Of making many books there is no end ...
Wednesday, 09 November, 2005
Study today involved going through all the bills from this year (so far) and trying to work out how on earth we managed to still stay afloat given our current peanutty income. I also made up a budget for next year and worked out that we will probably exceed our guestimated income by $7,000. Oh dear, should I cut our giving or get rid of our car? I should have been an accountant; then I'd be able to work long hours and weekends without getting paid overtime for a tyrannical corporate boss who doesn't even know my name and I'd really know what a peanutty income is.
No, seriously, study today involved going through the past papers for New Testament 1 and Old Testament 1 for the past 5 years and working out what topics I'll focus on. So here goes:
New Testament 1
Exam: 3 hours. 5 questions to answer: at least two from each section. Section A is on Mark; Section B is on Romans.
Mark
- Methodological approaches to Mark
- Prologue of Mark (and how it introduces the rest of the gospel)
- Parables
- The importance and significance of the sea crossings
- The Kingdom of God
Romans
- The circumstances of the Roman church and how/whether they are reflected in the Book of Romans
- The argument of Romans (in brief) and its relationship to the various parts
- The role of the law in Romans
- The role of Abraham in Romans
- Sin
Old Testament 1
Exam: 3 hours. 5 questions to answer: one from each section and the last one from any section. Section A is on Creation to Judges (pre-Kings); Section B is on the kingdom and the prophets; Section C is on the writings (wisdom literature); and Section D is on the Andrew Shead stuff (how the OT canon was put together, how it was transmitted through the centuries, Biblical criticism, etc.).
Creation to Judges
- Genesis
- Joshua
- Judges
Kingdom and prophets
- Saul, David, Solomon (southern and northern kingdoms briefly)
- Post-exilic prophets: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
The writings
- Apocalyptic literature
- The Fear of the Lord in Proverbs, Psalms, Job and Ecclesiastes
Andrew Shead stuff
- Development of the OT canon
- Preservation and transmission of the OT text
- Biblical criticism
(which doesn't seem very manageable but then what do you do when you have to review most of the OT for this exam ...)
Study today involved sticking post-it flags into Big Fat Important Boks like An Introduction to the New Testament, The New Bible Commentary and The Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology while watching The Simpson, House and the first half of Season 2 of The West Wing (which is kind of odd since I haven't seen Season 1 but my friend who lent me the DVD and told me I had to watch it couldn't find her copy of Season 1). Watching The West Wing is kind of carthartic; it makes me glad I don't have their jobs because they always seem far more stressed out and busy than I am and I remind myself that my exams will be finished in two weeks and then I can read the Bible for leisure and not because I have to.
It seems almost blasphemous to be so reluctant to read the Bible because one has to study. Why haven't I been thrown out of Bible college for this earlier?
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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i have a couple of suggestions for your exams:
NT1:
make sure you can recall a structural outline of Mark and Romans from memory. I don’t know what your knowledge of the books is like, but I have always struggled to remember where things are. Being able to say “In romans 5…” is very helpful. plus, a number of the questions can be answered almost entirely from understanding the structure and overall arch of the book. also, some of the mark questions actually map to Bolt’s structural demarcation.
OT1:
there is always a question on apocalyptic, because it is a section of the syllabus. and it is either specifically daniel, or ‘general apocalyptic’. which means if you study daniel and are aware of the other OT apocalyptic instances, you’ve got a gift question.
Personally, I planned on doing my two questions from the Shead material. It’s actually a tightly-focused content area, so if you master enough for one question, it’s not much further to go to have two up your sleeve.
I think that’s all my advice.
Duncan and Em at work are two people who have (almost?) all the West Wing on DVD. Tony says that watching West Wing makes him feel more productive, because he pretends to be one of the West Wing’ers at work: making snap decisions affecting the whole life of the company in the corridor, writing a life-transforming essay/speech five minutes before deadline, etc.
Seamus, thanks for being my online tutor—your advice is very helpful!
Guan, we should put a couple of turkeys in his office and get him to pardon one
Do you do all the budgeting, finance, cooking, employment for gaining income, serious decision making and all other responsibilities in a relationship… wowsers where can we all find a wife like that your amazing Karen!!!
Gee, thanks Adam! *looks embarassed* I only do it because if I don’t, this household won’t keep running. It’s a bit like being in survival mode: Ben can’t do a lot of things due to depression so the onus falls to me somewhat. I’m kind of on a mission to minimise stress in his life until he is able to handle it again. This makes the whole question of when to have kids a rather interesting one ...
Can I ask you a question…I read your comment “when to have kids” and it got me thinking…if you are physically able to have children (ie if you can get pregnant) and are married, then is it always a “when to have kids”. I mean is there ever a situation where one should not necessarily have kids? I was just wondering because I always hear at weddings that one of the reasons for marriage is for having and raising children. Since your comment seems to assume that it is a given that you will have children, I wondered if you could shed light on my query - you seem to be quite widely read and have access to people who might know!?!
I actually would like kids but it’s just something I’ve wondered about!
Hi Hez! Not sure if I can adequately answer that question but here’s what Ben wrote on the subject a couple of years ago. I’m still thinking it through.
Thanks so much! Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start in thinking about an issue so that article was helpful! I actually want kids but I was wondering if there are situations where you shouldn’t have them eg I have depression so I was wondering if perhaps it isn’t a good idea for me to have children without. Thankyou for pointing me to some verses to start with!