Hello my beloved friends in Christ! The new year is upon us. Let us pause to offer to our great and majestic Father in heaven and His Son Jesus Christ all praise, thanksgiving and adoration for the time we have had in fellowship with Him and with one another as fellow Christians. Blessings from our Heavenly Father enrich our lives and strengthen us for service to Him and to our fellow man. There is much work to be done; so many people deprived and hungry, so much sickness and sorry, so many people who have yet to hear the gospel for the first time. May God give us an even greater vision and even more abundant resources to respond in His Name to those people in such great need.

We concluded the last issue with a few assignments. I hope you were able to study them and do the research necessary. Carl Jung is a major figure in psychology and his theories have and do influence many. I want to urge you to do the assignments and more. Take some time between issues to read more deeply into Jung’s theories and compare and contrast them with the word of God. We are not studying any of the secular psychologists for the sake of gaining knowledge and use of secular psychotherapy. No, we are studying these people to see what in the areas of psychology and psychotherapy is acceptable and unacceptable for use in Christian counseling. That is why each of us must do independent study and reading apart from what is in each issue. Each of us as Christian counselors must develop a Christian approach to the needs of our clients and that is a personal educational journey that culminates in each of us determining what we can and can not apply from the reservoir of learning in psychotherapy and psychology.

In this issue we want dig deeper into Jung’s thoughts, place and use of religion in his psychological theories.

In this issue of Women in Religious History we will complete our brief look at women in religion in ancient Greece by taking a look at the Oracle of Delphi and the Oracle of Dodona.

An oracle in ancient Greek religion was a priest or priestess who was an intermediary between God and man.  The uniqueness of this religious office in ancient Greek religion will become clear as we discuss the Oracle of Delphi and the Oracle of Dodona.

First, we should identify who or what and where are Delphi and Dodona in Greece.

Delphi is a city in the Peloponnesus of Greece north of the Gulf of Corinth in the valley south of Mt. Parnassus. Dodona is also a city in Epirus a region of Greece which fronts in the west the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, to the north Albania, to the east Thessaly and Macedonia, and to the south other Greek regions.

An oracle is a person who is thought to have special relations with God (small “g” for Greek gods) enabling him or her to convey various kinds of messages from God to suppliants seeking divine guidance.

The Oracle of Dodona is thought to be the oldest of Greek oracles, having begun in the 2^nd millennium BC, thriving over the centuries until AD 391 when Christians in the area brought it to a close. The origin of the Oracle of Dodona is disputed as is much of ancient pre-history.

Heroditus, the ancient Greek historian, recorded this mythical account of the origin of the Oracle of Dodona as told to him by priestesses of Dodona in the 5^th century BC:

“two black doves had come flying from Thebes in Egypt, one to Libya and one to Dodona; the latter settled on an oak tree, and there uttered human speech, declaring that a place of divination from Zeus must be made there; the people of Dodona understood that the message was divine, and therefore established the oracular shrine.”

A somewhat less allegorical account was told to Heroditus in Egypt by an Egyptian priest. Phoenician merchants kidnapped two Egyptian priestesses, one was taken to Dodona where she founded an oracle that came to be the internationally known Oracle of Dodona.

Over time, the Oracle of Dodona was associated with a number of gods and goddesses, among them were Mother Goddess, Rhaia, Gaia, Dione, Zeus.

The distinctive features of the Oracle of Dodona were the oak trees of the sacred grove and the rustling of their leaves, the sounds of doves and other birds, and the clinking of bronze cauldrons which were placed among the branches of the oak trees and were moved by the wind. In these events the messages from the Mother Goddess, Dione, or Zeus were to be understood and, then, transmitted to the suppliant by priestesses called Selli or priests called Selloi.

The grandeur of the Oracle of Dodona developed from its original natural setting through a number of vicissitudes: King Pyrrhus of Epirus and Macedonia built a temple to Zeus which was later destroyed; King Philip V of Macedonia in the third century rebuilt and expanded the temple which was later destroyed; and finally the Emperor Augustus rebuilt the temple in 31 BC. With the coming of Christianity in the region, the influence of the Oracle of Dodona steadily declined until its demise.

The Oracle of Delphi was the most famous of the oracles of ancient Greece. A priestess, called the Pythia, was the oracle who received and interpreted the messages of the god, the last being, and one of the most revered, Apollo.

The distinctive features of the Oracle were the priestess who was originally, according to legend, a young virgin girl, one of whom later left with a Thessalian young man, and thereafter, an older woman above fifty years of age whose reputation in the area was without reproach, an opening in the ground from which rose fumes to inspire the priestess, and a tripod over the opening on which the priestess sat to inhale the fumes.

The message from the god was spoken by the Pythia in riddles which gave the suppliant a wide latitude in which to understand and apply the “divine word.” The subject matter of the divine messages ranged from personal interests to international affairs. People of both humble and notable status consulted the Pythia, among whom we may mention Sophocles, Alexander the Great, and Croesus of Lydia.

Because the Pythia spoke in riddles, the suppliant was left, as I mention above, to understand and apply the “divine word” as best as possible. One classic case of misunderstanding is that of Croesus, King of Lydia (595-547) who consulted the Pythia at Delphi for “divine” guidance in his relations with the Persians, whether or not he should invade the Persian Empire. The Pythia told King Croesus “If you go to war you will cause the destruction of a great empire.” That, of course, was true. The problem for Croesus was that the empire to be destroyed was his own, not the Persian. Such was the ambiguity of Delphic “divine” utterances for the suppliants, who incidentally, often contributed great sums of money and kind for relevant revelations.

Here we conclude our brief and selective look at women in the history of Greek religion. Hopefully, you will take time to read in depth on the fascinating and regrettably so misguided human effort to understand God in the ancient world.

Next issue we begin with women in the history of Roman and Egyptian religion. When we complete that brief study, we will turn back to the scripture and the history of Israel to see the function of women in revealed religion and compare and contrast that information with what we have learned from the pagan religions.

May God bless each of you and your loved ones in the new year with every blessing in Christ Jesus.

                                                                                          Return to Vol II Issue 1

Greek                                                                                 Return to Vol II Issue 1

Greetings my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ! How great are our God and His Son Jesus Christ! Our hope! Our life! Our all! Are we on our knees as we think these thoughts? There is hardly a more appropriate place to be in thanksgiving and humility for Him who died for all of us who absolutely have no hope, no life, no anything without Him.

Let’s start this issue in Greek with a little different approach. Nothing earth shaking, mind you, but maybe a little fun, a little interesting, and a little eye opening! Can you beat that? Here is what we will do: I will type out a number of sentences in English taken from the New Testament, the version doesn’t matter since I am quite certain you will recognize them and know where to find them. For example, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.”  Heard that before? I can’t believe that you haven’t – many, many times! So what are you to do with it? Go to your Greek new testament (that’s the one written in Greek, interlinear is ok.), locate it in chapter and verse, take each Greek word, go to your lexicon and figure out what the root word is and define it. Keep in mind that many of the words you will come across are in forms that we have not studied yet, so it will be a challenge, but it is doable using your lexicon and textbook. You will definitely have a leg up on the assignment if you have an analytical Greek lexicon as it will have every form of Greek in the New Testament listed in alphabetical order with a reference to the root word from which it was derived. Then, you look up the root word and “behold!” – the definition of the word.

Now, I am telling you ahead of time – so no complaining about a sneaky, treacherous teacher – it will be challenging, but I know you can do it! So, go do it!! Here are a few sentences to wrestle with:

Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins;

He who believes and is baptized shall be saved;

Not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord.

Before we go to the grammar part of this issue in Greek, let’s have a “vocabulary fest”

I will give you a number of Greek words, some you have had and already know (that’s ok. A review is good.) and some you may not know. I am not sure how many I will give you here. I will just start typing Greek words until I wear out and, then, we will go to something else, grammar, for instance. Oh, by the way, you are to provide the markings on the words, breathing, accents. (Am I supposed to do everything for you?)

agaqo~    amartanw    ballw    blepw    gnwsi~    grafw  

dia    didwmi    eqno~    eirhnh    zaw    zwh   

qalassa    qliyi~    idio~    iscuro~    kalo~    khrussw

lao~    leipw    maqhth~    misqo~    neania~     nomo~

omoiow    opou    paidion    pa~    rhma    sarx   

tacew~    telo~    uper    upokrith~    fanero~    fobo~

cairw    creia    yeusth~    wra    w~    wste

Now, I am beginning to feel soft hearted, tender hearted; my heart is melting with pity and compassion. How could I so ruthlessly expect you to know the accents and breathings since we have hardly noticed they exist. Oh, a passing word or two about them, but nothing you can sink your teeth into in order to do them up right. Look! None of us wants a tacky Greek word around and, believe me, nothing is more tacky than a Greek word with the accent in the wrong place or the breathing backwards. Oh the humanity of it all.

 So, I think we should go right now into accents and breathing. That way, along with your own review and prior knowledge, you can spruce up those Greek words in their Sunday best!

Well, let’s start with the way they look – the accents, I mean. We will also give them a name. I mean it is a bit embarrassing not to have a name. Don’t you just get so tired of being called “hey, bud” or “hey, you” or “Mister, Mister” or “Mam, Mam”. We should wear signs bearing our names.

So, look at these funny creatures:

 

V    ;    `

Believe it or not, these are accent signs for Greek. And their names?

 

V acute

 

  ;grave

 

  `circumflex

Is the print too small? I am told that we remember a shocking episode almost perfectly, so I think we will remember acute, grave, and circumflex from now on.

Ok, what do they do and how do we know when to let them do their duty? Good questions and we’ll talk about that right here and now!

To begin, we will analyze the Greek word.

The last syllable is called the “ultima”

The next to last syllable is called the “penult”

The syllable before the “penult” is called the “antepenult”

So, let’s see how that works. Here is a word with three syllables:

anqrwpo~  (it means “man”)

The syllables in this word are:

an - antepenult

qrw - penult

po~ - ultima

That was a noun. The verbs now want to be heard and seen! Let’s take this one:

legw

What are its syllables and what do you call them:

le - penult   

gw - ultima

You notice that is a two syllable verb. Here is a three syllable verb:

lambanw

What are its syllables and what do you call them:

lam - antepenult

ba – penult

nw – ultima

Let’s do one more verb:

ecw  

Do you notice a difference between this verb and either of the other two verbs or the noun? In the previous 2 verbs and the noun each vowel is accompanied by at least one consonant. In this verb – ecw  - there are two vowels and only one consonant. In this case, the “e” is considered a syllable. The “cw” is a second syllable in the verb. The “e” is the penult ; the “cw” is the ultima.

So, now we know the names of the accents and we know the names of the locations of the syllables. How do we know where to place the accents in a word?  It depends on the long and the short of it.

In Greek, there are seven vowels: a, e, h, i, o. u, w. h is the long form of e; w is the long form o; e and o are always short; w and h are always long. a, i, u are sometimes short and sometimes long.

We will do a little more work with these fancy accent signs and, then, we will take on the diphthongs. (No! diphthong is not a name of a team. Just some letters that stick together.)

Here are some basic thoughts for accents. We will start with the acute accent:

The acute accent is recessive, that is, it goes back from the last syllable as far as possible according to the rules governing the movement of the accents.  The last syllable is the commander in chief of the location of the acute accent on a word:

The orders are: 

if the last syllable is long, then the acute accent is placed on the last syllable is short, then the acute accent is placed on the antepenult.

So, when is a syllable “long”? If the syllable holds a long vowel or a diphthong, it is long. If syllable does not hold a long vowel or a diphthong, the syllable is short.

Let’s take a look at words that show off the rules. Kind of know it all words.

Legw  - here we have two syllables. According to the information about syllables above, which syllable has a long vowel and a short vowel? Ok!  w is always long; e is always short.  Look at the word and decide which syllable has the long vowel and which has the short vowel.

According to the rules of the acute accent, the last syllable tells us where the acute accent is placed in the word. What are the rules? If the last syllable is long, the acute accent is placed on the penult; if the last accent is short, the acute accent is placed on the antepenult.

In our word legw we have only two syllables – an ultima and a penult. The ultima (last syllable) is long, so the accent goes to the penult. Of course, in this word, where else can it go – there are only two syllables, an ultima and a penult. So, let’s get us a three syllable word and see how the rules work with that one.

anqrwpo~ - here we have a final syllable with an o. Among the syllables, what do we know about an o? It is always short. And what do we know about an acute accent when the final syllable has a short vowel? The acute accent goes back to the antepenult. So, look at our word anqrwpo~ What is the last syllable? Where does the acute accent go?

Now that you have the rule about the acute accent down pat, I must tell you that there are other rules in different situations involving acute accents that run contrary to what you just learned. We want to keep the surprises to a minimum in our Greek study, so as we go along, there will be rule changes according to the situation. I mean, after all, who calls the same play every down in a football game. (Only the coach of the team I like, it seems.)

So, we will play around with this acute accent right along with the others, learning rules that exist only to be changed from time to time. So, stay on your tippy toes for this.

And what about the other accents, the circumflex and the grave. In a sense the grave is not really an accent; rather, it tells us not to accent the syllable and, instead, let the word flow right into the following word and observing the next word’s accent. There are rules governing the grave accent that we will get a grip on later. So, hang tough! We’ll get them pretty soon.

Now, the circumflex is unique in appearance. I like its flair, a semi loop over the vowel. Have you ever thought or dreamed about these Greek circumflex accents? Why they are so “different”. Well, it is a difference between ancient Greek and, say, English.  When we use an accent in English, we hammer the vowel. Everybody will know when we have used an accent. It is kind of like a sledgehammer to concrete effect. No aesthetics at all. But, now the Greeks, their words were melodic compared to ours. No one knows for sure the changes in pitch and quality of sound these Greek accents conveyed, but they did convey pitch change when applied to vowels. So, it seem the  ` started its sound at one pitch rose some degree to a higher pitch and descended to a lower pitch, possibly the original pitch. Kind of a rock and roll effect.

Just like the rules for the acute accent, the rules for the circumflex accent change according to situation. We can say here that the circumflex accent can be found on the penult and the ultima. It is the Prima Dona among the accents and would never allow itself to be seen with the antepenult.

The basic rules controlling the accents as well as the deviations from the rules will have to be learned by heart. (Have you ever thought how funny that phrase sounds? Learn by heart? I don’t think I have ever learned anything by my heart.) We will consider the basic rules and the deviations as we come to them in the study of the conjugations and declensions. Some are inexplicable! For instance, why is agaqo~ accented on the ultima while anqrwpo~ is accented on the antepenult? Both have three syllables and both end in o~  If you love a good mystery, you will love sniffing out the mysterious paths of the Greek accent as we prosecute our case.

We will turn now to one more bit of syntax – the third declension again. Remember that we took an introductory look at the third declension with a neuter noun. Now is a good time to review everything we said and illustrated about the third declension in the last issue.

Our focus of the third declension in this issue is on the lingual mute stems. Whoa!!! What is a lingual mute stem? It is a lot simpler than it sounds. Lingual has to do with your tongue; mute has to do with the stopping of the breath; stem has to do with that part of the word to which the ending is added. (Stem is not necessarily the same as the root of the word.) To get a sense of a lingual mute in Greek, say the word “delta”. Where is your tongue when you begin to pronounce the “d” ? Behind your teeth. What is your breath doing as you begin to pronounce the “d”? It stops! Try saying a “d” without your breath stopping at least momentarily? Can’t happen; no way! Ok! how about “t” and “th”. Same thing. Tongue and breath. Same effect. So, the name – lingual mute stem.

