes are going. So, here goes:

Epigraphic Hebrew – I’m still a little amazed that I even have the opportunity to take such a class at a seminary. I’m really enjoying it. So far we’ve translated the Mesha Inscription (technically Moabite, I suppose, but hardly that different from Hebrew), several of the Arad letters, the Gezer Calendar, and a couple of the inscriptions from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud! It has been an absolute blast. My only compliant is that we’re reading the inscriptions in transliteration. My preference would be to have a decent paleo-Hebrew font that was used, and I can’t really see an excuse for not having such a thing given the prevalence of Unicode today, but I digress.

Targumic Aramaic – This is going well. I’m far slower in translating than I would like, but I’m improving with time. Partially the issue at this point is forcing myself to knuckle down and do the work. I’m not enjoying this class nearly as much as Epigraphic Hebrew, but its still good, and I’m learning quite a bit.

Old Testament Poetical Books – This is the standard exegesis course in the poetry of the Hebrew Bible here at GCTS. On the one hand it’s always good to translate some more and talk about various issues of Hebrew Grammar. I’m enjoying that aspect of the class, even though I might prefer to translate more Hebrew each week.

History of Israelite Religion – This is a Boston University class, and I’ve learned quite a bit so far. We actually listened to a visiting lecturer present some fascinating research on “Divinized Demons and Demonized Devinities” in Ancient Egypt. My paper for the course is on the place of Job in Israelite Religion. It’s coming along nicely, after a bit of a bumpy start. So, overall this has been enlightening.

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Classes for Fall 2009 – Calvin

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

It’s that time of the semester again. I need to start thinking about what classes I’ll be taking over the summer and the fall. It’s also time for my normal round up of how my current classes are shaping up, but that will have to wait for another post. So, here are my tentative thoughts for this coming summer and fall. I’d love your thoughts on any classes (or types of courses) that I might want to be sure to add, since this is my last year of work on my MA.

Full Summer:
-A Semlink (GCTS’ distant ed) to cover either A) an ethics elective or B) a World Missions or Evangelism elective.
-Readings and Research course; these courses are basically a way to deal with a topic or section of Scripture that GCTS does not normally deal with in classes. I’m currently exploring possible topics, and would love suggestions.

Summer II (mid-June ’til mid-July):
-Gospel of John; this is an NT exegesis course. For my MA in Biblical Languages, I’m required two NT exegesis courses.

Fall 2009:
-Literature of Ancient Israel; Dr. Machinist is scheduled to offer a seminar on a book of the Bible this Fall (though I’m not sure which book as of yet). He was on leave this year, and so I didn’t have the chance to take a course with him. I really want to take that opportunity.
-Advanced Hebrew Grammar; This is a course that Mandy and I will be taking as a directed study with Dr. Tom Petter. We’re both really looking forward to it. To some extent we’re serving as guinea pigs as he develops these courses (epigraphic Hebrew this semester, Hebrew grammar next semester). This will also mean we’ll have over four years of formal classroom education in Hebrew.

The following are classes I’m not 100% sure I’m taking (and, to be honest, I can’t take all of them):
-Old Testament Prophetical Books; this is being offered by Donna Petter in the fall, and since her dissertation focused on Ezekiel, I thought that it might be an interesting course to take with her. It’s also one of the courses that my adopted advisor has recommended I take before graduating, so if I’m going to take it, nows the time.
-History and Archaeology of the ANE; This course is taught by Tom Petter. Again, this is one that my advisor has recommended to me. Mandy took this our first semester here and learned a ton. I’m sure I would learn a lot…but…ya know…pottery. *shudder*
-Exegeting the OT: Theology of the Divine Presence; This is a new course (as far as I know) that is being offered by Donna Petter. I just think the idea of the divine presence is fascinating, especially in regards to divine favor/anger. In addition, the Ark narrative in Samuel is fascinating, and I would hope that such a passage would come up in this class.
-Akkadian; This is a single semester introduction to Akkadian grammar. We don’t learn the signs, and learn very little vocab. Mandy has already taken it. I wouldn’t mind an intro to another semitic language, and Akkadian is certainly something I’ll have to tackle eventually (unless I can manage to sneak around it by taking Egyptian). The cons are that this course is offered on Wednesday evening, and that I’m honestly not sure how well I’ll know Akkadian after one semester…I suspect not too well.
-Biblical Global Justice; this one being offered by Borgman. I’ve never taken a class with him, so that might be interesting. This would also be an ethics elective, and I do need one of those before I graduate. So far there isn’t a correspondingly interesting course being offered in the spring. I might also be able to write my paper on something interesting….like justice in the Book of Job. Maybe.
UPDATED-05-03-09
-Middle Egyptian I; I have just learned that there is a possibility that I could take Middle Egyptian I this fall, and then Middle Egyptian II this spring at one of the BTI schools. This seems to me to be an amazing opportunity. However, it would probably require travel down to Boston on a second day of the week, unless I were to forget about the seminar with Machinist next semester. So, I’m very much interested in your thoughts on how I should proceed here.

