Classes

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Spring 2010 Classes

Monday, March 1st, 2010

It is my custom to bore you by briefly highlighting the classes I take each semester. Because of my now broken blogging silence I have not done so this semester. So, without further ado…

Middle Egyptian II – This is, as the title should make obvious, the second semester of a year long course in Middle Egyptian at Boston University. Let’s be honest, which one of us hasn’t wanted to learn Hieroglyphs as a kid? If you’re a sci-fi geek, you know that there is a far more important reason for learning ancient Egyptian: you might be asked to join the Stargate Program. All joking aside, another ANE language under my belt is a very good thing. What I’m about to say will probably reveal just how much of a geek I truly am (as if the Stargate comment above didn’t already do that), but I can think of very few things I would rather do than learn an ancient language. Besides, Dr. Botta is simply excellent. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this class.

Exegesis of Revelation – Dr. McDonough teaches this class and I’ve found it truly fascinating. Not only is the professor engaging, but the regular references to the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are icing on the cake. I’ve not been a big fan of this, the final book of the Bible, but this class is changing that. It’s also helping to hone my Greek skills since we’re required to read the entire book in Greek.

Exegesis in the Minor Prophets – Another class with Dr. Stuart is always a good thing. Although I’ve covered the minor prophets in both undergrad, and in a more broadly focused class here at GCTS, I’m still finding this class informative. It is especially helpful because the majority of our class time is spent simply analyzing the Hebrew text, primarily from a grammatical perspective but also with attention to text criticism, structure, etc. In addition I’m writing a paper on Habakkuk 3 for the course, which is proving to be fascinating.

Applied Anthropology for Missions – As esoteric as the title sounds, this class is actually fun. I’m not an anthropologist, though I do find the subject interesting. Personally I think that there is a lot of payoff for Biblical interpretation in understanding one’s own culture as well as the culture of the text. I’m writing a paper on how epistemology influences the debate surrounding inerrancy. Although I’m fairly sure that this is going to be an eternal debate, at least it ties what I’m learning here back into Biblical studies.

Martin Luther – Really, what more can one say? Sometimes I think this guy really helped the church, and other times I’m convinced he’s the worst thing to happen to it since Constantine. Either way, the class is fun if for no other reason than we get into some heated discussions. This, of course, is one of the best ways to learn. If only I could figure out a way to manage a heated discussion in a Hebrew grammar class, I could feel I’ve accomplished something.

So, there you have it. Yes, I’m taking five classes my final semester. Yes, it’s possible I’m crazy. But what more can one do? There is so much to learn, and only a very short amount of time in which to learn it.

Posted in Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Posts by Calvin | 2 Responses »
Tags: Boston University, Classes

The End of Spring 2009

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Last Monday I turned in my final essay for this semester. For the past week I have relaxed by playing video games (a pastime that is notably, and sadly, absent from my life during the semester), reading fiction (David Coe is my newest find), and otherwise taking things easy. Normally at the beginning, middle and end of a semester I talk about what classes I am taking/took and share some of my thoughts on them. Here is my mid-semester summary for Spring 2009. Generally my thoughts at the semester mid-point have carried through to the end of the semester. My specific thoughts follow.

Epigraphic Hebrew – Wow. That’s all I can say about this course (an apparent lie, since I go on to type a paragraph about the course). Tom Petter was great to work with. Having an introduction to inscriptional Hebrew under my belt is great. To top it off, the class was fun as well. The class mostly consisted of translating various inscriptions (including the Mesha Stele). Dr. Petter also expected that Mandy and I would spend some time doing additional research on the various inscriptions. This added to the workload, but payed off by giving a much fuller picture of the current scholarship on various inscriptions (e.g. Kuntillet Ajrud). This was my favorite class over the past semester.

History of Israelite Religions – Much of what I said at the mid-point still holds true for this course. I learned quite a bit, it was fun, and taking a class at Boston University was a different experience. To some extent all this class did was show me how broad, diverse, and multifaceted the study of Israelite Religions really is. This is a good thing, though I might have preferred a more chronologically oriented introduction to Israelite Religions, I also realize that such an approach has its own difficulties. We basically worked our way through Ziony Zevit’s The Religions of Ancient Israel, and then spent some time with Jon Berquist’s Judaism in Persia’s Shadow. The course was a seminar, so each class session included a presentation or two by students. Normally I’m a huge fan of this type of learning. In this case I might have preferred a little more lecture from the professor. Either way, this class was fun, I learned a great deal, and I started to develop a relationship with Dr. Botta which has opened the possibility of taking Middle Egyptian next year (more on that in a subsequent post).

