The presenters did a great job today. I liked how Kia’s chapter mentioned poetry and whether or not the prophets were indeed poets. I also liked the quote Mark mentioned, “don’t be mad at God, you obviously did something wrong,” which relates to how people are at any point in time and how we often times blame others instead of focusing on our own faults.

Kia and Mark both presented good information and were able to engage the audience and mention some things they noticed while studying their assigned chapters, which showed they went into more depth.

I liked that Kia also went back into the text during discussion and related a part of the reading to everyday life and Mark’s headline was clever!

Great job!

-Nicollete =)

I thought Nicolletes prsentation on the composition of the pentateuch was very interesting. Like most of the bible the authors are always questionable, but I find it a little difficult to realate it to or current reading since most of the focus of her presentation seemed to be on the Old Testament. On the other hand Andrews presentation of the physical setting of the bible I found helpful while reading the Acts this weekend along with our brefi disscussion of the Roman Empire. These ‘contexts’ aided me in visually seeing where Paul traveled. What also seemed to be more relevant was the use of prayers, such as when Stephen is stoned to death
(7:59 ) And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
(7:60) And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

-Nick P

I have enjoyed the presentation so far. They have been interesting and the presenters did a good job summarizing their chapters. I think Nicolette’s was especially good and brought up the discussion on who really wrote some of the books of the Bible. The discussion that followed was in line with what my thoughts were concerning the subject. I have often wondered why there were four Gospels that for the most part repeat the stories and life of Jesus. With the introduction of the time line of the Gospels by James Carroll was also intriguing to me. Why are the gospels not in chronological order by date written? Also how accurate are the stories since there is a good time line between writings. Was there more word of mouth and non-accurate accounts of the stories as they were passed from one person to another? It makes sense to me that the original writer did not combine the stories and print one Gospel

I really enjoyed the presentations by Elisa, Katherine, Juanita and Andrew. They did a great job explaining their assigned chapters as well as using outside information to back up their presentations. They did a great job making eye contact, engaging the audience and showing they understood what they were presenting. I definitely learned so much from listening to each of them discuss their chapters. The map that Andrew used was very helpful to guide us through each section of the map and understand visually what he was describing. All of the speakers were very knowledgeable of their topics  and were able to teach the class this either knew or refreshed information!

Great job everyone!

-Nicollete =)

And I guess mine was pretty good too 😉 haha

how did muses past a way?

what kind of religion does Abraham have ?

what we know is muses He is jewish and jesus he came from mother of jewish so how about abraham? because we dont have religion for him?

Nicolette talked about how people believed Moses wrote the Pentateuch and was later proven that those stories were really written hundreds of years after Moses death. The stories were pasted down from generation to generation leaving room for details people added instead of just the facts. This makes me wonder how much of the Gospels is true fact and how much was made up to make a better story.
Also with the Gospels being writen at different times I wonder if the authors took material from the stories written before them and how much they added themselves to create a story to fit their message and how the people talked about are perceived. They all agree that Jesus is betrayed by Judas, Jesus is taken by the Jews to Pilate, and he is crucified. However in John it is said that Jesus gives Judas a piece of bread which causes Satan to go into him and he betrays Jesus because of this. In Mark it says that Judas betrayed Jesus for money, making him out to be greedy. I question what is the truth or if both stories hold some truth to them.

I think Nicollete did a great job. John and the of the books of the Pentateuch have some similarities . One been ,that in both cases the speaker is talking directly to others. In the Pentateuch Moses is talks directly to God’s chosen people and in John Jesus is talks directly to His followers .

The one fact that i did not know but found interesting was the fact that there is a dispute as to who wrote the Pentateuchs. I always thought it was Moses and I did not know that they were most likely written in 90 AD  which would have made it almost impossible for Moses to have been the author.