One of the Greek words commonly used to illustrate the lingual mute stem in the third declension is elpi~. If you don’t know this word, check you textbook vocabulary or your lexicon.

To begin, you must learn the genitive of this declension to know the stem word for the nominative ending. The genitive for elpi~ is elpido~. As we see, since we are using it, the nominative form of the word is elpi~. Remember from issue 8 that we drop the genitive ending to get the stem of the word. Now, the nominative ending – s - is added to the stem elpid to form the nominative case form of the noun. But what happens when you add s to d? d takes it on the lamb. It’s out of there. It drops from the stem and is replaced by the s so the nominative case noun looks like this: elpi~

You go through the same process for genitive stems ending in t and q.

There is this useful chart:

T, d, q plus s changes to s

Ok! Now we want to add to the stem elpid the endings that designate the cases of the third declension. The word we used in issue 8 is a neuter noun. elpi~ is a feminine noun. Is there a difference in the endings for neuter and feminine nouns in the third declension? Let’s see. First, review the endings of the neuter noun of the third declension presented in issue 8 and compare them with the following feminine endings:

Singular

elpi~ Nominative

elpido~ Genitive

elpido~ Ablative

elpidi Locative

elpidi Instrumental

elpidi Dative

elpida Accusative

Plural

elpide~ Nominative

elpidwn Genitive

elpidwn Ablative

elpisi Locative

elpisi Instrumental

elpisi Dative

elpida~ Accusative

We will deal with the accents of the third declension later. At this point, just make a note of the third declension case endings and how the feminine and neuter compare. Next issue we will do some more third declension study.

I think we should stop here. There are plenty of assignments to do before next issue. Keep up your good Greek work throughout 2009!

May God bless you and keep you and sustain you in all you do in His name in 2009.

                                                                                   Return to Vol II Issue 1 

 Hebrew                                                                      Return to Vol II Issue 1

Hello dear brothers and sisters in Christ! The new year is here. God has brought us this far and I pray that we have done all we can to bring honor to Him and His blessed Son and our Savior. We can’t make up for lost opportunities to serve and glorify His name but we can beseech Him that we never neglect or overlook an opportunity in the future. God be blessed now and forever in our hearts, minds, and souls.

Jingle “piel” Jingle “piel” Jingle all the way! Well, we just completed that season of cheer and good will but you may be thinking I stopped off at the wrong place for the source of cheer and good will. No! No! No! That little Jingle Bell revision is my new year’s way of introducing you to the Piel form of the Qal verb. Kinda corny, huh? I am pretty sure you know I didn’t lift it out of a Hebrew grammar textbook.

Let’s get on with the Piel form of the Qal verb.

Just a bit of encouragement – please go back to the previous lessons and review the Qal and Nifal forms of the perfect and the imperfect.  Review and repetition are vital to getting a command of Hebrew (or any other language, for that matter).

I am going to lay out the piel form of the perfect and the imperfect and then we’ll talk about them, sorta like neighbors over the backyard fence.

Piel Perfect of lf¾q;

lFeqi   3^rd person singular masculine

hl;F]qi  3^rd person singular feminine

T;iil]F¾qi  i2nd person singular masculine

T]l]F¾qi  2^nd person singular feminine

yTil]F¾qi 1^st person singular combined

WlF]qi    3^rd person plural combined

µT,l]F¾qi  2nd person plural masculine

÷T,l]F¾qi  2^nd person plural feminine

Wnl]F¾qi   1^st person plural combined

Piel Imperfect of lf¾q;

lFeq¾y]   3^rd person singular masculine

lFeq¾T]  3^rd person singular feminine

lFeq¾T]  2^nd person singular masculine

yliF]q¾T] 2^nd person singular feminine

lFeq¾a}  1^st person singular combined

WlF]q¾y]]     3^rd person plural masculine

hn:l]Feq¾T]   3^rd person plural feminine

WlF]q¾T]     2^nd person plural masculine

hn:l]Feq¾T]   2^nd person plural feminine

lFeq¾n]      1^st person plural combined

Let’s do some detective work. We don’t have a crime on our hands, but we do have a suspicious regularity among the piels that needs to be exposed for what its worth. Look carefully at the perfect and imperfect of piel. What do you see that is regular for each person, gender, and number? I think I won’t tell you. You probably already know, but in the event that you don’t, this will be a simple little investigative assignment for you. Determine what is regularly present in each conjugated form of piel throughout. We will tell you next issue in case you don’t find out by then. A textbook is a good place to start.

More detective work: compare all three forms we have so far: qal, nifal, piel. See what is identical or nearly identical and what is different among their conjugated forms.

On a different matter, what does the piel form of Qal express? Intensity! We have used lf¾q; (kill) for our example of the conjugations because the Hebrew word shows the conjugations without any particular complications that we would have with some verbs.

So, you might think how can you kill someone intensely. Good question. When we are dead, we are dead 100%. You can’t kill anyone “deader” so far as I know. Here, you would refer to the intense manner of killing or the unusual extent of killing, etc. There are verbs that express the piel more vividly. Take the English word “break”. In the piel, the idea would be “shatter”.

We will have a lot to say about the piel form of the qal. Here we have just the beginning of our consideration of the piel as with the other two forms. Next issue we will point out a few more things about the piel and we will also go into the pual and hiphhil forms of qal.

I want to mention the pronunciation of piel. Just to look at it you might think it is pronounced like peal (an orange peal) or like pile (like a pile of rocks) but it is not. I have not included in the English spelling of the word a critical marking – a rough breathing mark that should go just before the e in piel and create a sound like this: pihel.

The Hebrew is l˜ePi

In case some one is thinking about the little additions to the Hebrew words and screeming “What’s THAT!!!” Let’s begin the study in more detail of vowels and related matters. I will list some common vowel markings and some related markings. We will continue to build our list over time until we have enough of them to do our studies with ease. Please keep in mind that all the symbols I am listing below go under the letter with which it is associated with one exception which is at the bottom of the list. I will give the vowel symbol and an example (you will see them in action in the conjugations and declensions already given in the various issues), its name, and one pronunciation. Some vowels depend on the “opened and closed” situation of the syllable for its sound. We will discuss that a bit later. For now, the simple sound designations will work for the verb conjugations we have illustrated in the qal, nifal, and pihel

Vowel  Example  Name    Sound

;  q; name: qames    sound: a as in calf

Õ  qÕ name: hateph qames    sound: ah as in are

¾  q¾ name: pathach    sound: a as in fat

}  q} name: hateph pathach

]  q] name: simple shwa    sound:

²  q² name: seghol    sound:

Ô  qÔ name: hateph seghol    sound:

I  qi name: hireq    sound: i as in sing

E  qe name: sere    sound: a as in fate

U  qu name: qibbus    sound: o as in cone

 

The next vowel goes above the letter.

O  qo name: holem    sound: o as in home

There is much more to say about vowels and their representations in Hebrew. It is important – indispensible – that we learn these vowels, their representations, and their applications in all verb forms and declensions, otherwise we will be lost in the Hebrew soup and I do mean lost. So, take the time to digest each little bite that we put on our plates in these issues. 

Well, dear brothers and sisters, there is enough in this issue to keep us busy for a month (and much longer). We’ll put on the brakes here, throw the gear into park, and spend some time at our desks pouring over this issue and, hopefully, a review of all the previous issues. Keep up the great work.

God bless you all.                                                                            Return to Vol II Issue 1

Books, Media, Blogs, and Resources by the Brethren              Return to Vol II Issue 1 

BOOKS

Dr. William Denton: “CrossTies Devotionals”  at this link:  http://www.lulu.com/content/18924                                                   “Real Bible Study 4 Kids”  at this link: http://www.lulu.com/content/267194

Dr. Phil Sanders: "Adrift: Postmodernism in the Church" at this link:            http://stores.homestead.com/GospelAdvocateCompany/Detail.bok?no=111
                          "Let All The Earth Keep Silence" at this link: http://www.starbible.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=41&products_id=193&osCsid=0c5f71ff6aa8b3f45d57222728d52d1c

Dr. Daniel H. King Sr:

Hebrew and Hellenistic Thought in the Book of Wisdom

We Have a Right,  Responsibility and Authority in the Spiritual Realm

At the Feet of the Master Teacher

Commentary on the Gospel of John

Commentary on the Epistles of John

Commentary on the Book of Hebrews

The Days of Creation, Searching for Happiness?

Ezekiel

all of Dr. King's books at this link: https://www.akcart.com/truthcart/products.aspx  Enter author's last name in Search space at the lower left hand side of this site to view these books

Dr. Donald Givens: Storms of Life: A Commentary on Ecclesiastes at this link:  
                                                                                  www.amazon.com search keywords: "storms of life, don givens"

Dr. Gary Hampton:  The following books at this website http://www.hesterpublications.com/

Christ is Superior: A Study of the Letter to the Hebrews                                               Developing Patient Determination (1-2 Peter)                                                                       God's Way to Right Living
In the Beginning (Genesis)
Letters To Young Preachers
Practical Christianity: The Letter of James, Brother of our Lord
Strengthening the Temple of God: A Study of I Corinthians
That You May Know (Letters of John and Jude)
The Earliest Christians: A Study of the Acts of the Apostles
The Sufficiency of Christ When God Ruled Israel (Joshua and Judges)
Unseen Hand This book available from http://www.publishingdesigns.com/

Teresa Hampton
The following books available from http://www.publishingdesigns.com/

Leading Ladies                                                                                                                    Come to the Garden

The following books available from  http://www.hesterpublications.com/

Illuminating Shadows
Jesus and His Relationship with Women
Let the Little Children Come (Co-Author)

Stephen M. McQueen: You Can You Know You Can at this link: http://www.amazon.com/You-Can-I-Know/dp/1412054206/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226464690&sr=1-2   

BLOGS
James Chaisson Blog Learn New Testament Greek - http://www.learnntgreek.org/index.php
An excellent blog for discussion, study, and research. Brother Chaisson is  doing a fine work.

RESOURCES
Lewis A. Armstrong Christian Resources - http://www.christianresources.i8.com 
Christian resources for all your church of Christ related resources for online research. This site supports the needs of the brotherhood for easily finding internet resources.
Brother Armstrong is for former librarian for the Libraries and Archives for Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas.

Return to Vol II Issue 1

                                                                                Return to Vol II Issue 1

                                        Dr. Gary Hampton Biographical Information

 Gary C. Hampton has been preaching since 1968 and has done work in North Little Rock, Arkansas; Mobile, Alabama; Valdosta, Georgia and Cookeville, Tennessee.  He is now serving as the director of the East Tennessee School of Preaching and Missions in Knoxville, Tennessee.  He graduated from Freed-Hardeman University with a B. A. in Bible in 1976, received his M. A. (1996) and PhD. from Theological University of America (2006).  Hampton has 18 books in print and has written for The World Evangelist, The Voice of Truth International and the Gospel Advocate.  He has preached in 25 states and done mission work in 5 foreign countries.  Gary and his wife Teresa have two children, Nathan and Tabitha.

                                             Teresa Hampton Biographical Sketch                                                              Teresa Hampton has spoken to women across the U.S., Canada, and Scotland.  She has written four study books for women: Illuminating Shadows, Leading Ladies, Come to the Garden, and Jesus and His Relationship to Women.  She coauthored Let the Little Children Come, a three-year complete curriculum for Vacation Bible School, and is currently working on another book. She also writes and sends a devotional e-letter called Wellspring.

Teresa is married to Gary C. Hampton. She and Gary have two children, Nathan and Tabitha. In the summer of 2006, Gary was named director of East Tennessee School of Preaching and Missions, in Knoxville, TN. Gary and Teresa reside in Knoxville, TN, and work with ETSPM under the oversight of Karns Church of Christ.   

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Volume II - Issue 2 - February - 2009          Return to Free Religious Study Journal Directory     

Church History

Colossians    

Christian Counseling   

Women in Religious History   

Greek  

Hebrew

Books, Media, Blogs, and Resources by the Brethren

Introducing Newsletter Evangelism by Glenn Davis






Church History                                                                      Please click here to return to Volume II Directory

In the last issue, we mentioned the characterization of certain cities as Apostolic Sees and discussed briefly and generally the Apostolic See of Alexandria, the development of the title of Metropolitan and the provinces under the supervision of the Metropolitan of Alexandria.

Also in the last issue, an assignment was given for you to continue your study of Alexandria and the remaining Apostolic Sees.

Besides the Apostolic Sees, we will note other cities important to the continuing development of Christianity in the Roman Empire and other regions.

In these cities began the early and gradual digression by church leaders from the revealed form of organization, worship, and doctrine.

Organization

In the earliest extra-Biblical Christian literature there is evidence of change and alteration, innovation and creation of extra Biblical offices in the Church of Christ. When we consider the accumulation of extra-Biblical church offices we must keep in mind a rather long view of church history, continuing even to this day. From the first there is evidence of individuals and congregations elaborating and imposing new levels of authority and control over not only local and separate congregations, but also the entire Church of Christ throughout the extent of it geographical reach.

Here is an assignment for early organizational development of the Church. The assignment will cover the first 500 years of the church’s existence. The “500 years“ is approximate; go beyond that if you wish, but for now 500 years are far enough ahead at this time.

In completing this assignment, please keep in mind that a number of regional church polities developed that stress not only different offices of the church but also different functions for the same offices of the church held through all Christendom of the time. For example, among the largest will be the development of the hierarchy of the church of Rome in the West and the Byzantine church in the East. We have not really dealt with the various polities but your research will bring them to light as you research the development of the hierarchy and church offices and function.

Next issue, I will highlight some of the more significant developments during this period, but it will necessary for you to do serious research on the topic of church organizational development in the first 500 years to gain a complete understanding of the enormous divergence from the simplicity of the New Testament church organization.

It is important to note, also, in your research the effects that the development of the hierarchy had on all phases of church life and Christian living.

Included in this assignment is the request that you take particular note of important and leading figures in the development of church organization and leadership and their contributions to the church.

I would like to mention that my personal view is that most of what we will read in what is called ‘church history” would be better called “human church history” or “history of church digression”.  But, for the sake of convention, I will refer to “church history” with an implied qualification of digression. Almost at every point in the life of the church as we know it in the New Testament, over the centuries men through the development of extra-Biblical offices and authorities have corrupted the simplicity of doctrine, worship, and Christian living. Concomitant to that, of course, is a parallel awareness of the need for reform that continually was brought to the foreground of history by individuals who in some way sought to return the corrupted church to its New Testament foundation.

Worship

New Testament worship is a simple, uncomplicated experience of praise, devotion, and renewal in the lives of Christians celebrating and remembering what God has done through Jesus Christ on their behalf.

Your assignment is to research the development of worship in the first 500 years of church history. Please keep in mind that what was originally a straightforward expression of faith and commitment became a blend of mysterious, convoluted exercises of Roman legalism and Byzantine mysticism most often rooted in Greek philosophy and its derivations.

In your research, it will not be enough to discover the various acts of worship; it will be necessary to determine why the acts of worship developed as they did and what was their theological and philosophical origin and their significance in the religious thought of their time.

Doctrine

Doctrine cannot be separated from faith, worship, service, and Christian life.  For example, how you consider the relationship of God to Jesus of Nazareth will determine every other consideration you have about Christianity and its meaning and purpose. How you consider the nature of the elements of the Lord Supper will indicate your assumptions of sacramentalism.  How you consider the organization of the church will determine your understanding of sacerdotalism. Throughout all Christianity doctrine holds a fundamental key to its understanding.

