Wednesday, August 27, 2008

It's About Time!

With the advent of the digital Codex Sinaiticus, the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) have followed suit. Who knows if it will be as accessible to the online community. I guess will have to wait and see.

Check this article out!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Wrapping up Romans

I finished my last class teaching Romans at my local church this evening. The 12-week course enabled me to only look at Romans 1-11, with this 12th week concerned with feedback from the class.





The experience was great and although many hours of preparation were invested I still felt as though much was left untouched, even aside from Romans chs. 12-16. The class ran only 90 minutes long and I had to cover an entire chapter at a time. Operating at this pace made me feel like I did at the Smithsonian Institution in the 6th grade, as we were only given 3 hours to tour the three museums! With this in mind, I needed to touch on the big picture ideas of Romans and not make the lessons a blur of unnecessary minutiae. This approach ultimately made me a better teacher and communicator.





This brings me to a question: Those who have taught Romans either at the seminary level or at the church level, how much time was given for each class? Also, the second question flows from the first, namely how does your teaching differ from the seminary to the church setting?





One thing I have noticed is that with educated lay folk, more things need to be spelled out. One should not assume that words like 'christophany' or references to Paul's rhetorical techniques need no explanation. Furthermore, Greek needs to be used rather sparingly. If you go off on a grammatical tangent most of the class will look at you as if you have a horn growing from your head. At the same time, however, one should not underestimate his/her class. Tonight was a perfect example as a class member asked me what I thought of 'replacement theologies.'





I look forward to the opportunity of doing this again. Maybe I'll opt for a shorter NT letter next time, although I don't believe "12 weeks in Jude" would make for the greatest experience!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

New Blog from Zondervan

Zondervan has just produced a promising looking blog called Koinōnia. It should be an interesting mix of theology and biblical studies and the list of contributors is impressive. Do check it out. (HT: Mike Bird)