Nicollette, Redgina, Katherine A., Tom, and Nick A. presented on this day. I really enjoyed hearing about these books. I liked Nicollette’s confidence in her research. She really knew what she was talking about on the book of Micah.Redgina presented her book, Esther. Redgina conveyed the story very well and did a great job. Katherine A. really knew her material on the Proverbs. She used her presentation aids very well and kept the flow going. Tom also did a great job explaining his book Lamentations. Tom was very engaging and his explanations were very clear. The final presenter was Nick A. I really enjoyed his presentation on Daniel. I liked the variety of pictures he used and his explanations of all of the dreams. The pictures really helped to give a visual of David’s dreams. Again, everyone continues to do an exceptional job!

-Olivia

Notes on Text of the Bible
–        Discussed bible as a book of literature
–        Translations, more bible being printed
–        Copies; handwritten to print in 1400’s, stories retold and mistranslated
–        CONTEXT: writer writes what he believes as true
–        Categories of Bibles: Byzantine, Alexandrian, Neutral
–        Expansion of Christianity at such a fast rate
Two things I found interesting in Waleskas well done presentation, one being the writer perception of what is important and what is not and there other being the expansion of Christianity at a such a fast rate.
 
Translating the Bible by Bernice
*purpose to make bible more available
–        Hebrew to Greek
–        Latin to Gothic = English
–        Translator put in own beliefs e.i. protestant and Catholic views
*everybody thought there version was right
*ruling had influence
 
The Religious Use and Interpretation of the Bible By Anne
–        History
–        Theological doctrine
–         Moral Perceptions
–        Estiastial- the more Christian charge, how a body of bein should come together
–        Guide to the times
–        Personal Guidelines
*allegories with hidden truths

I personallly take the bible as a socure for some sense of guidance.

Notes for Women in the Bible
–        God and Men exploit women in the bible
–        3 techniques to read the bible through a women perspective
      1. engage
      2. read with suspicion
      3. the bible can be used to see how women were treated in those days
– Only tell through male perspective not women’s
* Parables affect both Genders   
I thought Michelle s presentation was very good. Two things stood out the most to me; The bible as a tool to understand women’s treatment in Biblical times and the fact the parables affect both genders. The first is rather self explanatory but the second about the parables may show an attempt at gender equality, makes the religion less patriarchal as Judaism is? Any thoughts?
 
Notes for Name of Israel’s God
            -Yewh- no ambiguity
            -YHWH consents no vowels
                        *6800 times used
            -Adoni- my lord
            -Jehovah
Notes for Writing in Biblical Times
            -papyrus and clay
                        – 4000years
                        -hundreds and thousands recovered
            -Papyrus not so good
            – Moses wrote on stone
 
I thought Redgina’s presentation was well done! What I know about the name of God is unknowable and unsay-able. There are substitutes of substitutes and the name is mistranslated. No one knows how the name was traditionally said. The four letter name for god is an impossible tense of “to be” (is/was/will be) all at once. The name  is the essence of God, if you undertand the name, you find god. I think it is fascinating that Gods name is kept so secretive and much time was spent on keeping it that way. How can you name something/someone that is unknowable and spectacular at the same time?

Notes on Palestine in the Intertestamental Period by Mohammad
            3 periods Greek, Jewish, Roman
Greek
–        King Phillip the second of Macedonia
–        Alexander born 356 BCE
–        Alexander crushed father enemies
–        After Alex, period Ptolemaic and Selecucid split empire
–        Wars between Syria and Egypt
–        Antiochus III killed in 190 BCE
Jewish
–        Small villages in Northwest of Jerusalem called Mattathias
–        Mattathias w/5 sons became refugees in Judean Hills
–        166 died son Judas takes over/ Jerusalem empire
Roman
–        63 BCE
Controlled Italy, North Africa, western Europe

I thought our Guest speaker, Jim, was very interesting and exciting. His large focus on the context I found to be very insightful. It really does help to know the context of the situation (time/place/people) to understand the stories within the bible. What I learned from Jim was you understand the context you can grasp a better sense of the confusing nature of the stories that are similar and far from being similar about the same subject. Here are my notes that I took from that day:
            New testament
            Text-> context
            Genesis
                        -Abraham dates to about the year 2000
                        -David 1000
                        -Jerusalem was destroyed in the 7 BCE
                        -JEWISH assemble stories during this time form together to make the bible
                        -Jesus dies About the year 30 our time
            Mark wrote gospel about 50 to 65 years after death of Jesus
            Letter said saint Paul are the oldest text in bible
            Thesolonians earliest latest letter is to Romans
                        -70s was when mark was written/ group of rebel Jews who had it with rome                                     occupied 67 to 135 ce Roman war against Jewish people
                        -80-90. Mathew and Luke
                        -100 John

-Mark gospel and reference to roman war against Jews
To be a Jew without to temple is to be a Jew with Jesus first Christian

-Other group of Jews says law/ torah Judaism, rabbis, imagine temple no longer have to go to temple observe the tradition

-Both groups turn against each other and it gets deeper with Christian books, jaded by Christian views the Jews were the murders of Jesus not the Romans
Year 135 CE the destruction of carthage, Jerusalem was destroyed, Jesus Jews became Gentiles, became Catholics Characters therefore become catholic, Mary, Jesus, Joseph consider

-As gospel move along from mark to John a reason to persecute the Jews become more apparent, Jesus people accuse the Jews of death of Jesus because they don’t believe in Jesus as profit therefore reject Jesus Jew beliefs

All did  a wonderful job on their presentations. i liked what Michelle said on how the women on the Bible were mainly used to embody the concerns of the males during that time. I also liked how she said women back then cannot teach us about  what occurred back then but about what they thought about.  Another presentation that i enjoyed was Nick’s presentation he made it very entertaining by using the videos.

I liked how Michelle said that the Bible shows how men perceived ancient women. This makes me wonder how different the Bible would have been if women wrote it. There would probably be more women in the Bible, but would the stories focus on them instead of men, could they have had more important roles like being prophets? I found it interesting how there was a Women’s Bible created because the Bible pertained more to men and the  relationship between God and men allowed men to have power over women. This would probably allow women to be closer to their religion more. However, I would imagine the backlash from the men could not have been good.

I found it interesting when Redgina said that in Babylonian times the word Yahweh was considered too sacred to say and there were made to forbid it. I think this is weird because they have been using that word for God for hundreds of years and then all of a sudden they can’t say it.  I would understand more if they were taken over by an empire who didn’t believe in Yahweh but that is not the case.  Maybe it is only the Jewish who used the word Yahweh and the people who overtook them have different beliefs.

I thought it was interesting when Mohamad was talking about the Greek period and said that when Alexander went to take over Egypt the people welcomed him instead of fighting him like every other country did. This is a little hard to believe since if someone tried to take over a country today there would be an all out war. I don’t know the history of Egypt in that time but I can only think that things weren’t going well and the people believed Alexander could help.