The assignment is to research the doctrinal developments, debates, and resolutions of the first 500 years of the church. In this, you should take notice not only of the doctrines themselves, but also the leading figures of the doctrinal positions, what is at stake for them beyond religious conviction, and how the resolution of important doctrinal issues had both religious and political implications for church, government, and society.

In the next issue we will begin to discuss these developments in organization, worship, and doctrine among others within the setting of their times. Since it will not be possible in this journal to go into the greatest of detail in the categories of our interests, it is very necessary that you take the month between this issue and the next to read broadly and in as much depth as possible on the subjects I have raised for the first 500 years of the church. In the next issue we will begin to discuss each of those subjects. To gain the most benefit from our study of those topics in this journal your independent is absolutely necessary.

So, please use this next month to commit yourself to this study and these assignments.

God bless you all.                                            Please click here to return to Volume II Directory

Colossians                                                      Please click here to return to Volume II Directory

Hello beloved brethren! Welcome to our study of Colossians.

In this issue we begin our direct discourse analysis of Colossians. As we closed last issue we were to study a fictional letter by responding to a list of questions pertaining to the elements of the letter, their meanings, and the overall meaning of the letter in its entirety. Additionally, each of us was to write a fictional letter and apply the same list of questions to that letter with the intention of analyzing its various meanings at the various levels of literary composition.

By the time we arrived at this issue we have read Colossians a number of times with specific purposes for each reading. If you should be a new participant in this study of Colossians, please go to Volume 1 and begin reading through the previous issues leading up to this issue. That background material will assist you in proceeding more successfully in this and later issues of our study of Colossians.

We have mentioned that discourse analysis is concerned with individual words, individual sentences, combination of sentences, paragraphs, groups of paragraphs, and the letter of Colossians as a unity. In this issue we will begin with the each paragraph of Colossians.

The first assignment is to read Colossians and analyze the text whether in Greek or English into paragraphs that meet your requirements as you understand them for a paragraph. This assignment assumes that you have researched what a paragraph is, the possible methods of constructing a paragraph, the possible purposes of a paragraph, the internal relationship of the sentences and the words in the paragraph, and the relational connections if there are any between the paragraph preceding and following the paragraph under consideration.

This assignment is best worked on the level of the original language. For those who have some command of Greek will acknowledge that paragraphing the Greek text of Colossians is quite different from the paragraphing seen in the English translation. That should be no surprise since no language makes sense when translated literally word for word. The same is true of paragraphing. The challenge for any student who has or does not have command of Greek is to know where Paul would have drawn his paragraphs if he had written in paragraphs. What can we find in the Greek text that acts as clues that  justify the paragraphs we arrange in our translation?

If you do not know Greek or have little facility in Greek, perhaps you should purchase an interlinear Greek-English text and compare the Greek text and the interlinear English to one or two translations for every sentence and paragraph that you consider and analyze. In that way you may gain a sense of the need to analyze the Greek text for proper paragraphing. Please keep this in mind: for every English translation some one or some group of persons had to make a judgment about the paragraphing of the translation. At best, it is a result of a subjective skill; at worst, it is the result of a theological agenda. It is your responsibility to bring your best scholarship and judgment to the task.

The second assignment is to isolate pivotal paragraphs around which the preceding and following paragraphs adhere. For example, when you have paragraphed the entire book of Colossians, identify the pivotal paragraphs and the preceding and following adhering paragraphs. For each pivotal paragraph and its adhering paragraphs, state in one sentence if possible, but certainly briefly what the central idea is of the pivotal paragraph and why it attracts the adhering paragraphs. When that is completed determine the secondary idea  (secondary to the central idea of the pivotal paragraph, but the central idea of the adhering paragraph) of the adhering paragraphs and to what extent the adhering paragraph relates to the central idea of the pivotal paragraph and to what extent the adhering paragraph is independent of the pivotal paragraph.

 he third assignment is to determine how the pivotal paragraphs relate to one another in forming a more comprehensive but sectional meaning of the combined relationship. If any or all of your pivotal paragraphs do not relate to either adhering paragraphs or other pivotal paragraphs, determine their independent meaning in the Epistle of Colossians.

The assignments are rather detailed and will require your best analytical skills whether in Greek or English or both and will require as much understanding of Paul’s prior experiences with the church and as much understanding of the people of Colossae, their culture, society, prior religions, history as possible. Much research time in the text and in secondary literature is required for a successful completion of these assignments. So, we will conclude this issue here. Give these assignments as much time as you can and make your best effort in every step.

God bless you and, God willing, we will all be back together next issue.  Please click here to return to Volume II Directory

Christian Counseling                                                  Please click here to return to Volume II Directory

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus and God His Father! It is a great blessing to gather with you again around this issue of the study of Christian Counseling.

In this final take on Carl Jung, we will talk about his methods of therapy with specific emphasis on dream therapy.

Before we enter into that discussion, I have an assignment for you. What is “synchronicity” in the scheme of things for Carl Jung and what is its importance to his  psychotherapy? Since this is Jung’s term, you might also consider into what theologies and philosophies it has had an effect by way of assimilation into new contexts.

We have spent the past two or three issues elaborating to some extent the content of Jung’s psychological program. We have discussed such points as archetypes, etc. This would be an excellent time to review the recent issues of this journal that deal with those subjects since it will be important to have them in mind as we discuss in this issue his practice of therapy with clients or patients.

In a way, you might say we are doing the “nuts and bolts” of the Jungian therapy in this issue. But, being people who are discriminating as to fantasy, myth, and fairy tales, you might have difficulty seeing anything concrete and verifiable in empirical terms in Jung’s therapy. Indeed, that is not Jung’s problem only but endemic to all systems of psychotherapy – no way at all to determine the factualness of the delineation of their systems. For instance, with Jung alone, how is an “archetype” as a reality verifiable under any circumstances? It is a working hypothesis something akin to the Tooth Fairy. One is as provable as the other. Now, this is not the time to critique the weaknesses of Jung and secular psychology, but it is convenient to raise the issue of truth and fact and assumption and premise. Do you really want to trust your mental health and the consequences of it to theories delineated completely from the imagination?

The ultimate goal of Jungian therapy is “individuation” We have mentioned, defined, and discussed this term in a previous issue, so, rather than present it again, please review the earlier issues on Jung. I will just mention here that “individuation” is the end product of successful Jungian therapy that unites the conscious and the unconscious for the best of all possible worlds for the individual client. In the process of “individuation” a client will encounter unconscious archetypical complexes among which are two of the primary oppositional psychic forces: the shadow complex and the animus/anima complex.  We have discussed these complexes in previous issues. Please take a look at them. Dream therapy brings these archetypes to the level of consciousness and, therefore, to the reconciling processes of therapy.

As we enter into discussion of Jung’s dream therapy, we should be aware of these additional Jungian methods of therapy, among them are:

Symbol Analysis

Free Associations

Active Imagination

Here is another assignment for you:

Research each of those methods and evaluate them within the Jungian system. Describe how he uses them.

As we begin our brief look at Jung’s practice of therapy, it is appropriate to describe in outline the relation between client (patient, if you prefer) and therapist.

Jungian therapy casts the client and therapist as equals in the process toward individuation.  The exchange in conversation and discussion is best termed dialogue as the client and therapist journey together in a process that is also an exploration. The conversation and discussion take a form of dialectic as new realities are brought forward and synthesized (reconciled).  Jung considers each dialectic synthesis a new transcendental reality, combining both positions of the dialectic into a new reality different from each separate dialectical position alone.

The client has a “story” according to Jung and it is this “story” that is the subject of the dialogue. Jung wrote:

“The patient who comes to us has a story that is not told, and which as a rule no one knows of. To my mind, therapy only really begins after the investigation of that wholly personal story. It is the patient's secret, the rock against which he is shattered. If I know his secret story, I have a key to treatment.”

Dream therapy is a primary Jungian method of composing the “story” and connecting the conscious with the unconscious. The activity of the unconscious mind is out of the direct reach of the grasp of the conscious mind but the unconscious mind holds the secrets of the resolution of many of the problems a client experiences for which he/she seeks therapeutic help. It is the role of dream therapy or dream interpretation to elucidate, however abstrusely, the meaning of the unconscious activity as it relates to the resolution of the problems confronting the conscious mind. The details of the dream, however bizarre, cast light on the conscious concerns and puts in images the present tense activity of the unconscious. In a sense a dream is a pictorial language cast up by the unconscious to be deciphered and understood for its beneficial effects on the client. Needless to say, there is great difficulty in gaining a true translation of something so phantasmic as a dream.

The dreams that are beneficial have no presumptive setting or restraint as to theme, characters, or appearance of reality. They literally can be anything, but, according to Jung they have a healing message from the unconscious to the conscious for the therapist and the client alike to explore, discover, translate, and apply. Dreaming something as simple as living in a different community can be a message of some import to our psychic needs that we must understand as unconscious language communicating some therapeutic truth to our situation.  A word of caution in our comprehension of this language from the unconscious and our subsequent translation is to not literalize its meaning. If we dream of life and death, we should not take the dream of life and death to refer literally to our life and our death, but symbolically to change we are experiencing by leaving behind former life contexts for new, fresh, unexplored regions of  new life contexts

The relation of a dream to the finalization of individuation is the relation of the part to the whole. Each dream bears a bit of the Self and, in the sum of the dreams, combined with the conscious forms a psychic whole, the foundational reality of Individuation. While there is much more to be said concerning Jung’s dream therapy and I suggest that you take some time to read further on the topic, we can summarize in a few sentences the method of securing individuation through dream interpretation:

1. the client dreams at random, it appears;
2. there is no inherent meaning to the dream that prohibits multiple interpretations within varying contexts;
3. the dream is a relative mental phantasm;
4. the number of dreams combined into a composite psychic complex becomes the
5. subject of interpretation;
6. neither the therapist nor the client is aware of its meaning initially;
7. the therapist and client proceed to an interpretation and conclusion through a number of methods each of which should reveal aspects of dreams that tend to adhere and form meaning relative to the cause of the psychic condition for which the client seeks help;
8. although the therapist assists, participates, guides, etc., only the client can have the ultimate epiphany of the meaning of his/her dreams that points to the resolution of his/her disturbance and to the ultimate goal of individuation;

In bringing this brief study of Carl Jung to a conclusion, it is important to notice that ultimate truth as absolute is not an element in the therapeutic process since both the negative and positive psychic states are the product of the personal unconscious reconciled to the conscious; therefore, no appeal to God in the Judaic-Christian understanding is considered; the entire therapeutic process is a humanistic endeavor.

Next issue we will begin a brief study of another mainstream therapeutic approach with emphasis on leading exponents of the approach. In the meantime, please continue to read on Carl Jung’s therapeutic system and note where the Bible and Jung part ways and where they may coincide. Is there anything in Jung’s system that you believe will assist you in being a better Christian counselor?

God bless you until next time.                                                     Please click here to return to Volume II Directory

Women in Religious History                                                       Please click here to return to Volume II Directory

The history of ancient Rome arises in legend and myth and declines in ineptitude and fatigue. The beginning of Rome is assigned the date of 753BC and its end is assigned the date of 476AD with the dethronement of Emperor Romulus Augustus. This period of history spans more than 1,000 years of human experience associated with the city of Rome. All western history subsequent to the decline of the Roman Empire bears varying shades of the lasting influence of the city of the Casears.

Our study is not so broad as to cover all aspects of Roman civilization. Rather, we will include enough of the political and social formations as they evolved over the centuries to provide a background for understanding the role of women in the Roman experience with specific emphasis on the experience of women in religion. At that, we will cover several centuries only in an abbreviated digest while focusing our more elaborate detail on women and the variety of their social, political, and religious affiliations and activities.

We will trace our journey into Rome on dual trails – myth and fact (fact as best we can know from the 8^th century BC)

Our mythological trail begins in the legendary past of the Trojan War.  Although there are different accounts of our trail and differences among the accounts, the general outlines of our trail are similar throughout. The importance of the mythological trail lies in its connection with the mythological foundations of Rome and the subsequent history of Rome that drew on the myth of its origin. The myth itself is Greek in origin but adapted by the Romans to support the views they held of themselves. So, let’s briefly survey this myth.The myth centers around a Trojan character named Aeneas who fled Troy after its defeat at the hands of the Greeks. A favorite of the gods – his father, Prince Anchises, a human, his mother, Venus, a goddess – Aeneas was commanded by the gods to leave Troy. After traveling about the Mediterranean, Aeneas arrived in Italy with companions who are known as the Aeneads.

In Italy, Aeneas married and became the progenitor of a virulent family tree. A later descendent, Rhea Silva conceived twin sons – Romulus and Remus – whose father was the god Mars. Due to the fact that Rhea Silva had earlier become a Vestal Virgin, a significant element in Roman religion we will discuss later and had vowed to remain a virgin in service of the gods, Romulus and Remus were condemned to death, but rescued by the king’s servant who set them afloat in the Tiber River which, upon overflowing its banks, left the baby boys on the shore. At that point, a she-wolf finds them and takes them to nourish. Later, Tiberinus and his wife Laurentia took the boys and raised them. It is Romulus who as an adult founded Rome in 753 BC, having killed Remus over the location for the city, so says one version of the myth.

I should mention there is much more to every aspect of the myth of Aeneas than I have here condensed. It will be interesting reading and informative as to belief and superstition of those times.

Fact is often less flamboyant than fiction and a condensed version of the facts is a bit more earthy than the fictional version. As we all know, there are seven hills in the region of Rome and from these hills in the 8^th century BC various settlements and peoples came together for self defense. As separate settlements, the people were subject to invasion and military action from those outside the region. There is much history involved in the coalescing of the people of the 7 hills, but we must skip all of it since it will have no bearing on our main theme – women in Roman religion. But, I do urge you to read extensively in this period concerning Rome and its neighbors.

Monarchy prevailed in Rome until 510BC when a republic was formed. The Republic continued until Augustus Caesar in 27BC when the empire began. It is not necessary to recite the history of these periods but it is important to be aware of them because certain social, political, and religious aspects of ancient Roman life begun in one period often continued into and through the next period, many aspects having both direct and indirect affect on women of Rome and women in the religion of Rome.

I am going to give an assignment at this point. I am going to list some words for you to research. The words fall roughly into Roman political and social categories and familiarity with their meanings and importance in Roman history will assist us in gaining a background to our thoughts on the role of women in Roman society and Roman religion. I am pretty certain that you know them from previous study so consider this assignment just a refresher for the sake of creating a selective context for our main issue: women in Roman religion. Some of these words we will include specifically in our discussion together; others we will leave hovering in the background of our thoughts so as to give a continuity of context to our discussion. As you see, I am listing them alphabetically, not categorically. Hopefully, alphabetizing them will assist you in finding them in reference materials.

Aedile

Auctoritas

capitis deminutio

Censors

Clementia

Collegium Pontificum

Consul

Cultus

Dignitas

Equestrians

gens

Gravitas

Humanitas

Ingenui

Ius gentium

Lares

Latin Rights

Cum suffragio

Sine suffragio

Libertini

Marriage in manu

Marriage sine manu

Mos Maiorum

Nobilis

Novus homo

Optimates

Pater Familias

Patria Potestas

Patricians

Penates

Peregrini

Peregrinus

Pietas

Plebeians

Pontifex Maximus

Populares

Praetor

Principate

Proconsul

Proletarii

Quaestor

Religio

Senate

Slaves

Tribune

Twelve Tables

Veritas

Virtus

This list of important Roman political and social terms will enable you to construct a framework for your thinking as we pursue women in Roman religion. Do your best to gain some sense of their meaning and involvement in Roman political and social life both in the Republic and Empire.

