Nick’s presentation on the Gospels was interesting. I liked when he said that Gospel means “good news,” because this is something I was taught in school as a youth. He said that the Gospels harmonize, and yet have differences. I think this point also applies to the Bible as a whole. Through different authorships, the Bible at  many points contradicts itself. Nick also stated that the gospels are present to confirm and not to convert.

After looking at Katie’s chapter in Gabel, I was impressed by how organized her presentation came across to the class. She said Acts was supposed to read like a history book. This seems unique in reference to the Bible as a whole, because much of it seems to be read solely as stories with morals. She referenced a saying, “teach not preach.” I thought this referred back to Nick’s “confirm not convert” point nicely.

Olivia’s presentation on the outside books was also interesting. There are a lot of books that are not included in the standard editions of the Bible that we all read. This presentation related well to Sue’s points about the cannon and deciding what is left in and what gets left out.

The presentations from the last class were very interesting to me. Particularly, Sean’s stuck out among the topics I am working on for my short book and the paper we worked on for Job. I like the idea that the Bible was molded to history. After taking in to account what the guest speaker said to us, I have been paying more close attention to the context of the Bible. Thinking about the stories, and the fact that they had to be molded to certain key events in history, makes perfect sense to me. Additionally, I enoyed that Sue gave the class a handout with information about the order the Canon was formed in. Sue’s discussion of the Canon helped to expand on the idea of the Bible being an anthology that I had previously researched.

After the presentations on Wed, I enjoyed reflecting over the previous readings we have done and applying the information. The idea that the Bible used ancient myths as sources is interesting. This reiterates the idea that most of these stories exist to teach or apply a lesson to the audience. However, looking over the myth could also be an interesting way to analyze how the bible has evolved from its sources. Second, Andrew’s presentation was also interesting. I have barely glanced at the maps located in the Bible so far. Knowing enough rough geographic information, I did not see a need to use the maps. However highlighting different geographic climate changes within a region was significant. This is because, I was reading the stories in the old testament as if they were all located in the same geographic climate. Now however, using the context of climate, a new bit of information can be added to my findings.