The difference five years make

Our little "SiByL" was born five years ago today. I'm missing out on SBL again this year, not because of Shoshana's birthday, but because I've already more than used up my annual "time away from family" allowance.

The birthday girl had a great day, despite the snow which arrived last week when this picture was taken.

Common English Bible: My New Favourite Translation

I am very tempted to acquire a printed copy of the Common English Bible to use in the classroom, because--based on my limited sampling--it is fresh, interesting, and seems often to go its own way. Take Acts 11:20, for instance: The CEB is the only translation ever (?) that says that in Antioch, the Christians from Cyprus and Cyrene broke new ground when they "began to proclaim the the good news about the Lord Jesus also to Jews who spoke Greek."

The NLT, by contrast, says they "began preaching to the Gentiles."

Behind these two opposing translations is a choice between the Greek words "Hellenist" and "Hellene." Most Greek manuscripts, including codex Vaticanus, opt for Hellenist. A few manuscripts offer the easier--and therefore less likely--"Hellene" or "Greek." In modern translations,  the NIV, NET, NAB and RSV choose "Greek," no doubt because it fits the context better (v. 19). The NLT equates Greek with Gentile.

The ESV, NRSV adopt "Hellenist", which is preferred by standard modern editions of the Greek New Testament. However, the ESV, at least, explains in a footnote that they take Hellenist to mean "Greek-speaking non-Jews." The problem is that in the two other instances where Luke uses the word, Hellenist clearly denotes Greek-speaking Jews, as the ESV note explains (see Acts 6:1; 9:29).

The CEB may be wrong here, but at least it is consistent--and thought-provoking!

Book of Undergraduate Blunders

To make marking essays more fun, I keep a book of undergraduate "blunders" in which I record student comments that make me smile. These entries from 2005-2007 are old enough to share without embarrassing my current students:

• The carpeted disciples: “Throughout the land, footwear was removed before entering the house, especially when entering an Upper Room which was very nice and often carpeted, like the disciples were.”
• Authorship issues: 
• “Paul’s authorship to the Ephesians ultimately provides the only hope for a world, which stands under divine judgment of sin.” 
• “Although there is evidence to support both theories, common view holds Paul as the main author of 1 Peter.” 
• Deification: “Martin [Luther] claims that these verses helps us surpass the first commandment which is: ‘I am the Lord your God.’”
• The divine plumber: “The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Godhead and works in many different faucets in our lives.”
• Truth trumps redundancy:
• “It may sound redundant to say that in order to be God, Jesus had to be God but this is true.” 
• “Taking off clothes and putting on clothes is a daily routine for almost all of mankind.” 

I'll save the story about Jesus healing the leopard, and the "parable of the sewer" for another time, for "Although scholars have come to believe that the bible is a manuscript that has been read from top to bottom, forwards and backwards, several times; there is still continuously new information being found in the ancient pages that much of society reads."

For more along the same lines, check out this twitter feed: @BibleStdntsSay

When God plays hide and seek

I was chatting with a friend from college a few weeks ago when we both started talking about one of the  most memorable sermons we have ever heard: Theology professor, Bob Seale, speaking from Isaiah 45:15--"Surely you are a God who hides himself"--and explaining in his own inimitable way that God hides himself because he wants to be found.

I think of that sermon every time I try to play hide and seek with my daughter, who takes "Ready or not, here I come" as the cue to shout out, "Here I am, Daddy, I'm over here! Come and find me!"

It took me a while to realize that she has it right: the best part is being found.

Sabbatical Dreams

As pre-writing for a sabbatical proposal, I took out a  piece of paper and wrote down the question, "What do I want to do on sabbatical?"

Since I've been thinking for a long time about the project I would work on in the event of a sabbatical, my answers surprised me:

• Get better at teaching languages. Read lots of Hebrew and extra-biblical Greek.
• Go to [insert developing world country], and teach there.
• Read primary sources and classic secondary sources for the sheer joy of learning.

This feels like rest, a real sabbatical, a break from the academic "publish and perish" rat race and the pressure of teaching seven classes a year, a chance to rediscover why I entered this vocation in the first place. I also expect it would do more to help my teaching than the major writing project I actually proposed.

Along the same lines, this description sounds very attractive:

"I have come a long way from where I was at the start of my sabbatical. The one activity I chose specifically to take me away from my work has become a central part of my work and of my life. As a professor, I am required to make reasoned and thoughtful professional plans, but going where my heart (rather than my head) led me has yielded unexpected, rejuvenating, and inspiring rewards."  - Dominick Scudera

(I should note that the fact that I submitted a sabbatical proposal is no guarantee that I will be awarded one. But I can keep dreaming.)

Productivity Tips for Academics

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently ran a series of articles on academic productivity. Unfortunately, most of them are behind a paywall, and all I saved are the bits I highlighted on my e-reader:

"No one employed in the professoriate today was forced into the career, and anyone who plays victim while holding a tenured or tenure-track position should be ashamed. We are distracted only when we allow ourselves to be so." 

"Andrew Mozina, an associate professor of English at Kalamazoo, uses a stopwatch to reserve time for crucial tasks. “I will say: OK, for the next hour, you will not check your e-mail, you will just grade papers.” This summer he’s working on writing a collection of short stories and a novel about a harpist preparing for a symphony audition. He sets the stopwatch for three hours each day so he can write." 

For her part, Marybeth Gasman, "tries to set aside six hours a day for writing, an enormous chunk by most academic standards." Indeed.

The quotations apparently come from this issue of the Chronicle, for those who have access to it.

In a slightly different vein, here is a commendation of the "Long, Slow, Constant, Mindful Writing Life":

The frenetic pace of academic writing these days has costs. The adage “quality over quantity” has been cast aside. As a result, we devalue the person who might take many years to make her own contribution to a field, as compared with someone who churns out an argument a week. This devaluing is intellectually unhealthy....[W]e must teach our students to balance their career aspirations with a care and deliberateness about their intellectual development, and an understanding that the dissertation is only the first project, the beginning of a learning process will take longer, probably a lifetime. Being a scholar is a life practice of reading, thinking, and writing, which, ideally, will lead to one or some (or many) meaningful works. Scholarship is not the mechanical pursuit of written products." - Imani Perry

Enough procrastination. Time to get to work.

Class Policy on Electronic Devices

My syllabi typically include the following statement of policy:

The use of electronic devices of any kind (including cell phones and laptops) is forbidden in this class unless prior approval has been obtained from the course instructor.

I know there are all sorts of ways that technology contributes to learning, but in my experience the potential distractions outweigh the benefits in a college classroom setting. This is how I put it this year:

There are other important events, like funerals, where you turn off your phone as a matter of common courtesy. This is one of them. We are paying attention to the message of the text. The text message can wait until after class.