Now, I am giving another assignment with two parts.. The first part of the assignment asks you to research the role of women in the Republic and the role of women in the Empire. The second part of the assignment asks you to research the role of women in Roman religion for both the Republic and Empire.

The time, context, and content of all of the assignments are vast in their scope. Since I will not be able to cover in great detail the progression of events in Roman political and social life significant to the role of women for 1,000 year in issues dedicated to the role of women in Roman religion the assignments will give you an opportunity to gain a background for the information that we will be able to cover in an issue or two.

I think you should be able to research all of the terms and the role of women in both Roman society and Roman religion over the next month until the next issue is published. As we go along in the next issue or two, we may introduce a few terms not listed but the terms listed should give you a perspective on what we will discuss.

God bless you in your dedication to learning and service. See you next month.

                                                                                     Please click here to return to Volume II Directory

Greek                                                                            Please click here to return to Volume II Directory

Welcome to our study of Greek. This study is primarily for those who have had some Greek, perhaps at least the equivalent to a semester of Greek at the college level. However, I know many very bright brethren who have undertaken the study of Greek as an independent study and have become very skilled in the syntax and semantics of Greek. So, if you have not had Greek in any formal sense and have not before undertaken an independent study of Greek, you can do very well with our study provided you are willing to go the extra mile in the sense that you will dig out basic information that we are assuming our learners have in their command currently.

The study of Greek is the source of much personal satisfaction. After all, our New Testament is written in Greek and we should rejoice at the opportunity to renew our skills in reading the original languages. We ourselves are not only blessed but we also are  enabled by our study of Greek to provide insights into and understanding of our Lord’s revelation to congregations and  individuals that we might not always find in the English translation.

Last issue we left off with the third declension. Think of the third declension as a “blind date” in high school. Ever have one? If so, you may have thought “wouldn’t it be nice to go out with that person again.” Well, I am sure you are feeling that way about the third declension and you are about to get your wish – only this time it is a double date: you and I are both going out with the third declension nouns in this issue. I am going to show you my third declension date; but you are going to have to show yours between now and the next issue because the assignment will be for you to practice declining some third declension nouns. Should be great fun!

We renewed an old acquaintance last issue (at least those of us who have had Greek before; for those of you who haven’t, I hope you hit it off well with your new acquaintance.) – the lingual mute stem. In this issue we will take a look at another noun in the lingual mute class that is a bit different from the third declension noun we reviewed last time.  Here it is

Lingual mute

Singular

nux

nukto~

nukto~

nukti

nukti

nukti

nukta

Plural

nukte~

nuktwn

nuktwn

nuxi

nuxi

nuxi

nukta~

f course, we do not practice snobbery here so we expand our circle of acquaintances to include the friendly third declension form with the palatal mute. Do you recall the palatal mutes? Check out our previous studies or check out palatal mutes in a textbook you may have. I am sure you will determine what a palatal mute is. Let me introduce you to

two very useful palatal mutes:

mastix

sarx

Palatal Mute – g

singular

mastix

mastigo~

mastigo~

mastigi

mastigi

mastigi

mastiga

plural

mastige~

mastigwn

mastigwn

mastixi

mastixi

mastixi

mastiga~

Palatal Mute – k

singular

sarx

sarko~

sarko~

sarki

sarki

sarki

sarka

plural

sarke~

sarkwn

sarkwn

sarxi

sarxi

sarxi

sarka~

Let me introduce you to this unusually nice family of third declension nouns with liquid stems in er  We will take a little time to get better acquainted with one of them – anhr We’ll get better acquainted with this family as we go along, more nouns with the liquid stems in er I’m pretty sure you know some of them now, for instance, pathr

mhthr, qugathr. Kinda sounds like a family. But, for now, let’s tackle the declension below.

Liquid stems in er

singular

anhr

andro~

andro~

andri

andri

andri

andra

plural

andre~

andrwn

andrwn

andrasi

andrasi

andrasi

andra~

The variety of third declension nouns is not infinite; it only seems that they are. We will take up yet more third declension nouns in the next issue. Before long, maybe in another issue or two, we will review all noun declensions, so now is the time to be looking back over the issues of this journal or your textbooks for the first, second, and third declensions for nouns.

At this point we are turning to a new topic – participles. They, too, are a lot of fun and make reading and translating Greek very exciting and interesting. As we go along, we will discover just how boring and dull and simplistic any language would be without participles. Language would read like a phone book.  Ugh!

So, we return to an old verb friend to begin our introduction to participles. We will pretend we are on a see-saw (surely you have had the thrill of your playmate abruptly getting off his end of the see-saw while you were high in the air on your end of the see-saw. Some what like a meteor hitting earth when you come down.) As I say we will pretend we are on a see-saw. I will be high in the air in this issue by presenting a declension of a participle; you will be high in the air during the month leading to the next issue by studying all you can find out about participles. I am only going to present in this issue the declension with no comment. You must do the grunt work for next issue.

The verb we will use for the participial declension is our old friend luw

I am going to give you a heads up on the participles – they are declined in masculine, feminine, and neuter forms. I am giving only the masculine form here. Part of your study for the next issue is to dig around to see what the feminine and neuter forms are like. Oh, yes, I should also point out that the participle is declined in more than one tense (we will have more to say about tense and participles as we go along). I am declining luw as a present active participle in the masculine gender, singular and plural. You may recognize that description as “parsing” and you are right. It will be very important to be able to parse the participles and we will get to that in time. But, for now, let’s see-saw on the masculine participle.

 singular

luwn

luonto~

luonto~

luonti

luonti

luonti

luonta

plural

luonte~

luontown

luontown

luousi

luousi

luousi

luonta~

In the various declensions of nouns and participle we have looked at in this issue, you have noticed that a few things are missing such as no indication as to case, translation, and accents. There are reasons for those “gaps”. The primary reason as students, we should take the challenge to determine from our research how to fill the gaps and that is part of the assignment for next issue. We will cover all of those aspects of the declensions later, but it is important for us as students to dig around on our own to see what we can come up with. 

This should be enough for an enjoyable month in the study of Greek. New stuff to learn; new opportunities to apply what you have already learned and mastered! And practice, practice, practice – everything that we have covered with especial emphasis on the Greek noun declensions and the participle presented in this issue. Why not go to your Greek text, select a chapter and see forms that you recognize from our study these past months and parse each word and translate it?

God bless you until next time.                         Please click here to return to Volume II Directory

Hebrew                                                         Please click here to return to Volume II Directory

Hello my dear friends and brethren. How great is our God! His mercies abound to us with forgiveness and renewal through our Lord Jesus Christ with the blessed hope of living forever with Him and the redeemed of all ages. Can there be a greater vision, a greater motivation, a greater reward than the assurance of the His promises! May God bless each and all as we humbly serve Him through His gospel of grace.

This issue we add to our verb repertoire by adding Pual and Hiphil verb conjugations for the perfect singular and plural and the imperfect singular and plural for each verb form.

We will play a little cat and mouse with these conjugations. I don’t care who is the cat and who is the mouse. But, the game is this: recalling what you know about verb endings from the Qal verb form, parse the spelling of these examples of Pual and Hiphil below.  You should be able to tell what verb form, for example, is 2^nd person singular feminine Pual or Hiphil just by looking at the verb conjugations. There is nothing new about identifying the gender and number and person. We haven’t gone into any detail yet on the meaning of Pual and Hiphil so a correct translation is not necessary here, but I do think  you actually could provide a translation from the material we have covered in earlier issues, only not in detail. Give it a go and see what you come up with. Parse Away!!!  Oh! Don’t worry about the changes in spelling that you see from form to form. We will get into all of that soon. Just concentrate on identifying person, number, and gender of the verb forms.

PUAL CONJUGATION

Perfect

Singular

lF'qu

hl;F]qu

T;l]F'qu

T]L]F'qu

yTil]F'qu

Perfect

Plural

WlF]qu

µT,L]F'qu

nT,l]F'qu

Wnl]F'qu

Imperfect

Singular

lF'quy]

lF'quT]

lF'quT]

yliF]quT]

lF'qua}

Imperfect

Plural

WlF]quy]

hN;l]F'quT]

WlF]quT]

hN;l]F'quT]

lF'qun]

HIPHIL CONJUGATION

Perfect

Singular

lyfiq]hi

hl;yfiq]hi

T;l]f'q]hi

T]l]f'q]hi

yTiL]f'q]hi

Perfect

Plural

Wlyfiq]hi

µT,l]f'q]hi

÷T,l]f'q]hi

Wnl]fq]hi

Imperfect

Singular

lyfiq]y'

lyfiq]T'

lyfiq]T'

yliyfiq]T'

lyfiq]a'

Imperfect

Plural

Wlyfiq]y'

hn;l]feQ]T'

Wlyfiq]T'

hn;l]feQ]T'

lyfiq]n'

Ok, you have completed the little game. Well done. I would say that the effort for this game is worth 4 “attaboys” or “attagirls”. Congratulations.

Next, let’s get in reverse gear and do some big time travel back – say, a few issues back. The purpose: compare all the verb forms you know with each other. It’s kind of like a beauty pageant or a fashion show. (You might want to ask your wife to join with you in looking at all the various designs and patterns!) You will want to notice the spelling of each conjugation and conjugated form. You will want to know why a perfect third person masculine singular in Qal looks different from the same person in Pual. And the beat goes on! Do that comparison with all the conjugations you know up to now. Don’t be in a hurry. Look at the detail. Ponder why? How could it happen? Why did it happen? (Beginning to sound like a soap!) As you know or soon will know there is a reason for all the little changes of detail and spelling in the various conjugations.

So, let’s take a little extra time to get well acquainted with the verbs. They are always going to be around in Hebrew and some of them get down right persnickety in a sentence and grammatical structures. The more time you take to learn the basics now, the smoother the ride will be later.

If you do the comparisons properly you will have enough material on your plate to take up your spare study time for Hebrew. So, we will not go into new syntax or semantics this issue. But, we will add a few Hebrew words. Some in this list will be repeats and that’s fine. It is one way of getting a review of words you have studied before. Now, don’t be discouraged if you do not recall every word and its meaning. The best way, as you well know, to learn words in any language is to use them in a context. We will begin to do that before very much longer. Although we will start with simple “made up” contexts and simple selections from the Hebrew text itself, our goal, of course, is to become proficient in reading the text of the Old Testament with a minimum of lexical use. It should be really exciting arriving at that point.

So here are a few words:

hb;h}a'    love      

hm;yae    fear, dread, terror

rw—B      pit, cistern   

Jw—tB]    in the midst

rw—BGi     warrior  

dw—D      beloved

nhe         behold, if   

rk;z;      male, man

hn;j;      to encamp

rw—hf;    clean, pure

That pretty much takes care of this issue in Hebrew. Keep studying diligently and reviewing frequently – important keys to learning this language.

God bless you all.                                               Please click here to return to Volume II Directory

Books, Media, Blogs, and Resources by the Brethren

Dr. William Denton: “CrossTies Devotionals”  at this link:  http://www.lulu.com/content/18924                                                   “Real Bible Study 4 Kids”  at this link: http://www.lulu.com/content/267194

Dr. Phil Sanders: "Adrift: Postmodernism in the Church" at this link:            http://stores.homestead.com/GospelAdvocateCompany/Detail.bok?no=111
                          "Let All The Earth Keep Silence" at this link: http://www.starbible.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=41&products_id=193&osCsid=0c5f71ff6aa8b3f45d57222728d52d1c

Dr. Daniel H. King Sr:

Hebrew and Hellenistic Thought in the Book of Wisdom

We Have a Right,  Responsibility and Authority in the Spiritual Realm

At the Feet of the Master Teacher

Commentary on the Gospel of John

Commentary on the Epistles of John

Commentary on the Book of Hebrews

The Days of Creation, Searching for Happiness?

Ezekiel

all of Dr. King's books at this link: https://www.akcart.com/truthcart/products.aspx  Enter author's last name in Search space at the lower left hand side of this site to view these books

Dr. Donald Givens: Storms of Life: A Commentary on Ecclesiastes at this link:  
                                                                    www.amazon.com search keywords: "storms of life, don givens"

Dr. Gary Hampton:  The following books at this website http://www.hesterpublications.com/

Christ is Superior: A Study of the Letter to the Hebrews                                               Developing Patient Determination (1-2 Peter)                                                                       God's Way to Right Living
In the Beginning (Genesis)
Letters To Young Preachers
Practical Christianity: The Letter of James, Brother of our Lord
Strengthening the Temple of God: A Study of I Corinthians
That You May Know (Letters of John and Jude)
The Earliest Christians: A Study of the Acts of the Apostles
The Sufficiency of Christ When God Ruled Israel (Joshua and Judges)

Unseen Hand This book available from http://www.publishingdesigns.com/

Teresa Hampton
The following books available from http://www.publishingdesigns.co 

Leading Ladies 

Come to the Garden

The following books available from  http://www.hesterpublications.com/

Illuminating Shadows
Jesus and His Relationship with Women
Let the Little Children Come (Co-Author)

Stephen M. McQueen: You Can You Know You Can at this link: http://www.amazon.com/You-Can-I-Know/dp/1412054206/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226464690&sr=1-2   

BLOGS
James Chaisson Blog Learn New Testament Greek - http://www.learnntgreek.org/index.php
An excellent blog for discussion, study, and research. Brother Chaisson is  doing a fine work.

RESOURCES
Lewis A. Armstrong Christian Resources - http://www.christianresources.i8.com 
Christian resources for all your church of Christ related resources for online research. This site supports the needs of the brotherhood for easily finding internet resources.
Brother Armstrong is for former librarian for the Libraries and Archives for Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas.

                                            Dr. Gary Hampton Biographical Information

Gary C. Hampton has been preaching since 1968 and has done work in North Little Rock, Arkansas; Mobile, Alabama; Valdosta, Georgia and Cookeville, Tennessee.  He is now serving as the director of the East Tennessee School of Preaching and Missions in Knoxville, Tennessee.  He graduated from Freed-Hardeman University with a B. A. in Bible in 1976, received his M. A. (1996) and PhD. from Theological University of America (2006).  Hampton has 18 books in print and has written for The World Evangelist, The Voice of Truth International and the Gospel Advocate.  He has preached in 25 states and done mission work in 5 foreign countries.  Gary and his wife Teresa have two children, Nathan and Tabitha.

                                          Teresa Hampton Biographical Sketch                                                              Teresa Hampton has spoken to women across the U.S., Canada, and Scotland.  She has written four study books for women: Illuminating Shadows, Leading Ladies, Come to the Garden, and Jesus and His Relationship to Women.  She coauthored Let the Little Children Come, a three-year complete curriculum for Vacation Bible School, and is currently working on another book. She also writes and sends a devotional e-letter called Wellspring.

Teresa is married to Gary C. Hampton. She and Gary have two children, Nathan and Tabitha. In the summer of 2006, Gary was named director of East Tennessee School of Preaching and Missions, in Knoxville, TN. Gary and Teresa reside in Knoxville, TN, and work with ETSPM under the oversight of Karns Church of Christ.   

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INTRODUCING  NEWSLETTER EVANGELISM BY GLENN DAVIS 

Introduction To Newsletter Evangelism     
 

          How many of us remember the 1950's and 60's and all the evangelism and growth going on then?  Today most congregations are declining and going out of existence!  The Christian Chronicle recently did a series of articles under the title of “Are We Growing?”   A summary of the series concluded that for the most part, we are not growing!  That means precious souls are being lost on a daily basis and congregations are being lost on a yearly basis. 

          It doesn’t have to be this way.  I personally use an extremely effective form of evangelism that will work for any person or congregation that uses it.  If every congregation in the brotherhood used it, we would become the fastest growing church on the planet.

