I'm Ready for Christmas

I just e-mailed my final projects to Dr. Wallace for TC class. This was finals week and I had a lot to do going into the beginning of the week. It began with studying for a Hebrew final, which I took on Tuesday morning. The final went well but I still had a lot of projects to finish for Dr. Wallace's class. The workload in there was enormous: 2 papers on textual problems, a paper on my method and view of textual criticism, a collation of an ancient Luke manuscript, an internet assignment in which I was in contact with libraries in New York and Germany, and about 1500 pages of reading to top it off.

Now I get a short break from class and work. I get the week after Christmas off work so I'll be off for a week and then I'm taking a winter session class. My winter class is only a week long and is for about 6-7 hours a day. I'm taking Old Testament History II and Poetry where we'll be covering 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. I'm going to try to do some of the reading in the Septuagint for a little extra practice on my Greek reading. The bad part about these short classes is that they seem too fast to cover so much, the good part is that after only a week I'll have another 2 credits down. Speaking of credits, I'm now half way through the 120 hour ThM program.

Tomorrow is casual day and only half a day of work. After that we're off to Mamaw & Papaw's for Christmas Eve. Christmas Day we go to to Mimi & Pop's for a few days. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and getting some much needed rest.

A Word for Today
Septuagint- also referred to as the LXX. This is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It was translated into Greek around 250 - 100 B.C. The LXX was important to Jews before the time of Christ and eventually was the first scripture of early Christianity.

Down the Final Stretch

Fall break is over and Thanksgiving is behind us. Now the last few weeks of classes begin. I have more work than I feel that I can possibly get done. It happens this way every semester and somehow by God's grace I get through the work and end up actually accomplishing something good. Right now I'm planning the class that I will be teaching in the Center for Biblical Studies in the Spring. I'll be teaching Computer Tools for Bible Study. It's a new class that I'm developing to help folks learn how to use computer-based bible tools as well as the Internet to assist them in their own studies and class/Bible study preparation.

I am really looking forward to one class in particular in the Spring. I'm taking a class on the exegesis of Gospel narrative that will be taught by Dr. Hall Harris and Dr. Daryll Bock. They co-teach the class but unlike many other co-taught classes they will teach at the same time. I've been told by several friends that this is the best class theytook during their time in Seminary.

I'm looking forward to vacation this Winter. I have the week after Christmas off because we are closed for the week. The week after that I'm taking another week off to take a Wintersession class. I'll be taking Old Testament History II where we cover 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. It will go from about 8:30-3:45 for a week. These classes are really fast but we also are able to get immersed in the class and not have to worry about other classes. Besides, it's a quick way to get 2 credits and another class.

A Word for Today
exegesis- an exposition or critical explanation of a text. In New Testament exegesis, the Greek text is explianed in terms of grammatical and structural use within the context of the passage being studied.

Reading Week

Well, I missed posting last week mostly due to being sick for the past week. We seem to be passing it among our family because I had to keep Jacob home on Sunday and Monday Caleb had fever. Hopefully we will all be over it for Thanksgiving.

We get 2 weeks out of class in the fall around Thanksgiving time. This week is reading week. It is a good time to catch up on assignments before the last few weeks of class hit. It is also the time that many of our professors head to the annual conference of the ETS. The fact that reading week occurs at this time is no coincidence. I think they decided not to hold class because all of the profs were gone anyway. (Whatever the reason, I like it.) I would like to have gone to the conference myself, but since it was in Pennsylvania this year, it was just too far to travel. I'll just plan to go to the regional conference at Southwestern in Fort Worth this spring.

This is not my normal time to write but last night, I went to log on to the internet and it was down. Not the whole internet, just my connection. I called Comcast and they made an appointment for a tech to visit this morning. He got to the house at 9:30 and had the problem solved by 9:32. Our two cables had been swapped and the internet ended up on the wrong cable. He swapped the cables and voila, the connection started working. He sure knew awfully fast what the problem was... I can't help but wonder if he was working in the area yesterday. Or maybe this is just a common thing to happen.

Well, back to homework and then work again. I have a lot to do before the end of the semester but I'll get through it.

A Word for the Day...
ETS - Evangelical Theological Society - Visit their website.