I though the presentation were well done. Olivia’s Apocrypha and PSEUDEPIGRAPHA presenting was interesting. Her presentation helped with understanding the hidden writings with authors that don’t match the time of who is written about… If that’s not confusing enough as a statement, ha. Learning about ezras law was interesting on how it effected those who wrote after it, it’s diffulclt for me to understand it being a modern person, with our sense of always have to be right and have things make sense. Katie’s short book presentation was really good as well, she spoke really well.
Earning how the early Christian church spread is Intresting. I wish I had more time to jot down some more notes on her topic.

One thing I did pick up was the lack of communication between speaker and class. The class should be more involved, though my presentation on the gospels was bland, some class communication would have been nice. I know time is a factor with a 50 minute class, but not only is it boring to listen to a speak about a topic they are nervous about in class but it’s really boring to present a topic to a class that seems to be half there.

Nick P

All did an awesome job presenting.  Katie’s presentation was interesting. I have read Acts many times but never saw it in the perspective that Gabel seemed to portray. I was not aware that Acts was written without Paul’s letters and that the author either did not know about the letters or simply choose to ignore them.  I also liked the quote which was ” To teach and not to preach”, which seemed to be the  purpose of the book.  Also liked what she said about how Paul was the guy that was always giving orders and trying to separate Christians from Judaism but seemed  to be the kind of guy that would never take orders.  Another presentation that caught my attention was  Olivia’s presentation, i found the Septuagint interesting, I knew it was the translation of the Bible from Hebrew to Greek but i did not know that it was translated by 72 jewish elders into greek.

I think all of the presenters did a great job. One thing that caught my attention was when Sue said that  Abraham, Moses, and King David did not have Bibles to guide them. I had not really thought about that before. For some reason i  just always had in mind that the Bible just was and tended to forget that it had to be written.I never did pay  any attention to the dates in which the  books of the Bible were published. Which is to say dates do matter , at least when one is referring to the Bible. They help to better understand the text . Another fact i liked was what Shawn said  that the Bible was most likely molded to fit the needs of the people back then. It was not necessarily written as events actually happened  but most likely events were changed somewhat to meet the need of the people. Because of this the Bible can only be used as a second source history book.

Sean’s presentation suggested that the bible can be used only for hitorical references but not solid proof for anything. Ppl that followed other “gods” were not as favorably included within the bible as ones that follow the “right god.” Isn’t this considered bullying??? Only cool kids allowed, folks. It’s hard when societies, like America, promote freedom of religion, but have majority of its people contradict themselves. I can’t even walk around without feeling guilty when someone sneezes…should I say bless you…but not really mean it???

Tom’s presentation mentioned the Dead Sea Scrolls…I woud really like to further research this…He talked about the Egyptians worshipping a female deity, and I know the Egyptians are found of alot more others…Sun gods…ra-this, ra-that…etc…

Hannah’s presentation discussed the existence and belief of hell for the Christians and the non afterlife for the Jews. I always thought this is an interesting topic. Do people become religious just so that they can be rewarded in one way or another, or because they simpy believe it is the right thing to do? Let me bring up an example: Abraham. Was he really going to sacrifice and kill his son JUST BECAUSE? Did he think that it was wrong in some way? To me, it’s simply fear that drives most of us. Maybe it’s fight or flight. You either kill your son for sacrifice or you say HELL NO. Because what’s the worst that could happen if you do not kill your son? Someone dying? Does that make any sense…
-Sue

This a bit late, but better than never.

I REALLY enjoy presentations or anything about the DOUBT or QUESTIONING of the Bible – not because I’m miserable and want to discourage peope in anyway…I just like to hear both sides of a story.

The presentation (by Nichollete) discussed the auhorship and works by Moses and that his alleged writings were not even done by him, but rather recorded writings someone else did on his behalf. This is proven by works alleged done by authors who have since long died. Dead people can’t write books. The question then is to ask: How do those people that wrote for him know what truly went down??? Word of mouth??? Rumor has it???