          What is this method?  I call it newsletter evangelism.  It involves passing out a series of about 25 different newsletters to homes in your area by church members who volunteer to have “paper-routes” of the size of their choosing, for about a 3 month period.  After passing out the series of newsletters, members then go into the community and meet these fine people, which becomes an enjoyable, warm, welcoming experience.

          By first distributing these newsletters over a short period of time, people get to know of the congregation through these newsletters and form a very favorable impression of the church through the newsletters.  When someone finally shows up to their home, they will find that these neighbors have already welcomed your congregation into their homes many times over and have enjoyed your company while not yet having met one of your members.

          The church is transformed from a group in the community that didn’t have much of a favorable rating to a group that now has about a 90% favorable rating, thanks to the newsletters.  When follow-up work is then done, it is done in a very enjoyable environment, rather than a more hostile, unpleasant one.  This makes personal evangelism a successful and fun experience.

          No one enjoys doing things that they are not successful at and is not fun to do.  After using this approach prior to starting any evangelism effort, success and fun can once again be a part of personal evangelism in each and every congregation!

 Contact Glenn Davis and he can give you more details on how you can get started doing newsletter evangelism.  It is now being taught at major preaching schools and bible colleges and universities.  You, too, can benefit from this wonderful approach to personal evangelism.                                                           Telephone:  (714) 523-2435
Email:  newsletterevangelism@yahoo.com

IMPORTANT NOTE  I hope you will join us in the use of this Free Religious Study Journal. However, if you do not want to receive this journal, please indicate your decision and the state of your residence (or country if not in US) by using the following e-mail address: admin@theologicaluofa.com

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Volume 2 - Issue 3 - March 2009                     Return to Free Religious Study Journal Volume Directory
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Church History                                               

Colossians

Christian Counseling

Women In Religious History

Greek

Hebrew

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Issue 3 - March - 2009 - Church History                   Return to Vol.2 Issue 3 March 2009   

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Welcome to our continuing study in the history of the church. We are taking  up topics in this issue that were presented in outline form in our last issue. Please review last issue to gain a context for this issue./O:P>

Worship

Simplicity to complexity; faith to philosophy; meaning to mysticism. These succinct contrasts summarize the development of Christian worship from the beginning to the close of the period of the ancient church and beyond. The evolution of these contrasts is slow, steady, and summary. No activity of worship is left in its original definition in the multitude of theological formulations and depictions produced by the various centers of leadership in the church.

The evolution of Christian worship is subtle in its sequences of development and innocent of willful intent in its distortion, erosion, and corruption of Christian expression. The entire evolution of worship away from the word is cumulative and contiguous. The changes are not abrupt disturbances or oppressive impositions; rather, the changes are rational extensions of the evolutionary “DNA” of humanistic concepts of worship. That is the crux of the matter: humanistic concepts supplanting revealed concepts of worship.

The difference between humanistic concepts and revealed concepts of worship has many tributaries broadening and deepening the evolutionary flood that swept away the primitive, revealed worship of the early church. A nuance here, a new word there; an accommodation to the situation here; a lapse of concern there; and much more.

A rather straightforward recollection by an early witness to the church as early as the second century described what was then considered to be an acceptable and scriptural occasion of Christian worship. But was it?

Justin Martyr shares his views in his First Apology written in the second century AD. This is a treasured work that has informed friend and foe alike of the simplicity and benevolent nature of Christian worship. I am quoting a rather lengthy passage which, no doubt, many of you, if not all have read. As you read, identify any suggestion of change in the form and usage and insertion of words and actions Justin uses to portray worship and related activities.

 “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.”

What did you find? Anything? Sounds very innocent and direct. So, is there anything Justin writes that catches your attention regarding subtle movement from the word?

What is the office of president in Justin’s comment and what are his duties and why?

Did you notice anything unusual about the Lord’s Supper?

Is there something missing in the collections of contributions?

And what about the reasons for the common meeting of Christians on Sunday? Is Justin entirely correct?

Once again, we turn to Justin for further consideration of movement from the word as regards the Lord’s Supper. He writes,

“For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Savior, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.”

Notice anything here about the Lord’s Supper? Is there a possible suggestion of an idea that gained overwhelming acceptance and became divisive not only in the ancient world between east and west but also between Catholic and Protestant during and after the Reformation? To this day, the development and extrapolation of that notion continue to set asunder any hope for unity of Christianity.

I do not think Justin was a deliberate purveyor of digression. When I read words from his pen such as the following I can only conclude that the man was a sincere and devoted Christian as he understood it:

". . . in order that we may offer hearty prayers in common for ourselves and for the baptized person, and for all others in every place, that we may be counted worthy, now that we have learned the truth, by our works also to be found good citizens and keepers of the commandments, so that we may be saved with an everlasting salvation. Having ended the prayers, we salute one another with a kiss.”

And here is the insidiousness of the nature of digression: many men and women truly committed to Christ haven’t the faintest idea that they are bearing forward false and unscriptural worship.

Where did digression begin? Obviously, in the New Testament. You know the references in the New Testament to brethren who were bending and breaking the scriptural order. There was no abatement of that trend by individuals and congregations not mentioned in the Bible. The earliest records outside of the Bible are records of drift and distance from the safe shores of what we now know as the Scriptures. Then, especially early on, the brethren did not have the sure guide bound in a book for easy reference and dissemination. No doubt, many brethren in the ancient world never saw a single word of inspired writing; most of the brethren who did have the opportunity may have seen no more than an excerpt or a singe epistle or Gospel at most. There were many problems associated with availability of the word. One was certainly the inability on the part of many to read. So, when we add up all the forces that mitigated against solid, scriptural, orthodox worship, it is no wonder honest, committed Christians were led away. What are our excuses?

By the time John the Apostle died, the Lord’s Supper had already undergone liturgical transformations which more elaborate and mystical detail would embellish. Perhaps our earliest source for this is the Didache, an ancient pastoral work dated by scholars any where in the neighborhood of 50 to 150 AD. I will quote a section and point to some subtleties of form and faith.

“Concerning the thanksgiving (tēs eucharistias) give thanks thus: First, concerning the cup: "We give thanks to you, our Father, for the holy vine of David your servant which you have revealed to us through Jesus your servant. To you be glory for ever." And concerning the fragment: "We give thanks to you, our Father, for the life and knowledge, which you have revealed to us through Jesus your servant." But let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist, unless they have been baptized into the name of the Lord; for concerning this also the Lord has said, "Give not that which is holy to the dogs." After you have had your fill, give thanks thus: We give thanks to you holy Father for your holy Name which you have made to dwell in our hearts and for the knowledge, faith and immortality which you have revealed to us through Jesus your servant. To you be glory for ever. You Lord almighty have created everything for the sake of your Name; you have given human beings food and drink to partake with enjoyment so that they might give thanks; but to us you have given the grace of spiritual food and drink and of eternal life through Jesus your servant.  Above all we give you thanks because you are mighty. To you be glory for ever.  Remember Lord your Church, to preserve it from all evil and to make it perfect in your love. And, sanctified, gather it from the four winds into your kingdom which you have prepared for it. Because yours is the power and the glory for ever”. ...

The incipient traces of liturgical form are the formalized prayers that are to be uttered with the Lord’s Supper (soon to be known as the Eucharist). The suggestion is that the prayers as presented in the text of the Didache are to be recited everywhere everytime, thus formalizing and universalizing a structure of liturgy, the essence of liturgical form.

The proper participation in the Lord’s Supper had begun also to require a hierarchical sanction. Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of the Apostle John, wrote letters to the faithful in which he reflected a divergent practice as early as the closing of the first century AD.

“The Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which flesh suffered for our sins, and which in His loving-kindness the Father raised up. ... Let that Eucharist alone be considered valid which is under the bishop or him to whom he commits it. ... It is not lawful apart from the bishop either to baptize, or to hold a love-feast. But whatsoever he approves, that also is well-pleasing to God, that everything which you do may be secure and valid."

"Give heed to keep one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup unto union with His blood. There is one altar, as there is one bishop, together with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants; that whatsoever you do, you may do according unto God."

Look very closely at these two passages. What do you see as a root of hierarchical development and control of liturgy? How does it contrast with the New Testament?

What do you make of these statements:

“The Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which flesh suffered for our sins, and which in His loving-kindness the Father raised up. ...

"Let that Eucharist alone be considered valid which is under the bishop or him to whom he commits it

“whatsoever he (the bishop) approves, that also is well-pleasing to God, that everything which you do may be secure and valid.

“There is one altar, as there is one bishop, together with the presbytery and deacons

Clearly, there are the seeds if not the actuality of transubstantiation (The word “transubstantiation” was assigned to the Lord Supper much later, but is a culminating expression of what appears to be developing early in the history of the church.). Further, the supervening authority of an incipient hierarchy is evident – there is one bishop without whom the scriptural activities of worship cannot occur and without whose condoning pronouncements a Christian’s religious activities are invalid, if not heretical. But, we will discuss the growth of hierarchical authority in a later issue; here we mention the growing authority of the bishop as it relates to Christian worship in general and the Lord Supper in particular.

The theological slide of the Lord’s Supper from meaning to mystery and from supper to sacrifice is borne out ever more profoundly in the writings of early theologians. In the next issue we will continue to observe the theological development of the Lord’s Supper.

As an assignment for next issue, please research the Church Fathers through the 5^th century AD with respect to worship and hierarchical development. Note the similarities and differences in the development of eastern and western worship and hierarchy. Identify significant individuals contributing to the development of worship and hierarchy, east and west. As best you can determine from your research, describe the worship of the church, east and west, existing in the 5^th century AD and the prevailing hierarchical offices of the church, east and west.

God bless you. And, God willing, we will meet back here next month.      Return to Vol.2 Issue 3 March 2009

Issue 3 -- March - 2009 - Colossians                                                Return to Vol.2 Issue 3 March 2009    
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We will continue in some respects the assignment from last issue. Assuming that you had the opportunity and time to complete the assignment, we will take up with a brief discussion of paragraphing and, then, set out some examples from the Epistles to the Colossians both in Greek and in English, giving each of us the choice of languages in which we choose to work. /p>

 Keep in mind “discourse analysis” – that’s the point of these current studies in Colossians. In a few issues we will combine our former issues on Rhetorical Analysis with Discourse Analysis along with a substantial exegesis of the text in order to gain as complete a sense of Colossians as we can. At that point, each of us will determine the proper understanding of the Epistle of Colossians.

 Today we will start with a little exercise. The purpose of this exercise is to sharpen our sense of paragraphing and complete thoughts expressed in paragraphing. You recall in the last issue we emphasized the relationships of paragraphs to one another and the relationship of the internal structure of individual paragraphs. Then, we discussed the broader meanings of paragraphs taken in larger contexts even to the point of all paragraphs in Colossians. There are many valuable insights to gain through that detailed paragraph study, not the least of all it will help us to avoid isolating scripture as proof texts.

 Here I will place a couple of passages involving two parallel English version texts with the Greek text to the side. These passages in both languages will have no verse and no chapter numbers, they will begin at same point in verse and continue for a few or more verses perhaps ending in the middle of a verse or its beginning or ending.  The assignment is to analyze the selections and determine what needs to be done to make them a unity and coherent. What is missing? Even if you find statements within the selections that you feel are a resource for a sermon topic or lesson or a point to be made, you have not done the assignment. You have to determine why the entire selection is not meaningful and what is missing and what you have to do to make it meaningful. Be very specific in your answers to these questions. Also,  the assignment includes looking at the difference in the English translations, such as the translation itself, its phrasing, tenses, grammar, punctuation marks, etc. – in a word – everything. Why are the English translations different? What difference does it make that they are different? What do you make of the italicized words found in one text but not the other? What do you make of the differences in tense forms for some of the same verbs in the two English versions?  If you can work in Greek, compare the Greek to the two English translations to determine where the translations are on focus and where they are not. Do you have clues from the Greek why the two translations are different? Are both translations equally faithful to the Greek text? Last of all, how does all of this contribute to understanding the meaning of the message of the Epistle of Colossians?

 Ok! Here are the incomplete passages:

 1.

 

you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it/span> doth also in you, since	you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since	ὑ.μῖν ἐν τοῖς οὐ.ρα.νοῖς, ἣν προ.η.κού.σα.τε ἐν τῷ λό.γῳ τῆς ἀ.λη.θεί.ας τοῦ εὐ.αγ.γε.λί.ου τοῦ πα.ρόν.τος εἰς ὑ.μᾶς, κα.θὼς καὶ ἐν παν.τὶ τῷ κόσ.μῳ ἐ.στὶν καρ.πο.φο.ρού.με.νον καὶ αὐξ.α.νό.με.νον κα.θὼς καὶ ἐν ὑ.μῖν, ἀφ' ἧς ἡ.μέ.ρας

 2.

 

your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.	your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.	εἰ γὰρ καὶ τῇ σαρ.κὶ ἄ.πει.μι, ἀλ.λὰ τῷ πνεύ.μα.τι σὺν ὑ.μῖν εἰ.μι, χαί.ρων_ καὶ βλέ.πων_ ὑ.μῶν τὴν τάξ.ιν καὶ τὸ στε.ρέ.ω.μα τῆς εἰς Χρι.στὸν πί.στε.ως ὑ.μῶν.
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:	Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,	Ὡς οὖν πα.ρε.λά.βε.τε τὸν Χρι.στὸν Ἰ.η.σοῦν τὸν κύ.ρι.ον, ἐν αὐ.τῷ πε.ρι.πα.τεῖ.τε,
Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.	having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.	ἐρ.ρι.ζω.μέ.νοι καὶ ἐ.ποι.κο.δο.μού.με.νοι ἐν αὐ.τῷ καὶ βε.βαι.ού.με.νοι τῇ πί.στει κα.θὼς ἐ.δι.δάχ.θη.τε, πε.ρισ.σεύ.ον.τες ἐν εὐ.χα.ρι.στί.ᾳ.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.	See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.	βλέ.πε.τε μή τις ὑ.μᾶς ἔ.σται ὁ συ.λα.γω.γῶν_ δι.ὰ τῆς φι.λο.σο.φί.ας καὶ κε.νῆς ἀ.πά.της κα.τὰ τὴν πα.ρά.δο.σιν τῶν ἀν.θρώ.πων, κα.τὰ τὰ στοι.χεῖ.α τοῦ κόσ.μου καὶ οὐ κα.τὰ Χρι.στόν,
For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.	For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,	ὅ.τι ἐν αὐ.τῷ κα.τοι.κεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλή.ρω.μα τῆς θε.ό.τη.τος σω.μα.τι.κῶς,
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:	and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;	καὶ ἐ.στὲ ἐν αὐ.τῷ πεπ.λη.ρω.μέ.νοι, ὅς ἐ.στιν ἡ κε.φα.λὴ πά.σης ἀρ.χῆς καὶ ἐξ.ου.σί.ας,
In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:	and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;	ἐν ᾧ καὶ πε.ρι.ετ.μή.θη.τε πε.ρι.το.μῇ ἀ.χει.ρο.ποι.ή.τῳ ἐν τῇ ἀ.πεκ.δύ.σει τοῦ σώ.μα.τος τῆς σαρ.κός, ἐν τῇ πε.ρι.το.μῇ τοῦ Χρι.στοῦ,
Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye	having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also	συν.τα.φέν.τες αὐ.τῷ ἐν τῷ βαπ.τίσ.μα.τι, ἐν ᾧ καὶ συ

 I think these two selections will be enough for this assignment because they will require quite a bit of time for analysis and reconstruction.

