First there are two ways to access your reading assignments.
One is by email. It's up to you to insure your email receives mail.
Two is by my blog(s). Actually onl;y one blog is current. It's called CHARISMA. That's where all the current assignments will be as well as former assignments. Search is seriatim (in order) by recency (most recent first).
You can also search handouts or posts by labels. For example, ESL, Film, etc.
I have many pictures on both blogs, some classified by class, some by name of person featured in the picture or by a film or Bible reference. Other pictures are on my Facebook page, which can be accessed by my email address. All my pictures have public access.
The other blog is called EPIPHANY and has similar materials as the other blog; the only difference is only CHARISMA has current assignments and announcements. So that's the most important blog. However a lot of worthwhile material for all my courses is on both blogs.
New students will recieve an invtiation to my blog, an automatic message sent by the blogs as soon as your email addresses are entered. I think you must have a gmail account for permanent (end of semester) access, so you may use another account for visting privileges. That doesn't mean, as far I know, that you need to change your email address in my class; so long as you have a gmail account, which takes about a few seconds to open, you are allowed long-term access to my two blogs.
As for the nature of the exam, it's objective (fill in the blank, multiple choice, sometimes T F). That's to minimize language problems. I want to know how much you know about the Bible, not how well you can express yourself in English about the Bible. I think that's a reasonable compromise; otherwise the teacher would guess what the student is trying to say and mark every essay with an undeserved high grade,, or do the oppoiste and mark every essay with an undeserved low grade.
A typical exam question might be, "Which Judge in the book of Judges do scholars interpret as a figure in an adapted sun myth? Obviously, after discussing this issue in the Bible class several times, this should not be a difficult question to answer. Another type question would be something like: "The first chapter of Genesis is attributed to which of the four writers mentioned in the Documentary Hypothesis?" Or, "The belief that the first five books of the Bible was collated by different authors, named J, E, P, and D is known by what name?" And so on. These questions may seem difficult for someone unfamiliar with Bible scholarship but they would not be difficult for someone who paid attention in class and read the handouts.
As for the student who wished to know how to use Bible Gateway, I don't know how to explain it better than it's explained on the website itself. It's fairly straightforward. (See the attached pictures.) One has to follow the left-sided menu, which allows options such as Topic Search, Text Search, etc. Each search requires different strings in the search box. One requires the actual Bible book, chaptter, and verse. Another requires a topic, such as Torah. Another requires a search string, such as "When I was a child," etc.
As for concordances and commentaries, one has to go to the left menu and choose the correct link (shown in my attached files). Of course one can also google for Concordances.
There are also icons one can choose below the text that allows one to go the previous chapter, next chapter, complete chapter, etc. There's an additional icon for the audio Bible, though obviously not every translation has that option. If you don't find an audio Bible keep searching for a translation that has that option. Then remember the name of the translation and use it whenever you wish to hear a text spoken, even though you prefer other translations to read.
In addition, most translations have hyperlinked words that will be defiined at the bottom of the page. If you have problems with one translation, use the driop down menu to find other translations of that verse until you think you understand it better.
There are several translations in simple or basic English. One is the World English Bible (WEB). Another is THE MESSAGE, praised by Bono, of the Irish Rock band, U2. There are both Old and New testaments in this translation, though there used to be just the New Testament. You can also buy these in stores. I've got a copy of the New Testament in the Message translation, which I bought from Page One in Taipei's tallest building.
Incidentally, you should learn about abbreviations and be able to recognize them. NIV (New International Version), RSV (Revised Standard Version), KJV (King James Version, RKJV (Revised King James Version). This may seem difficult at first but very soon (like minutes) you'll be able to recognize abbreviations. They're standard in scholarship or any literature on the Bible; and despite the wealth of translations, of course, only a portion of those translations are commonly used in biblical commentaries.
For new students, you should learn about dating. All dates before Jesus are given as BCE. BCE stands for "before the Christian era." It used to be BC ("before Christ") but scholars mostly stopped using that in deference to readers who were not Christian. The same with CE, which mean "Common Era." That is the era shared by everyone in the Western world. This of course is the same as AD (anno Domini, in the year of Our Lord) but it avoids using a religious standard to calculate dates.
As you know, in dating BCE years would go backwards; therefore, from 1000-500; whereas CE dates would go upwards, from 500 CE to 2010 CE, etc. of whatever the span of years is. So Jesus was born about 4 BCE and died about 30 CE, therefore he's usually said to have died about 33 years of age.
For those who missed last year, I can only summarize, or you can review my handouts on the blog.
The Jews divide the Tanakh (Testament) into the Torah (in Greek: the Pentatuech), the prophets, and the writings. ("Tanakh" is an acronym for these 3 divisions in Hebrew). "Holy Scripture" is another word; the Torah is also called the "Five Books of Moses," since it was once believed that Moses wrote these books, a belief discredited in the last couple of hundred years. Like BC and AD, the term the "Old Testament" is avoided by many scholars today, who prefer a term such as the Hebrew Bible; because to Jews their Testament is not old but current. For Christians that Testament has been superseded by the New Testament given by Jesus.
As for old or former assignments, new students can contact classmates or check the blog. All materials are on the blog. Not all, actually, but the main materials. I think th essay on the sublime and the beautiful, related to the book of Job, is on the blog.
I advise all students to keep in touch with at least one or two classmates. It always helps to have classmates from the same class in order to exchange ideas, latest assignments, etc.
As for the recent handouts I sent, that doesn't mean they will all be used next week or even the week after. But I'm sending them so you have advance reading and can read at your leisure.
Welcome to the class.
Richard.
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