As you may have noticed, I’ve listed 7 classes for the next semester. I can’t take that many. I’d prefer to take only 4, especially since I’ll be tackling a course at Harvard (or another BTI school, if I take Middle Egyptian I). However, either in the Fall or Spring I’ll have to take five courses in order to graduate, so I suppose one is as good as the other. I’d love to hear your thoughts on which classes seem best from your perspective.

Posted in Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Posts by Calvin, The Floppy Hat | 11 Responses »

Managing Time

Friday, February 13th, 2009

Daniel and Tonya, of Hebrew and Greek Reader, have asked how Mandy and I manage our time. I will endeavor to have Mandy post her thoughts at some point in the near future–but for now, my thoughts will have to suffice.

First, our situation differs slightly from others in that we are both MA students at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. As a result of this, aside from us both being in school, we both have to work part-time. It’s a challenge, to say the least. This is how I try to make sense of the chaos.

At the beginning of each semester I plan out each day from 7am to 9pm in thirty minute blocks. I use a spreadsheet for this. I put everything on there, time to do school work, time to go to class, time for my job (this is a little difficult for me since I’m a part-time youth pastor, sometimes ministry intrudes, and my carefully planned week is thrown off, but what can one do?). For instance, this semester Monday’s look something like what follows:

8am-9am: Library time
9am-11am: Targumic Aramaic Translation
11am-12pm: Misc. Reading/Aramaic Vocab
12pm-12:30pm: Lunch
12:30pm-3pm: Reading for OT Poetical Books
3pm-5pm: Misc. paper research
5pm-6pm: Prepare and Eat Dinner
6pm-9pm: Read Epigraphic Hebrew Grammar (Gogel)

Mandy and I have a deal with each other, we always finish up school work by 9pm, 8:30 if possible. This allows us to spend some time before bed talking, watching movies, reading fiction, playing video games, or otherwise being together. Not all my days look like the above, and my schedule is frequently thrown off, but I’ve learned that I need to remain flexible. Some weeks there is less reading in a class than other weeks, so I adjust as needed. I also make use of Remember the Milk on my Google homepage, to keep track of upcoming due dates, reading requirements, and where I should be in my translations.

So, I stay organized by keeping each day of the week fairly organized. It changes each semester, because my classes change, but the overall strategy has worked for me.

Right now, it’s time for me to go read Zevit.

Posted in Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Posts by Calvin, Responses | 1 Response »
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New Acquisitions

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Because of the struggling economy, Gordon-Conwell is closing their BookCentre, or rather, they are making it smaller. As a result they have been selling off books at a fairly sizable discount. Today, I was able to score the following two books for well under $20 (HT to Adam, for tipping me off to their presence in said store).

David Wolfers Deep Things Out of Darkness: The Book of Job–Essays and a New English Translation.
Joseph Blenkinsopp Sage, Priest, Prophet: Religious and Intellectual Leadership in Ancient Israel

These two are simply the most recent in a rather lengthy series of expansions to my library. I also recently ordered the following books from Eisenbrauns:

Marvin Pope Job. Anchor Bible.
Norman Habel The Book of Job. Old Testament Library.
Bruce Zuckerman Job the Silent: A Study in Historical Counterpoint

Going back roughly four weeks ago, I managed to snag several nice Christmas gifts, including Gordis’ commentary on Job, as well as Konkel’s commentary on the same. Books of interest in the textbook category include the following:

Ziony Zevit The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches
Sandra Gogel A Grammar of Epigraphic Hebrew
Francis Andersen Job. IVP.
Jon Berquist Judaism in Persia’s Shadow

Perhaps Mandy will share her own recent purchases with everyone; but regardless, it seems clear that we are going to need more bookshelves.

Posted in Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Posts by Calvin | 4 Responses »
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The Semester So Far

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

We are now officially three weeks into the semester. For Gordon-Conwell students that means we’re very close to being a third of the way through the semester. That thought is somewhat sobering, but I digress.