 Now, let’s turn to some thoughts about paragraphing, keeping in mind that an epistle is made of a combination of many elements leading to meaning and application. In discussing paragraphing we will also be developing the background to smaller and larger segments of meaning that point toward the overall meaning of, in our case, the Epistle to the Colossians.

 What is a paragraph? We write them all the time and probably never pause to ask ourselves, “What is a paragraph?” So, what is a paragraph? Take a few moments to write down what you think a paragraph is? What do you attempt to accomplish when you write a paragraph? What sentence elements do you include? How do you know when you have written a paragraph? How do you know when you have completed a paragraph?

 A paragraph is one of those human inventions of communication that is simple, but we study in English classes every year for 12 years in public school some aspect of writing  paragraphs. even from the first grade where we learn the alphabet and how to spell simple words. If it is so simple, why do so many of us still not know how to write a paragraph by the time we finish high school? If it is so simple, why are there so many bad paragraphs (I include myself in that group of bad paragraph writers, as you, no doubt, are willing to testify.) Apparently, we never completely learn how to write a paragraph with machine like consistency, simple though it be.

 Let’s see just how simple it is, by definition.

A paragraph is a collection of sentences the first of which is the topical sentence the inner sentences of which are supporting sentences to the topical sentence followed by a closing sentence that presents a conclusion to the paragraph. I hope that definition makes sense. I think I will put it in outline form:

 1.Topical sentence

1. first supporting sentence
2. second supporting sentence
3. third supporting sentence

2.Sentence concluding the paragraph

 I illustrated the paragraph process with 3 supporting sentences; you can have as many as you need to illustrate the topic.

 Now, we come to an interesting dilemma for translators and for us who are seeking understanding through discourse analysis. The paragraph that we learn in school and look for in English translations may well be a superficial imposition on a Greek text that was written with no concept of a paragraph as we have it in contemporary English literary composition.  The paragraphs you see in the Greek text are later manipulations of the text by scholars seeking unity, coherence, and, we might say, discourse analysis.

 So, how do you handle that situation? You come to a text. You think “I better divide this into paragraphs”. Then, you think, “How do I know I divided the text into the proper paragraphs with the proper structure?” Well, you may never know for sure. The only alternative is for all of us to learn Greek, locate copies of the original manuscripts or copies of the original manuscripts and read them exactly as we find them – a very tough process that most of us would never have time to do. So, we do the best we can and, then, debate the differences.

BBut, there are hints and helps. We aren’t merely afloat on the sea of obsfucation; nor are we merely deer in the head lights. We have some stuff to bring to the party. In the next issue, we will take them up and go more into the paragraph and larger and smaller contexts for our paragraph. We will also have more text to analyze as we did earlier in this issue. But, for right now, do the assignment above and we will work the rest in subsequent issues.

 God bless you and, God willing, let’s get together again next month.     Return to Vol.2 Issue 3 March 2009

Issue 3 - March - 2009 - Christian Counseling                           Return to Vol.2 Issue 3 March 2009

                                                                                 Theological University of America                           
                                                                                  info@theologicaluofa.com

Welcome back, dear brothers and sisters!

 I want to keep reminding us that we are studying Christian counseling. It is necessary to keep reminding us of that fact since we do spend a considerable amount of time in this period of this study discussing secular psychology, psychotherapy, and psychologists/psychotherapists. It is in no wise unanimous or even majorative that Christian counseling should follow any of the dictums, systems, or techniques of secular psychology/psychotherapy. As a matter of fact, many Christian scholars have made cogent arguments against using anything of secular psychology/psychotherapy, but rather  rely on the teachings of the Bible in all matters with which psychology/psychotherapy are concerned and on counseling patterns found exclusively in the Bible. As we proceed with this study we will give ample space and time to share the views of those Christian scholars. Our purpose in giving the secular psychology/psychotherapy systems and applications in counseling is to provide a reasonable background to the alternative to strictly Bible based counseling. After having presented those two sides in this study, we will go back to our early case studies and apply, compare, contrast, and assess what should be in the tool box of a Christian counselor and what should not. Of course, no one can make the definitive answer for anyone else. You as a counselor in prayer and study of God’s word will make your own determination as to the relationship of secular counseling and Bible based counseling.

 For now, we will continue our brief and selective overview of secular psychology/psychotherapy and psychologists/psychotherpists.

 You will recall in one of the earlier issues we began our study of secular psychologists with Sigmund Freud. Then, we turned to one of his protégés and former colleagues, Carl Jung, both Freud and Jung having some fundamental principles of psychology and psychotherapy in common and some not in common and it was the fundamentals not in common that lead to the estrangement between Freud and Jung. But, there were other notable Freudian protégés who also departed from the patriarch’s ways, for example, Alfred Adler and Karen Horney, both seminal figures in the history of systems of psychology and psychotherapy generally based upon and derived either from the agreements or disagreements they had with Freud. I mention them not to continue a study of Freudianism and his protégés but to suggest that you read in Adler and Horney to extend your conception of psychodynamic variable systems.

 In this issue we take another psychologist/psychotherapist and his system which represents a turn to a different direction for our study.

 It is apparent that not everyone in psychology could accept the Freudian system. Some rejected it because it failed the “scientific” character test; some thought it was completely unverifiable in any objective or empirical way; some thought that psychodynamics was more a humanities enterprise than a scientific biological one; and on it goes. One scholar in particular, Paul Ricoeur, determined that psychodynamics was a type of hermeneutics because of the language interpretation involved in the process of psychodynamic therapy. His term for the hermeneutics is the “hermeneutics of suspicion”. He found in psychodynamics a concern for the multiple meaning of the words used by patients and the effort to find meaning which, in Ricoeur’s view, had the effect of destabilizing language and creating deception and ambiguity in what otherwise is straightforward expression of content.

 So, to introduce a bit of a change in systems of psychotherapy we turn to Carl Rogers.

 Carl Rogers was a contemporary for many of us, maybe all of us at some age, who are reading this issue. He was born in 1902 and deceased in 1987, Unlike Freud, Jung, Horney, and Adler, Rogers/st1:City> was born in the state of Illinois in Oak Park just outside of Chicago. His mother was a Christian according to her understanding of the word and Rogers was influence heavily by her convictions and Christian demeanor.

 Rogers at this stage of his life was not unlike a lot of us seeking to find our “calling” for a career. His first interest in college (the University of Wisconson-Madison) was agriculture. From that he migrated to history and then to religion for which he entered seminary only, once again, to change his career interest. His next and final matriculation was at Columbia University where he completed the Master of Arts and Doctor or Philosophy. He worked for a while in child protection and, then, as a professor, taught in several universities. During the professional time of his life, he wrote books that were significant in the contributions to secular counseling and psychology.

 In his book entitled “Client Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory” Rogers formulated his basic beliefs to his system of psychotherapy which is essentially a humanistic approach to psychology. I am presenting the 19 basic beliefs below.  First, assignments for next issue.

 As an assignment for next issue, study these 19 basic beliefs well to not only assimilate them but to confirm or challenge them as you see whether or not they each one is compatible with and derivable from the Word of God. Record the results of your analysis of the 19 basic beliefs

 As a continuation of the assignment, go back in the issue and review Freud and Jung to do a comparative study of the three psychotherapists. What in the psychotherapies of the three have a definite, positive association with the Word of God, what has a reflective relation with the Word of God, what has no relation with the Word of God other than one of denial, contravention, or misrepresentation.

 Carl Rogers Basic Beliefs underlying his humanistic psychology:

1. All individuals (organisms) exist in a continually changing world of experience (phenomenal field) of which they are the centre.
2. The organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual field is "reality" for the individual.
3. The organism reacts as an organized whole to this phenomenal field.
4. A portion of the total perceptual field gradually becomes differentiated as the self.
5. As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly as a result of evaluational interaction with others, the structure of the self is formed - an organised, fluid but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions of characteristics and relationships of the "I" or the "me", together with values attached to these concepts.
6. The organism has one basic tendency and striving - to actualize, maintain and enhance the experiencing organism.
7. The best vantage point for understanding behavior is from the internal frame of reference of the individual.
8. Behavior is basically the goal directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived.
9. Emotion accompanies, and in general facilitates, such goal directed behavior, the kind of emotion being related to the perceived significance of the behavior for the maintenance and enhancement of the organism.
10. Values experienced directly by the organism are, in some instances, values introjected or taken over from others, but perceived in distorted fashion.
11. As experiences occur in the life of the individual, they are either, a) symbolized, perceived and organized into some relation to the self, b) ignored because there is no perceived relationship to the self structure, c) denied symbolization or given distorted symbolization because the experience is inconsistent with the structure of the self.
12. Most of the ways of behaving that are adopted by the organism are those that are consistent with the concept of self.
13. In some instances, behavior may be brought about by organic experiences and needs which have not been symbolized. Such behavior may be inconsistent with the structure of the self but in such instances the behavior is not "owned" by the individual.
14. Psychological adjustment exists when the concept of the self is such that all the sensory and visceral experiences of the organism are, or may be, assimilated on a symbolic level into a consistent relationship with the concept of self.
15. Psychological maladjustment exists when the organism denies awareness of significant sensory and visceral experiences, which consequently are not symbolized and organized into the gestalt of the self structure. When this situation exists, there is a basic or potential psychological tension.
16. Any experience which is inconsistent with the organization of the structure of the self may be perceived as a threat, and the more of these perceptions there are, the more rigidly the self structure is organized to maintain itself.
17. Under certain conditions, involving primarily complete absence of threat to the self structure, experiences which are inconsistent with it may be perceived and examined, and the structure of self revised to assimilate and include such experiences.
18. When the individual perceives and accepts into one consistent and integrated system all his sensory and visceral experiences, then he is necessarily more understanding of others and is more accepting of others as separate individuals.
19. AAs the individual perceives and accepts into his self structure more of his organic experiences, he finds that he is replacing his present value system - based extensively on introjections which have been distortedly symbolized - with a continuing organismic valuing process.

We close this issue here. Research Carl Rogers. Please do the comparative study of Freud, Jung, and Rogers. Study through st1:City w:st="on"> Rogers’ 19 basic beliefs and evaluate them in the light of the scriptures. Next time, we will continue with Rogers.

God bless you.                                                                Return to Vol.2 Issue 3 March 2009

Issue 3 - March - 2009 - Women In Religious History     Return to Vol.2 Issue 3 March 2009

                                                                                 Theological University of America                           
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Dear Brothers and Sisters, thank you for sharing with us in this issue your fellowship of participation in this important study.

In the last issue, we discussed the origin of the city of Rome in 753BC. Please go back and take a look at that information. From even a scant knowledge of the history of the city of Rome, we know that over time Rome not only came to dominate all of the Italian peninsula, but also all of the Mediterranean basin and parts of what came to known as Europe. Our intent is not to discuss the history of Rome. I did leave a list of important terms in the last issue that will provide a significant background to our study of women in the religion of Rome. And it is with one of those terms that I will begin this issue of study.

 Much of the history of earliest Rome is shrouded in mist and myth; however, as time rolled forward records began to emerge that delineated some aspects of an organized society and culture. Many of the terms in the list from last issue had their origin in the misty, mythical past of Rome and continued as features of Roman life until its very demise in 476AD. Among those terms that had a reality driving the political and social history of Rome were Patricians and Plebeians. Others, of course, were in vogue and continued forward, but we will only touch on those that have some relevance to our topic of women in Roman religion. In simplistic terms it was the segregation, exploitation, and subjugation of the Plebeians class by the Patrician class. The whole story between the Plebeians and Patricians rocked Roman conservatism all the way to Julius and Augustus Caesar; a fascinating history, but not for this course. However, we will pick and chose facts and suppositions from that time to begin our discussion in detail of women in Roman religion. One term of significant importance is the Ten Tables of 455BC, revised in 450BC to the Twelve Tables.

What are the Twelve Tables and why are they important not only to the history of Rome, but to our study of women in religion?

 First, we should put in outline the major contents of the Twelve Tables.

 Table 1 – Procedure for courts and trails

Table 2 – Trials, continued from Table 1

Table 3 – Debt

Table 4 – Rights of fathers (paterfamilias) over the family

Table 5 – Legal guardianship and inheritance laws

Table 6 – Acquisition and possession

Table 7 – Land rights

Table 8 – Laws of injury

Table 9 – Public law

Table 10 – Sacred law

Table 11 – Supplement I

Table 12 – Supplement II

 The Twelve Tables of 450BC cast a very long shadow over all of Rome and its people. Many Roman statesmen, jurists, and scholars wrote prolifically about the Twelve Tables attempting to convey not only its meaning and application, but also the provenance of the laws that are contained in them, whether formerly customary laws or legislative laws. The arguments are extensive, but we have no need to enter that discussion here, except to say that all the ink poured out about the Twelve Tables indicates the gravity and reverence the Twelve Tables drew from the Roman people. Indeed, Cicero (106BC – 43BC), a notable Roman statesman, philosopher, educator, and author, in his work De Oratore, wrote of the Twelve Tables, “Though all the world exclaim against me, I will say what I think: that single little book of the Twelve Tables, if anyone look to the fountains and sources of laws, seems to me, assuredly, to surpass the libraries of all the philosophers, both in weight of authority and in plenitude of utility.” So, by beginning our discussion of women in religion with a consideration of the content and place of the Twelve Tables of 450BC we are beginning with fundamentals that continued to permeate and shape Roman social, cultural, religious, and political behavior.

 We will not, of course, read nor take note of every point made in the Twelve Tables, but we will notice here a few of the points from the Twelve Tables that directly set up our understanding of women in Roman society and in Roman religion and, as we go along and it seems proper, we will refer to other points in the Twelve Tables for understanding and interpretation.

 Table IV

 1. A dreadfully deformed child shall be quickly killed.

2. If a father sell his son three times, the son shall be free from his father. 

3. As a man has provided in his will in regard to his money and the care of his property, so let it be binding. If he has no heir and dies intestate, let the nearest agnate have the inheritance. If there is no agnate, let the members of his gens have the inheritance. 

4. If one is mad but has no guardian, the power over him and his money shall belong to his agnates and the members of his gens. 

5. A child born after ten months since the father's death will not be admitted into a legal inheritance.

 Table V

1. Females should remain in guardianship even when they have attained their majority

 Table VI

5. Usucapio of movable things requires one year's possession for its completion; but usucapio of an estate and buildings two years.

6. Any woman who does not wish to be subjected in this manner (that is to the law of Usucapio} to the hand of her  husband should be absent three nights in succession every year, and so interrupt the usucapio of each year. 

Table X

 3. The women   

1. Marriages should not take place between plebeians and patricians

 As background to our study of women in Roman religion the Twelve Tables set women at a disability to their fathers beginning at birth. (Table V). This paternal control is only one element of the larger concept of Paterfamilias which itself is only a contributing component of the pervasive patriarchy in the ancient Roman Republic. While we will not go into specific detail describing the status, importance, and influence of patriarchy in the ancient Roman Republic, we will find it writ large in all activities of Roman life.

 Ancient Roman society was a class society. We have mentioned the Patricians and Plebeians; the fundamental although not inclusive difference is that the Patricians traced their ancestry to the first Roman Senate and the Plebeians did not. This distinction led to many inequities that reformers of subsequent decades strived to varying degrees of success to rectify. Slavery was also an integral to the Roman society and there are many complexities of the evolution of this class from the early Roman Republic to and through the Roman Empire; Of course, we will see there were women slaves as well as men slaves. Among other social class stratifications that I will not mention is the one that I will mention – women. Among the women there were distinctions: free-born, slave, and freedwoman, each with debilities, legal and customary.

