Busy Busy

The MABL is keeping me so very busy these days, but I'm really enjoying it. I don't think I have ever had to work as hard or ever spent so many hours in the library, but I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn. And I'm grateful for the excitement about it, because I know that "He is the one working the will and the action in me" (from phil. 2, a recent assignment in Greek class)

Paper season is coming up. For Hebrew, the text I have chosen to work on is Psalm 68. It is one of the oldest Psalms and displaying many characteristics of Archaic Hebrew. Since this is a poetry class, we are to focus on the poetic devices found in the Hebrew, what they are telling the reader, and how we should read the passage in light of them. It's not as easy as it may sound either. I was never good at poetry in the first place, much less poetry in another language, where I don't know the idioms, culture, and rituals. Its going to be lots of reading to try to discover these glimpses into Hebrew poetry. Not sure what it will look like when it comes out, but we'll see.

For Greek, I haven't nailed down a topic, but I'm thinking of looking at Phil 1:19. I have translated it " For I know that this will result in salvation for me, through your prayers and (through the) support of the Spirit of Christ Jesus." The word 'support' is troublesome and tricky. It is in the genitive case but it can be subjective or objective. So it could be talking about 'support of the Spirit' as in 'the Spirit's support' or it could be talking about 'support of the Spirit' as in 'the Spirit is being supported.' At first glance one might say that the Spirit doesn't need supporting. And while this is true, we can think about what our prayers and efforts do to support and foster an environment for the Spirit to grow, in a sense supporting the Spirit. It's interesting to think about, and we had a great discussion about in class. Maybe not enough for a paper topic, but we'll see.

Currently Reading:

A Manual of Hebrew Poetics
The History of the Hebrew Language
Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek
Linguistic Analysis of Biblical Hebrew
and.... Shopaholic Ties the Knot