Below are my thoughts on classes so far, and how I’m feeling about each:

Interpreting the New Testament: So far things have gone well. Interpreting the NT is basically a New Testament Hermeneutics class. I’ve covered many of the topics in other classes, and in more depth as I’ve studied the Hebrew Bible. Most of the concepts are transferable. As a result I’m not feeling especially excited about this class. However, the reading–most notably Bruce Metzgers The Text of the New Testament and N.T. Wright’s The New Testament and the People of God–has been absolutely fascinating. The introduction to New Testament textual criticism provided in class was also helpful. On the whole I’m looking forward to seeing what the rest of the semester holds, but I’m not expecting it to be a class where I learn something amazingly new each week.

Ugaritic: I vacillate between really liking this class, and loathing vocalizing verbs and nouns. It’s taken three weeks, but I feel like I’ve finally got the basics of Ugaritic under control. Now if I can manage to push forward I think I may enjoy things. Color me undecided on this one.

Independent Reading in the Hebrew Bible: I’m reading Qohelet. What could be better? I’m also looking forward to getting into both Job and Proverbs. Overall, I’ve really, really enjoyed the course work, and the reading is interesting. I’m actually looking forward to my midterm. I learn a bit more about Hebrew grammar, idiom, etc each time I look at the texts for this course, so I’ve been very pleased so far.

Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible: This course is excellent. I can already see that this will be my favorite course this semester. Dr. Saley manages to lecture without being dry, and if a student has a question he doesn’t have the answer to off the top of his head he writes it down and brings the answer to the next class. I absolutely am going to steal that idea when I teach. Since Textual Criticism is an area I haven’t done a ton of work in I’m learning a great deal. I’m especially looking forward to the second half of the semester, when we’ll actually be doing textual criticism on a section of 1 Samuel.

Posted in Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Hebrew, Hebrew Bible, Posts by Calvin | 2 Responses »
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Learning Aramaic in Seminary

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

One thing that neither Mandy or I have blogged about much is our experience of learning Aramaic in Seminary. I had some negative things to say about our Biblical Aramaic course last spring. To be fair, looking back, I imagine I was simply overwhelmed during the first week of the semester and thus panicking. The class wasn’t as bad as the first post linked above makes it out to be, nor is the work described in it unreasonable. However, I never really went over any of the positive things about learning Biblical Aramaic at seminary, specifically at GCTS.

The first and most obvious positive to learning Biblical Aramaic at GCTS is that we are able to take a course in it at all. As Peter Bekins has pointed out (his post was actually the inspiration for this one), many seminaries do not offer Aramaic, and if they do many seminarians do not take it. That’s not the case at GCTS. To be sure, the Aramaic class was not even close to the size of the Hebrew and Greek courses, but it was fairly sizable (perhaps 30 students).

Having taken Aramaic I have a much better idea of how semitic languages work. I imagine this will be even more true once I complete Ugaritic this fall. Taking Aramaic also means that I can read the entirety of the Hebrew Bible in the original language.

Although this next positive is specific to GCTS, it still applies in my case, as well as Mandy’s. By achieving an A or A+ in Aramaic, students here are able to take two directed study courses with Dr. Stuart, if they would like. Those two courses are Targumic Aramaic and Syriac. To be completely honest, the number of dead languages taught at Gordon-Conwell was one of the main reasons Mandy and I chose to come here for our Masters’ work.

I’ve not studied Aramaic as much, or for as long, as Pete Bekins. Nevertheless, I see the beginnings of the importance to an understanding of Hebrew, and semitics generally, as well as Biblical studies, that he discusses in his post. Also like him, I would love to see Aramaic as a requirement at seminaries–of course, I’d also like to see two full years of Hebrew as a requirement, but I won’t hold my breath.

Learning Aramaic allowed me to see how some of the things that Hebrew does are carried on in a related language. I really can’t overestimate how helpful that has been to me as I continue to read the Hebrew Bible and refine my knowledge of Hebrew. Johns’ Grammar also includes some helpful charts in regards to the way in which Aramaic is related to other semitic languages, including very brief discussions of proto-semitic consonants and the Canaanite vowel shift.

Overall, I’m extremely pleased that I was able to learn Aramaic while in seminary. Likewise I’m pleased to be taking Aramaic this semester, and I plan to take both Targumic Aramaic and Syriac if I can fit them into my schedule. Of course, my desire is to eventually obtain a PhD, so I may be an odd ball. But I even know some M.Div. students who took advantage of the Aramaic offerings here at Gordon-Conwell. I highly recommend it.

Posted in Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Hebrew, Posts by Calvin, Semitics | No Responses »
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