 Let’s us narrow our discussion for a moment to these three distinction of the class of women in ancient Rome.

 Freeborn Women:

 A freeborn woman had one specific duty in Roman society – to give birth to and rear children. This did provide for some equity of gender among the children since the mother would “home school” both their female and male children. But, beyond that equity, different roles would soon emerge for the boys and girls as they grew toward adulthood, roles that, again, would emphasize inequity and patriarchy.

 There has been some debate among scholars whether or not a freeborn woman was also a citizen of Rome, but largely the scholarly view is that they were made citizens at some time in the early history of Rome, nevertheless, women were not allowed to vote or engage and/or participate directly in political affairs of the state. This, however, did not eliminate the possibility of women exerting political influence. One only needs to read of Cornelia the notable Roman mother who influenced the political and social views of her sons, Tiberius and Gaius, in the 2^nd century BC.

 Moreover, under certain extreme circumstances the fortunes and stations of freeborn women would take a temporary turn toward equality and freeborn women would have opportunities to express their solidarity and sentiment in behalf of their own interests as a class. One such occasion grew out of the wars with Hannibal the Carthaginian general who had invaded Italy by crossing the Alps and engaged Rome in a life and death struggle on the peninsula for Italy (3^rd century BC). As in most wars at the time, the married men would march to war leaving most responsibilities for personal financial and domestic concerns in the hands of their wives. Furthermore, as men were killed in battle, the wives would become the inheritors of the property and wealth left by the deceased husbands. Many of these women amassed great sums of money and extensive property holding. As the expense of the war with Hannibal increased, the government of Rome began to cast greedy eyes on the wealth and property of these women. So, the legislative body of Rome decided to make legal the requisitioning of the money and property of these women to the end that the Oppian Laws were passed.

 The Oppian Laws had rather repressive measures for an already repressed freeborn women class of society. The Oppian Laws limited the amount of money and property a freeborn women could have, confiscated funds held by freeborn women for their children or widows, and, to instill a proper sense of mourning in the freeborn women, they could no longer wear clothes with purple design (a gesture of respect for the fallen soldiers that the government determined was is inufficiently manifested by the women)

 The freeborn women, as you might expect, given the centuries of few if any rights, went along with this law for a number of years until 195BC, six years after the Carthaginians were defeated in 201BC. The women around the peninsula, excluding Rome, began to wear purple again following the victorious conclusion of the war; the freeborn women of Rome continued their obsequious acceptance of the personal degradation. Discontent though they were, the freeborn women made no concerted effort to change the law until members of the government itself thought better of matters and sought to repeal the Oppian Laws. When it seemed to the freeborn women that the repeal of the Oppian Laws was about to go the way of the morning mist, they robustly asserted themselves in demonstration in the Forum (keep mind, women were not officially allowed to come to the Forum). This demonstration had no real precedence among freeborn women.

 It is well worth reading what occurred on that day when women had had enough of denial and denigration, if only for that day. Plutarch wrote:

"The matrons whom neither counsel nor shame nor their husbands' orders could keep at home, blockaded every street in the city and every entrance to the Forum. As the men came down to the Forum, the matrons besought them to let them, too, have back the luxuries they had enjoyed before, giving as their reason that the republic was thriving and that everyone's private wealth was increasing with every day. This crowd of women was growing daily, for now they were even gathering from the towns and villages. Before long they dared go up and solicit consuls, praetors, and other magistrates.”

“When the speeches for and against the law had been made, a considerably larger crowd of women poured forth in public the next day; as a single body they besieged the doors of the tribunes, who were vetoing their colleagues' motion, and they did not stop until the tribunes took back their veto. After that there was no doubt that all the tribes would repeal the law."

And it is probably more telling and to the point of patriarchy and even possibly misogyny to read the speech of Cato, a leading political and moral figure of the Roman Republic at the time, that reveals the traditional attitude toward women:

"If each man of us, fellow citizens, had established that the rights and authority of the husband should be held over the mother of his own family, we should have less difficulty with women in general; now, at home our freedom is conquered by female fury, here in the Forum it is bruised and trampled upon, and because we have not contained the individuals, we fear the lot...Could you not have asked your own husbands the same thing at home?”

“And yet, it is not fitting even at home for you to concern yourselves with what laws are passed or repealed here.”

“Our ancestors did not want women to conduct any - not even private - business without a guardian; they wanted them to be under the authority of parents, brothers, or husbands; we (the gods help us!) even now let them snatch at the government and meddle in the Forum and our assemblies.”

“They want freedom, nay license, in all things.”

 Thus far, this issue has set the background and realities of women in the ancient Roman state. I want to give you this assignment to complete before next issue:

1.      Begin a serious research of the role and place of women in the ancient Roman state, Republic and Empire, and extend your information beyond what I have presented here;

2.      Research slavery and women in slavery, particularly, in the ancient Roman state, Republic and Empire;

3.      Research Freedwomen in the ancient Roman state, Republic and Empire;

4.      Follow any line of positive development and recognition of women’s rights in the ancient Roman state, Republic and Empire, and, when possible, note exemplary women either or both initiating movement to additional rights and utilizing the newly enjoyed rights;

5.      Begin general research on women in Roman religion. Amass whatever data you can before next issue.

God be with you all                                                             Return to Vol.2 Issue 3 March 2009

Issue 3 -- March - 2009 - Greek                                        Return to Vol.2 Issue 3 March 2009

                                                                                 Theological University of America                           
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Hello dear brothers and sisters. It is very good to visit with you in this issue to continue our study of New Testament Greek.

I don’t know if the approach in this issue is the ‘dog wagging the tail or the tail wagging the dog”. I think the answer to that probably lies in the field of metaphysics, so we will not try to figure that out, but, instead, begin where we left off last issue (I guess you could say that is the tail wagging the dog. Any suggestions?). We will saddle up and round up some more participles and participle information

If you look back to the last issue, you will see a rather unadorned participial declension of our verb luw. Today, we will begin to regale our verb in all its participial splendor. You will see just how glorious that really is as we proceed.

 We agree, I think, that participles are declined, not conjugated. Now, why is that?

To answer that question, you need to know what a participle is. As one well known person from my home town once said, “You have to define what is is!”

 My first answer is the first one I ever got: my first year Greek teacher told me that was the way it was with participles and if I wanted to even make a passing grade I had better decline participles and not try to conjugate participles. Hey! I wanted to pass; no questions asked.

 But, there was another answer that I got later that I would like to share with you. (How nice!) It is simple and painless, but, apologies, not sugar coated. Are you ready for this:

A participle is a verbal adjective. Self evident, right? Yes, if there is a directions pamphlet accompanying each participle.

 Let’s sneak up on this Greek participle by showing our stuff first with a participle (verbal adjective) in an English sentence.

 Look at the award winning sentence: “I saw a running horse on main street.” 

 What word in the sentence would be the participle (I know the sentence is corny, but I didn’t promise you Shakespeare.)? If you said, “horse”, you would be really bad off. If you said main street, you would be hopeless. If you said, “:running” you would win the big prize – a big (and virtually worthless, these days) green back if you will travel to Cedar Rapids to get it at mid night on the next leap year beginning with a full moon on the third Friday of February. (Hey! It could be a family outing!).

 Now why is “running” a participle?

 Ok. Think about this one. “The car is running.” Is this a participle? Why?

 Now, let me get down and dirty with you – suppose I gave you this sentence:

 “Running is good exercise, so they tell me.” What is “running” in this sentence?   Alright, we will talk about that kind of “running” later. But,

 Let’s get back to the business of a present active participle in English – back to that “running horse”.

 A present active participle is a verb plus ing. Fine. Run is a verb and ing is, well, ing. Good! Remember what we said above: a participle is a verbal adjective. Oh yeah! So, how do we take the verb “run” and make it a participle? We add “ing” to it and, with a spelling adjustment, behold, in our discussion, a present active participle. The verb part shows the action of the verb part of the participle and the “ing” converts it into an adjective. And what does an adjective do? It does this: it modifies a noun or pronoun. Modify? Yeah, I don’t like that word either. Think of it as telling you something about the word to which it is assigned.

 In our award winning sentence above, what does “running” tell you about the horse? Careful now! This is tough. It tells you that the horse is running, a running horse, in other words, a verbal adjective (participle) telling us something about the horse.

 Pretty simple, right? Now, you make up a sentence in English using “running water”. What kind of water is it? “running” water. Break it down. Parse the two words and what do you have?

 Please keep in mind that there are other ways to use a participle than the way I have mentioned here. These things we will come to, but for now, we only want to make sure we know what a present active participle looks like, how we form it, and what it does in English.

 One thing for certain, if we can’t translate Greek into the common coin of our language, we can’t translate Greek.

 We will go back now to the declension we gave in the last issue showing the verb luw in its present active participial declension. We will now add a frill or two to flesh out the meaning of the declenision. Here goes:

 Present Active Participle               

Singular

Nominative Case luwn

Genitive Case luonto~

Ablative Case luonto~

Locative Case luonti

Instrumental Case luonti

Dative Case  luonti

Accusative Case luonta

 plural

Nominative Case luonte~

Genitive Case luontwn

Ablative Case luontwn

Locative Case luousi

Instrumental Case luousi

Dative Case luousi

Accusative Case luonta~

 You notice that we added the cases to their respective present active participial form. The question then is “What does it do to the meaning of the participle?” The answer begins with the meaning of the cases. For example, the genitive singular form of luw is

luonto~  What do we remember about the genitive case? In part, it can translate as “of”.

 Let’s put this together with the analogy of our English example.

 In English, the verb “loose" is converted to a present active participle by adding “ing”. So, when we add “ing” to “loose” we convert the simple verb to a present active participle “loosing”. To put the English verb become participle in the genitive case we have this reading: of loosing

 Go through the same process in Greek. The verb  luw is converted to a present active participle by adding wn to the stem (the Greek equivalent to the English “ing”) which makes a present active participle in the nominative case. To put the Greek participle luwn in the genitive case you add the genitive case ending to the verb stem which produces this form luonto~ The reading in Greek is : of loosing  The same as in English.

 Here is an assignment for next issue. Work your way through all the cases of the present active participle and determine their translation meaning. To do this assignment, you may have to refresh yourself on the translation meaning of the cases in Greek.

 Also, although we have not touched on it yet, what do you do with a participle that is preceded by an “article”? For example,   Jo luwn It is a very frequent construction in the New Testament.

 Take a stab at translating this one:

 Jo legwn est oJ Cristo~

Qelousi ton Qanaton tou legonto~

Auto~ proskunei tw/ ercomenw/

God bless you! Keep up your good work!                         Return to Vol.2 Issue 3 March 2009

Issue 3 – 2009 – March - Hebrew                                  Return to Vol.2 Issue 3 March 2009

                                                       Theological University of America   info@theologicaluofa.com                                Dear beloved brothers and sisters, welcome this issue of the study of Hebrew!

I am excited about this issue. It is a milestone in our review study. You probably have been wondering where is that verb conjugation called Hithpael?  Well, you need not fret further. We have arrived there in this issue. But, first…

Just a brief review of the names of the conjugations we have already had as honored guests in our study:

 But, I don’t want to willy nilly write them out for us. Why not have some fun with these conjugations? As we know, this is the season of March Madness (my team is in the Sweet 16! How about yours? Oh! How arrogant I am becoming!) and its game time! So….

 Here’s the game –

 I will write – in English – a beginning letter or two – just a little hint – of the name of each conjugation and you provide the remaining letters. Now, I can tell you right now that the conjugations don’t like this game at all, not in the least. Why? Well, the word on the street is that we mangle the spelling of their names so often that their friendly nouns don’t recognize them and don’t know how react. Your task is to be very careful and spell them correctly the first time! Have a little heart for these conjugations. They have feelings just like the rest of us. So, do your best! Ok, here goes:

Q

N

Pi

Pu

Hi

Ho

 Great! The word on the street is that you got it right the first time! I knew you could do it.

 Now, the HITHPAEL!!!

 As before, I will put the conjugated form for both the Perfect and Imperfect. Let’s see how it goes!

Hithpael Perfect

Singular

lFeq't]hi

hl;F]q't]h

T;l]F'q't]hi

Tl]F'q't]hi

yTil]F'Q't]hi

Plural

WlF]q't]hi

µT,l]F'q't]hi

nT,l]F'q't]hi

Wnl]F'q't]hi

Hithpael Imperfect

Singular

lFeq't]yi

lFeq't]iTi

lFeq't]iTi

yliF]q't]Ti

lFeq't]a,

 Plural

WlF]q't]yi

hn;l]Feq't]Ti

WlF]q't]Ti

hn;l]Feq't]Ti

lFeq't]ni

 So, there it is! In all its mysterious glory – the hithpael conjugations. Now that’s great! But, what does it mean? I have a hunch that you already know so, for now, just a little, working definition: the hithpael is an intensive, reflexive verb conjugation. Wow! That was simple and painless and to the point.

 Earlier in this issue, we were in Hebrew “March Madness” trying to complete the spelling of the various Hebrew conjugations we had befriended. Now, add hithpael to your growing circle of friends of the verb type.

 Here is a little “hands across the sea” game we can play now. Since you have already spelled the different conjugations and know what they are, what would an English sentence be if you wrote it according to the meanings of the Hebrew conjugations. Example: If you were going to write a Hebrew sentence using the Qal but wrote it in English instead, how would your English sentence read?

 Alright, do that for each of the remaining conjugations including our new friend the hithpael. Hey! It is ok to make a mistake, be confused, not interested, but just go ahead and do it anyhow. Give it your best shot. See what it reads and sounds like. Keep your English sentences on hand because as we go farther into the conjugations and began to put them in Hebrew and English sentences you will be able to check your early understanding of them and be able to measure your progress. What could be neater than that?

 We want to be sure to include our new friend hithpael in the parties we throw for all the other verb conjugations, so we will include the hithpael in some activities that we have already done for our other friendly conjugations. We will compare all the conjugations with one another to determine gender, number, and tense (not really a good term for the conjugations, but it will do for now.) You’ve played this game before and I hear you had loads of fun, so go for it; we like for you to be happy in Hebrew.

 Did you ever go out into the winter night and wish you had a hat on your head? Cold, blustery wind reminds many of us that our natural head covering is wearing a bit thin to keep us warm on top. And the others of you might think it would be nice to have a hat in a wintry gale to keep your full, thick, well coiffured hair (Is there such a thing as a righteous envy? If so, I think I have it!) with every precious strand in place.

 The Hebrew article is something of a hat, I suppose. Occasionally, you want to use it; and occasionally you don’t. That sounds a bit too democratic for Hebrew grammar, but, of course, you can’t go on appearances alone, especially when dealing with Hebrew articles.  There is tyranny in that nice smile! So, we are going to see if we can safely nudge closely to the articles and join with them in keeping those rowdy nouns under control. Let’s start at the starting place – the simple place and that is the alphabetical letter of the article. Here it is:  h

Well, that’s not bad. Simple enough. But, there is a bit more to the Hebrew article. You have heard of two faced people; well, the Hebrew articles are multiple faced and each one shows from time to time and under different conditions. And another important bit of gossip about the Hebrew article is that it usually has a companion and the companions always expect certain behavior from the article. See if you notice something about the way the Hebrew article behaves in real life:

 I will give you a noun without a hat. Oh! I mean without an article. And then I will give you a noun with the article. Then, to make it a little more tantalizing, I will give you more nouns without their articles (no hats this time) and the same nouns with their articles.

