Monday, February 07, 2011

hebrews + matthew OR zechariah

i gots to decide - one year of college left, and i need to choose between OT in hebrew (where we do the entirety of Zechariah) or NT in greek (where we do Hebrews then Matthew). i could do both but that knocks out an elective and doing a project means i can only do two electives.

so far we've done
(nb: eng means only eng, heb or gk means both)
  • OT
    Numbers (eng)
    Deuteronomy (heb)
    1-2 Samuel (heb)
    Psalms (heb)
    Job (eng)
    Isaiah (eng)
    Ezekiel (heb)
    Daniel (eng)
    Jonah (eng)
i'm hoping to do aramaic as one elective, so that would mean i'd get to do the aramaic section of Daniel and the aramaic paragraph of Ezra. we also did a bit of Ruth in hebrew, but just to think about text criticism.
  • NT
    Mark (gk)
    Luke (gk)
    John (gk)
    Acts (gk)
    Romans (gk)
    1 Corinthians (gk)
    Ephesians (eng)
    1-2 Timothy (eng)
    Titus (eng)
    1 Peter (eng)
    Jude (eng)
reasons for NT4
  1. can complete the quadrafecta (quadrilla?) of gospels
  2. can study a non-Pauline epistle in greek
  3. long term in ministry greek will probably be used more - and i'm more likely to take it for granted (i.e. i should keep working on it this year)
  4. i i don't think i'll do ATBGE (advanced topics in biblical greek exegesis - or simply, nerd greek), but i plan to audit it
  5. doing aramaic means i'll be doing a language related to hebrew anyway
reasons for OT4
  1. we can do a whole book of the bible in an original language - everything else has been overview, with a deeper focus on particular areas only
  2. zech is a pretty crucial book in the NT (particularly matthew i think)
  3. it's my last chance to study in hebrew - i don't think any masters subjects are in hebrew, only greek
  4. it'd probably make sense to keep hebrew up whilst learning aramaic

so that's my thinking. what do you think, faithful reader(s?)?

6 comments:

Jason Au said...

OT4, pretty much because I'm doing it. But yeah, it took me a little while to get comfortable with that choice.

Also, what would your other elective be?

dave miers said...

NT - mark, luke and john sounds wrong without matthew part of the cohort!

another option: graduate after 3 years? haha

ps - make that readerS

psychodougie said...

so that's a tie atm.
@Jay-Z thinking patristics. i'm pretty sure that's what dmdc would've done were he still here...

byron smith said...

NT4. Nearly all preachers say that they use more Greek than Hebrew, which comes down to two things: (a) most churches preach (rightly, I think) more on the NT than on the OT and (b) when preaching on the OT, you are more likely to be covering more text, and who has time to translate multiple chapters of Exodus?

That said, 4th yr is a rare chance to do more theology. You've had three years of intensive biblical studies, don't miss out on Christian thought. Especially if you're doing a biblical studies project (I don't know this, but am guessing from your preferences), then sink your teeth into historical and contemporary theology/ethics.

That's my 2p worth.

psychodougie said...

thanks for your thoughts byron - NT4 is where i'm leaning.

plan is for project to be more hermeneutics/philosophy/doctrine - something on ricoeur.

so i'm not sure what that does to the equation - i'm thinking one doctrine, one language (i.e. patristics and aramaic).

byron smith said...

Can you explain your thinking re Aramaic? I know someone needs to know that stuff, but why you? And why not a second doctrine/ethics?