This is not a concert or professional presentation. It’s the body of Christ encouraging one another with their gifts.
For the full story, read Jerry’s blog post.
Author Archives: Karyn
Biblical Studies Carnival 43
The Biblical Studies Carnival 43 is up now.
Many of you already know about it, but I’m posting the link here for my friends and readers who might think that biblical studies scholars are always stuck in a book in a library and do not have a sense of humor. Nothing could be further from the truth, as this month’s Carnival demonstrates. And hopefully, you will also enjoy reading the posts that the Carnival highlights.
Keeping the Brain Happy
I tell my students that studying Hebrew helps to keep their brain active which can stave off things like Alzheimers’ disease.
For example, here’s a lecture illustration I use. Which brain would you rather have?
But even with all that language study, there are days when you need some supplemental grey matter exercise. So, here’s a suggestion. This is a nice little surface maze (a sample from Dover Publications’ The Ultimate Maze Book by Galen Wadzinskiby) for your brain to tackle when you need to take a break from research, reading, writing, or whatever.
Dover Publications has lots of books with puzzles, mazes, and more to keep your brain cells active. I still have lots of stuff I want to coax out of my brain, so I’m going to do everything I can to keep exercising my brain cells.
JPS Illustrated Children’s Bible
I’m eagerly anticipating the arrival of my copy of the soon-to-be-released JPS Illustrated Children’s Bible.
The illustrations look to be beautifully rendered. But even more than the illustrations, I am looking forward to reading the stories from a fresh point of view.
From the introduction:
My chief aim in writing this book has been to introduce American children to the language and rhythms of the Hebrew Bible.
You can download (PDF file) the introduction here. A sample chapter is also available for download.
But if you want to see more, and especially if you’re interested in reading the Author’s notebook which includes explanations about choices made for the translation (a very worthwhile read!), you can find sample pages of the book on Google Books. Here’s a link to the search I performed. You can also follow the link on the JPS page to another Google Preview.
My father’s father’s father
I’m doing a bit of research right now that puts me into various genealogies listed in scripture. Many people have one of two reactions (or both) when encountering these passages–fear of trying to pronounce all the names and/or the need to keep poking themselves to stay awake while they read those sections. However, have you ever tried to pay close attention to the parallel lists? Have you ever noticed how inconsistent (names change from one list to another), ambiguous (is that person the father or the son? is that the daughter or son?), and downright confusing they are? I have! It definitely makes me wonder what in the world the purpose of some of these lists is.
Continue reading
Travel Tips for Africa (and other places)
Erik Hersman, who grew up in Kenya and Sudan, is the White African, and his blog is a great read.
This week he posts 15 tips for traveling to Africa. His suggestions are great, but be sure to read the comments as they are just as useful.
You should also trek on over to his other (group) blog, AfriGadget. The blog describes itself this way:
AfriGadget is a website dedicated to showcasing African ingenuity. A team of bloggers and readers contribute their pictures, videos and stories from around the continent. The stories of innovation are inspiring. It is a testament to Africans bending the little they have to their will, using creativity to overcome lifes challenges.
For example, with old clothes, a plastic bag, condoms, and some rope you can make a football (soccer ball)!
Book Meme
Daniel and Tonya tagged me in the recent book meme that is making the rounds:
Name 5 books or scholars that had the most immediate and lasting influence on how you read the Bible.
In no particular order:
1. Mark Smith’s (peer-less) work on the Baal Cycle introduced me to the world of Ugaritic and all it has to offer (I would gratefully accept a gift of his latest book, since I cannot afford the $300+ pricetag) . His books (such as The Early History of God) piqued my appetite to understand the cultures surrounding ancient Israel and the text of Scripture.
2. Christo van der Merwe’s A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar. This book gave me a good foundation and also challenged me to think through the description of BH grammar by looking at the data myself.
3. The Art of Biblical Narrative (Robert Alter) and Narrative Art in the Bible (Shimon Bar-Efrat). I know, I’m cheating to list two here, but they both helped move me from an atomistic reading of Scripture and lifted my head up to see the discourse level and the art of Hebrew story-telling.
4. Sinai & Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible (Jon D. Levenson): “[M]yth does not mean ‘untruth’ or ‘falsehood,’ in spite of such usage in ordinary discourse. One should not allow this pejorative use of the word to prejudice oneself against the Aristotelian position that poetry is truer than history. One implication of this discussion will be that mythopoesis, ‘ the making of myth,’ is a means by which man discerns and conveys truths otherwise inexpressible. If this implication is correct, then the familiar interpretation of the religion of Israel as radically demythologized, besides being factually inaccurate, obscures great spiritual treasures” (104-105). That’s just one gem.
5. John Hobbins: his blog Ancient Hebrew Poetry continues to educate me, inspire me, challenge me, and give me cause to debate. He lives his life as husband, father, pastor, and scholar in a way that resonates with my own priorities.
I hereby tag: Art Boulet, Daniel Kirk, Ben Byerly, Brandon Withrow, and Ros Clark.
New Biblical Hebrew Syllabus Challenge
This is not a hypothetical situation. A friend (and former student) of mine will be traveling to China this summer to teach Biblical Hebrew to a group of about 50 students (who are mostly pastors). The facts (as I know them):
1. Number of students: 50 adults
2. Time frame: 10 class days (2 weeks), 6-8 hours per day
3. Cover the material for a “typical” first semester course (we can talk about what that “should” include)
4. Language of students: Mandarin (so that means limited instructional material that is published)
They do have access to a Mandarin version of Weingreen. How would you use that?
What would you include, exclude, simplify or condense? What about quizzes, exams? How many, when? What about homework?
What would you want these students to leave the two weeks being able to do?
And …. how much of that could you do with a communicative method?
Go.
COHELET Workshop Report: Communicative Method for Biblical Hebrew
Chris Heard of Higgaion is attending the week-long workshop for the COHELET Project. He’s posted the first of what will hopefully be daily updates.
Read the comments for some discussion about when to teach the aleph-bet.
UPDATES:
Here is the link for Chris’s second post about his participation in the workshop.
Final summary from Chris about the workshop is here.
The Universal Index of Doctoral Dissertations in Progress
If you are writing a doctoral dissertation, you should register with phddata.org.
This site holds a database of doctoral dissertations in progress around the world.
The site is an open academic community effort to:
- Avoid duplications in doctoral dissertations
- Create the ultimate meeting place for researchers
- Allow for interaction between them
On the other hand, if you just need distraction from your dissertation writing, you should sign up for the RSS feed for this.