I'm Still Around...

...but just barely. It has been a really busy couple of months. For starters, I had way too many hours in progress in school. I just completed 4 classes, an independent study, and the final draft of my thesis. On-campus classes finished last week, on Monday I turned in the final draft of my thesis, and early this morning I finished my independent study and an online class. It doesn't really even feel like I have finished the semester, some of which started last spring. Now I turn to my final Th.M. classes. I have a 1 week winter class in January then I turn around an take 4 more in the spring... and that's it. Only 5 more classes and I'll graduate!

In the spring I'll be taking a new language, Aramaic. I'm looking forward to learning it since parts of Amos and Daniel were written in Aramaic. It will also be helpful in New Testament studies. Fortunately it is enough like Hebrew that some of the vocabulary is the same.

For now I can turn to Christmas. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and getting some rest. I think I'll take Ashley and the boys out Friday or Saturday night to look at Christmas lights. That always puts me in the Christmas spirit.

Patmos 2007 Report

I just got an email from Dr. Dan Wallace that a report of our 2007 trip to Patmos has been posted on the bible.org website. Click here to go directly to the article.

One Giant Leap

Today I completed a giant leap in the process of getting my Th.M. degree. Today I printed the first complete draft of my master's thesis. For more than a year I have been working on a collation of an ancient Greek New Testament manuscript. This means that I have recorded the variant readings in the manuscript and performed an analysis on those variants. this involved original research, which is unusual for a master's thesis. I also was fortunate enough to have seen and held the original 1200 year-old document when our team photographed it. The finished product (so far) is a very long 225 page thesis that now goes to my readers. I'm relieved that this step is finished but I'll still have more work to do once the first draft is read. In the mean time, on to those other classes that I need to keep up with.