Old Testament Poetical Books – This is the standard GCTS intro to the poetic corpus (for those not in the know: Psalms, Proverbs, Qohelet, Job, Lamentations and Song of Songs). Since Job is one of my research interests, and a book that I find absolutely fascinating, the course was fun. My final paper, an exegetical study of Job 5.2-7, ended up just shy of 50 pages–so I certainly had the chance to engage with the material. To some extent I feel bad for Dr. Stuart, who has a whole class’ worth of papers to grade. As I said at the mid-semester mark, I would have preferred the class to be a little more demanding, but even so the translation we did was helpful when combined with the classroom discussions of Hebrew grammar. I would have preferred more of such discussions, but I’ll take what I can get.

Targumic Aramaic – This class was my least favorite of the semester. This isn’t to say the course was horrible, but one of my classes has to be my “least favorite.” The class is exactly what the title suggests: Targumic Aramaic. After working my way through a grammar, I translated around 15 chapters of Aramaic. I think I have a fairly decent handle on Targumic Aramaic after this course, though my vocab needs expansion.

Posted in Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Hebrew, Hebrew Bible, Posts by Calvin | 4 Responses »
Tags: Aramaic, Boston University, Classes, end of the semester, Israelite Religions, Mesha Stele, Moabite Stone, Targumic Aramaic

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 »
Tags: Classes, exegesis, lxx, textual critcism

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.

Posted in Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Posts by Calvin, The Floppy Hat | 1 Response »
Tags: Ancient Egypt, Boston University, Classes, graduate school, Hebrew Grammar, Israelite Religions, seminary

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 »
Tags: Classes, Fall Semester, Harvard

Textual Criticism: Recovering the Text of the Hebrew Bible by P. Kyle McCarter

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

I fully realize that this book is from 1986, so it may seem a bit late to be writing a review. However, you’ll have to forgive me since I was only 2 when the book originally appeared. This is one of the required texts for my Textual Criticism seminar at Harvard this semester. I’m looking forward to the seminar, and this book was short so I decided to go ahead and review it before the semester gets underway. I should also point out the fact that I am hardly an expert when it comes to textual criticism. Keep in mind that this review is very much from a student’s perspective.

The first thing that deserves comment is the size of the book; less than 100 pages, including appendices. As a student I’m extremely thankful. The book is good, it says what needs to be said and then moves on. McCarter excels at being concise in his statements. These are all things that hit the mark, as far as a student is concerned. At the same time, it means that McCarter’s book will never be the only text in a graduate seminar on textual criticism. This is fine though, since it serves well as an introduction (which is really all its supposed to do).

Something else that jumped out at me in the book is that McCarter is quite witty. Having an author who is easily able to inject wit into a textbook always makes for a more enjoyable read. In Textual Criticism this is done with style. I lost track of the number of places I chuckled as I read through the book. A question for any of you Johns Hopkins students, is McCarter this witty in class?

I should also mention the appendices. These short addendums are quite helpful. A glossary is the first to appear, and defines some of the basic vocabulary of text criticism (witness, codex, haplography, homoioarkton, etc). The second appendix is a bibliography of primary sources. For someone who has not done much in depth work with textual criticism, this is a gold mine of information. If this information wasn’t already available on the Internet, its inclusion alone would justify the purchase. Even so, it is still convenient to have the information in one easily accessible place. The final appendix deals with the textual characteristics of each book, or section of books, in the Hebrew Bible. This is another extremely helpful resource for beginning students, and one I’m sure I’ll consult often this semester.

In my opinion, the negatives of Textual Criticism are few. Obviously, because of its brevity, it doesn’t touch on every issue imaginable in textual criticism. It is, after all, more of an introduction than a monograph. You’ll have to move on to Emanuel Tov’s Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible for a more thorough treatment of the various issues. The only other negative is one that I’m not entirely sure I’m educated enough to give at present. However, with that disclaimer, I’ll go ahead; McCarter appears to be quite in love with LXX, and often makes very little mention of the DSS. Conversely, Tov mentions the Qumran materials often and even accuses McCarter’s Textual Criticism of adopting “the approach of the period before the discovery of the new data [ie, the DSS]” (Tov, Textual Criticism, 14).

Those caveats aside, I think McCarter’s Textual Criticism is a helpful introductory textbook. It certainly doesn’t offer the depth of Tov, but it provides a way to quickly get oneself up to speed on the necessary material. It’s worth reading, especially for those who only desire an introduction.

-Calvin

Posted in Book Reviews, Hebrew Bible, Posts by Calvin | No Responses »
Tags: Classes, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, McCarter, Textual Criticism

The Floppy Hat

The journey of two people towards PhDs and beyond