Have any of us ever played a little game in elementary school or elsewhere that required us to “pass a secret message to the next person” by whispering into their ears and this would go on around a circle? What happens at the end of this stellar activity is that seldomly is that particular “secret” that was passed down ever the exact message word to word at the very end.

The presentation aboout plagarism is super interesting for me. Suppose that it did not exist, but there are other things that existed that are far worst. Nowadays, ppl that plagarize will get some sort of punishment- lawsuit, failing, embarrassment, etc. PEOPLE KILL EACH OTHER FOR FUN back in the (bible) days! Yikes!
-Sue

I am very sorry that my presentation was not good. So this is for those that did not get what i said . Some thing i may not have said and for that my b.

My chapter was about the possibility that myths and legends from the foreigners living among them could have been used when writing the Bible. There reason for saying this  is because of the similarities and the fact that plagiarism was not around in that time. There are many Scholars that believe this. However, like it was stated in the chapter there is no way to prove anything that they are saying.

There were many Scholars that did what ever to try and prove there point because of there finding and the fact that they wanted to discredit the Bible if at all possible. There has been some ancient near eastern literature that has been found and transcribed that is  very similar and parallel as they say. This was why the quote was read from pg 47 or 48.

” To say that literature two stories are parallel implies that they are legitimately be printed in adjacent columns as a means of calling attention to detailed similarities between them. What it does not imply is anything about the nature of that relationship: ‘there it is- make of it what you will’ is the only implication. At one extreme the resemblance might be purely accidental, and at the other it might have resulted from deliberate copying”.

After this is said the author of this book then stated that this information that was just given will now be dismissed as to the possibilities of it not being true just to show the parallels and similarities between the two.  This is so that one is able to take a deeper look into the different stories within the Bible.

This is what is done in a lot of chapters within this book. This is just another author that is trying to discredit a lotof the information within the bible. There is always something that can be found to prove a point if you want to make it and that is what this book has prove that.

Nick did the Gospel’s and I automatically thought it was interesting that the word came from “God Spell.” That was something I took note of because it struck me as interesting. Nick pointed out that we don’t know who wrote the Gospel’s and there are only four. Those were the main questions- why were there only four? Also, he said that the Gospel’s were to preserve the witnessing of Jesus into stories, because the witnesses were “dying off,” which was another point that I found very interesting. I didn’t quite understand the “Q” thing though- maybe someone can explain it more on here for me 🙂

Katie did the Letters and Acts. She said that they claimed it was history, but that it is only from one point of view- which makes it questionable. I liked that. If she didn’t explain that I think it would have made less sense. Also, she said the quote that it was to “teach, not to preach” which I remembered because of its catchy rhyme scheme. With hers she said that the questioning was not to determine who wrote it, but what it as directed at. That was really interesting and challenged the reading. I loved how Katie challenged the book by saying that no matter if Paul was involved or not- Christianity and Judaism would someday part ways.

Olivia did chapter 13, and although there were many big words- I tried to stay involved in listening and understanding her interpretation. She did a great job at explaining what certain words meant which will probably always stick with me now. Such as septugen- which is the 72 elders who translated the torrah into greek. Also, she challenged the book and used the information bout context- as james Carroll told us- and said that many people claimed to have written the books- but when they were written the people were already dead. hm. I loved how she mentioned that Adam and Eve was written in the first century. That was cool.

Good Job everyone 🙂

I was absent on friday, but i did the reading. I was confused as to who were the Colossians so I looked it up and found that they were people from the ancient city of Colossae in Southwest Asia Minor. In the Colossians Paul seems to be praising the Colossians for believing in and following Jesus. He wants them all to be certain that they know jesus is God’s son and therefore an extension of Him. If they please Jesus they please God.

Paul also seems to be boasting about himself. He follows Jesus’ gospel and spreads his word. He talks about how he suffers for their sake in order to do this.  He has become a servant to God’s church.