 Ok. Do you have your “Forensic Files” hat on? I hope so because you are going to have to look at all the clues and figure out what is different about the nouns and what is different about the articles when applied to different types of nouns. Listen! People tell me that sleuthing around these nouns and articles is more fun than a Saturday evening back yard fish fry and down home hush puppies. So, you are in for a hilarious time with these articles.

 Nouns without an article:

sWs

vya

varo

lk;yhe

µk;j;

 By the way, if you don’t recall the meaning of these nouns, please take a few moments to find their meanings in your textbook or lexicon.

 Nouns with an article

sWSh'

vyaih;

varoh;

lk;yheh'

µk;j;h,

 Now, what do you see, Sherlock? You may need a big magnifying glass for this mystery. Look carefully at the nouns without the article. Observe the spelling and the appearance of each letter in the word. Notice any differences from word to word. Make notes and describe the “crime scene”. After you have methodically and analytically assimilated the “noun scene”, go to the nouns with the article.

 Do you see any difference or differences? What are they, if there are any? Check the spelling of each noun with the article. Note any changes of pointing (that’s those funny looking dots and lines and strange configurations added to the simple alphabetical letters. We discovered them several issues ago. What do we call them and what do they add to the alphabetical letters?)

 It is ok – actually recommended – that you consult your textbooks and lexicons to help you with this assignment. No use going alone. Lone Rangers need help with Hebrew too.

 So, have a great time until the next issue. Dig around in Hebrew. Enjoy the challenge. Master the moment.

 God bless you all.                                                                                Return to Vol.2 Issue 3 March 2009

 

Volume 2 - Issue 4 - April 2009  Return to Free Religious Study Journal Volume Directory

                                           Theological University of America  http://www.theologicaluofa.com

Church History

Colossians

Christian Counseling

Women in Religious History

Greek

Hebrew

Book, Media, Blogs, and Resources by the Brethren

 

 

 

 

 

 

Issue 4 April 2009      CHURCH HISTORY  Return to Vol. 2 Issue 4 April 2009

                                   

                                    Theological University of America  http://www.theologicaluofa.com

 We continue in this issue with the development of Christian worship from Apostolic times. Already we have noticed changes and directions away from the simple New Testament descriptions and activities. We will continue to follow the paths in the development of ancient worship.

To begin this period of the study of ancient worship we will introduce the word “Liturgy”, not a word common to our vocabulary in the church of Christ, but one expressive of deep and pervasive significance in the lives of many who follow creeds and confessions. We will begin by placing the word in its ancient and Biblical settings and, then, in its ceremonial and ritual settings.

The word “litrurgy” in the original Greek is a hybrid word composed of two words meaning people (lao~) and work, duty, service (ergon) transliterated into English as “liturgy”. In secular matters, the Greek word for liturgy has an ancient history, notably its reference to various public services performed in Greek cities. But the Greek word for liturgy also found its way into the Septuagint and books of the New Testament.

Liturgy as it weaved its way through church history developed two general meanings:

One meaning is Lords Supper or Eucharist; the other is formal regulations the church requires in worship and religious service. Both of these meanings grow in complication from their simple expressions in the New Testament and will be studied to some degree as we proceed.

Originally, the New Testament describes congregational services in which simplicity and order characterize the proceedings. Here and there throughout the ancient world and for a variety of reasons, simplicity was supplanted by complexity and order by formality. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly where change from simplicity and order began. Probably, given the inclination of human beings to complicate everything, the change began in many places throughout the ancient world simultaneously without any knowledge of or connection with each other. We do know that some of the more prominent liturgies (using this term in both senses mentioned above) began to appear in the Apostolic Sees we discussed earlier.

The liturgies developed in Apostolic churches were the results of growth from simplicity and order to a set rite of complexity and formality, blending, combining, and assimilating elements from liturgies that no longer have a separate identity. While it is difficult to impossible to identify the various strands of liturgy that were absorbed into the dominant liturgies, we do have better sources going forward for locating “family trees” for the more established liturgies.

The  Liturgy of St. Mark was the original settled liturgy in Alexandria and Egypt.

From this liturgy came the Coptic Liturgy used by Coptic schismatics and Ethiopic Liturgy used by the Church of Abyssinia

The Antiochene Liturgy derives from the Apostolic Constitutions which we will have reason to consult later. From that development came the Liturgy of St. James of Jerusalem, the Greek Liturgy of St. James, the Liturgy of the Syriac St. James (the liturgy of the Jacobites, and the Uniats), and the Liturgy of the Maronites.

Also of the family of liturgies derived from the Apostolic Constitutions are the Chaldean Liturgy used by the Nestorians and Chaldean Uniats, the Liturgy of Malabar used by Uniats and schismatics in India, the Byzantine Liturgy used by Orthodox and Byzantine Uniats, and the Armenian Liturgy used by Gregorians and Armenian Uniats.

Scholars of the Gallican Liturgy allege various sources and contributions from other liturgies in achieving its dominant status in ancient Gaul, Spain, and other locations in Western Europe. A reciprocal development occurs in time between the Roman Liturgy and the Gallican Liturgy until finally in the 8^th century the Roman Liturgy supplanted the Gallican Liturgy generally throughout the region. The origin and development of the Gallican Liturgy is hotly debated as is its relationship to the Ambrosian Liturgy which is often alleged to be of the Gallican family of liturgies. The Mozarabic Liturgy (so termed for Christians living under the control of Islam in Spain) also has its provenance from the Gallican Liturgy.

The origin and early development of the Liturgy of Rome is a fact still in process of being firmly established. The liturgy used in Rome in the second century is in Greek. Our sources for this liturgy are Justin Martyr, Clement of Rome, Hippolytus, and Novatian. As mentioned above, there was some cross seeding between the Liturgy of Rome and the Gallican Liturgy.  But a detailed history of the Roman Liturgy is under debate and verification. The Latin language became the language of the Liturgy in the third century.

Clearly, the understanding of congregational worship from the late first century forward was unsettled and regional. The number of liturgies we have mentioned here are only a few of the more notable ones in the early period of church history. As you penetrate the historical record, often very skimpy and contested, numerous other liturgies emerge from their historical hybernation, long forgotten and long obsolete, often combined with other liturgies, often condemned as unorthodox. But, the salient fact of it all is that despite their good intentions Christian devotees in the ancient world were splintering a simple form of New Testament worship into various and often contradictory regimens of religious rites and services.

But that realization of splintering what should be one was not lost on particular leaders in the ancient world. Irenaeus wrote, "For, although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same….Nor will any one of the rulers in the Churches, however highly gifted he may be in point of eloquence, teach doctrines different from these (for no one is greater than the Master)”. Unity statements from the Church Fathers can be multiplied, all with the general sentiment of Irenaeus: the tradition (faith) is one and indivisible and should remain so.

This concern for unity prevailed for many leaders, often for many different reasons; nonetheless the concept of unity continued present and profound. Following the flow of development of liturgies in the early centuries of the church we see a narrowing of the stream of expressions, forms, and rites. The history of the attraction of unity in the proliferation of liturgies is fascinating and intriguing for much of it has significant ramifications for basic Christian doctrines.

We will soon discover the prevailing liturgies of the church of that time that are essentially the same as those used by Catholic and Orthodox churches today. But, before we come to the point of liturgical unification, let us select one or two liturgies of the earlier centuries to gain an insight into the character of the ancient liturgies. The liturgies we present here are ancient, it is believed, but the record of them may be of much later centuries due to original documents having been lost with late copies only surviving. But, it is the best we have; so we make do.

The following presents a form more ancient (before the 6^th century) and a form from the 6^th century. You will notice continued elaboration; however, certain eastern influences in the former are not found in the latter.

The Earlier Gallican Liturgy

Introit

The Ajus (agios) sung in Greek and Latin. Following this, three boys sing Kyrie Eleison three times. This is followed by the Benedictus.

Collect

Old Testament reading

Epistle reading or Life of the Saint of the Day

The Benedicite and Ajus (agios) in Latin

Gospel reading

Sermon

Dismissal of catechumens

Intercessions

Great Entrance and the Offertory chant

Kiss of Peace

Sursum Corda, Preface, Sanctus, and Post-Sanctus Prayer

Roman (Gregorian) Eucharistic Prayer (not in the Gallican and Spanish liturgies,      which had variable elements in the anaphora)

The Fraction (the host is divided into nine pieces, seven of which are then   arranged into the shape of a cross)

Our Father

Blessing of the People

Communion of the People

Post-Communion Prayer

The later Gallican Liturgy

Preparation of the Offerings

Praelegendum (entrance psalm)

Call for silence and greeting

Trisagion (in Greek and Latin)

Kyrie

Benedictus

Reading from the Old Testament

Collect after the Old Testament reading

Responsory

Apostole

Canticle from Daniel

Thrice-Holy before the Gospel

Gospel

Sanctus after the Gospel

Homily

Preces

Collect after the Preces

Dismissal of the catechumens

Offertory

Preface to the faithful and collect

Diptychs and collect

Exchange of the Peace and collect

Anaphora: variable Contestatio/Immolatio, variable Vere Sanctus, institution narrative,

variable post mysterium

Breaking of the Bread

Lord's Prayer

Episcopal blessing

Communion

Trecanum (post-communion hymn of thanksgiving to the Trinity)

Postcommunion collect

Dismissal

The Liturgy of the Apostolic Constitutions

Lessons 

Sermon by the bishop

Prayers for all people 

Kiss of peace.

Offertory of  bread and wine and water brought up by the deacons

Thanksgiving-prayer by the bishop

Consecration by the words of institution 

Intercession for the people

The people end this prayer with Amen

Communion

The significance of the Liturgy of the Apostolic Constitutions is that it either is or reflects closely a prevailing liturgical rite used in the first three centuries of the church, although the earliest surviving written record of it is from the 5^th century AD.

Yet, the most significant facts pertaining to the development in the liturgies in these earliest centuries and surviving to this day we have yet to discuss: sacerdotalism, sacramentalism and the Holy Eucharist.

As an assignment review the three liturgies above and, as they are presented, do you see any act or element that you would consider unscriptural. If so, why?

As we journey through the early centuries and consider the various liturgies, we notice an apparent sense of necessity for the same form of liturgy to be maintained Sunday after Sunday, year after year. What benefits do you believe those who considered themselves Christians in the early centuries gained from such regularity? What impedances did such regularity bring to them in worship?

In the next issue, we will take up sacerdotalism, sacramentalism, the Holy Eucharist, and the incipient beginnings of the hierarchy. In so doing, we will also begin to deal with the schism between the Roman and Byzantine churches.

Thanks for you being with us. Please return. God bless you all.

                                                                  Return to Vol. Issue 4 April 2009

Issue 4 April 2009       COLOSSIANS     Return to Vol. 2 Issue 4 April 2009

                                           Theological University of America   http://www.theologicaluofa.com

Welcome to our continuing study of the Epistle of Colossians.

Currently, we are looking into aspects of discourse analysis. In the last issue we brought up the importance of paragraphing and gave a few assignments on paragraphing. If you have not read Issue 3, please do that now. If you need to refresh your recollection of Issue 3, please re-read it now.

We noted in the last issue that we have the necessity of translating ancient Greek written almost 2000 years ago into contemporary English. We also noted that we compose our literary pieces in paragraphs and other constructions. There were no paragraphs as we know them in the original Greek New Testament epistles and Gospels. The question, then, is how do we take literary works that have no paragraphs after the contemporary model and translate them into English the literary standards of which require modern paragraphing. The immediate answer is “we work very hard in trying to ascertain how to find a paragraph in a language that never used paragraphs as we know them.” The next answer is we look to the Greek text to see clues that might suggest a paragraph break when translated into English and that might suggest (again a contemporary usage) transitional statements leading from one paragraph to the next.

To understand what we are looking for in the Greek, let us define it first in English, our ultimate destination.

In English we have some literary clues that often indicate the internal relationships of sentences within the paragraph. These clues have other uses besides indicating the internal relationships of sentences in a paragraph, but they are useful for identifying several elements found in a paragraph, such as cohesion, logical progression, cause, effect, etc. You are familiar with all of these words and probably use them without actually thinking of them analytically. I will provide a few of these clue words here:

Therefore

Moreover

For example

For instance

Consequently

As a result

In addition to

Nevertheless

Obviously

Furthermore

First

Next

Finally

In conclusion

Yet

At length

However

Clearly

That is

That is to say

Of course

Naturally

At any rate

No doubt

On the whole

At this point in this discussion, go to two or three English translations of Colossians. Read each translation one paragraph at a time to identify the clues we have mentioned that are found in each of the paragraphs, compare the paragraphs to determine which of these clues (or other clues – there are many that we all use, perhaps, more colloquially than the ones I have listed but may have been used by the translators in your two or three texts) are used in the paragraphs and why. Also, when the paragraphs differ either by not using a clue or using different clues, explain why the difference exists and what difference does it make in understanding the paragraph.

If you read Greek, then, this additional assignment – translate the Greek text and compare your translation with the two English texts you are using. What are the differences, why, and what effect do the differences have on the understanding of the paragraph? Also, if you read Greek, translate the list of clues in English above into Greek. Then, identify the presence of any of these Greek words in the Greek text. And one last assignment for the Greek readers, identify all Greek language clues that do not have an English counterpart that you will have to translate into English and the function of the Greek language clue in the Greek text of Colossians.

We will have more to say about sentences and paragraphs in another issue, maybe the next issue. Right now we want to discuss going from one paragraph to another or more paragraphs in a section of meaning in an epistle (or other literary forms). One of the methods of movement from one to other paragraphs is transition statements.

Transitions in English literary form indicate new paragraphs, although not all transitions indicate only new paragraphs. Again, we must be aware of the possibilities of transitions and learn when they lead to paragraphs.

Simply put, transitions serve the purpose of maintaining a logical sequence of thought between paragraphs with the effect that changes of focus in the following paragraphs are accomplished between the paragraphs without the loss of cohesion. Transitions usually are brief and provide a smooth literary movement. However, transitions may be a series of paragraphs when successive paragraphs deal with topics that otherwise would seem remote and unconnected.

We must now do this assignment. Go back to the two or three English translations, read each paragraph of each translation and identify transitional paragraphs. Note whether or not the translations use the same transition statements in English. If not, why and what effect does the difference have on the meaning of the paragraph? After identifying the transition paragraphs, indicate the focus of the preceding and subsequent paragraphs tied together by the transition statements. This last request is part of the process in determining the larger sections of the literary work which ultimately when combined render the overall meaning of the epistle.

For you Greek readers, do the same assignment in the Greek text with this additional concern: do you agree with the English translations of the transition paragraphs and why? Is that part of the Greek text that is translated into English as transition paragraphs actually transition paragraphs in the Greek text? If the transition paragraphs in the Greek text are not there as your English translation gives them, what do you see in the Greek text that serves as transition in the sequence of the paragraphs?

We need to remind ourselves that while we are working with paragraphs in this issue, soon, possibly the next issue, we will begin to work with paragraphs that taken as a unit form a section of the Epistle because they bear the thread of cohesion of a single focus.

But, for now, I want to introduce us to a literary device, called a prominence, used by Greek writers to draw attention, emphasize, and focus their readers on the more significant parts of a sentence, paragraph, section, and, in effect, the entire epistle: the use of grammatical and syntactical structures bearing elements that distinguish them from the ordinary grammatical and syntactical structures otherwise used throughout the writing. We will see that these grammatical and syntactical structures serve to create the sense of our modern paragraphing and larger sections.

These prominences – grammatical and syntactical structures - can be single words, clusters of words, clauses and phrases, brief, pointed sentences, and other literary creations. Each prominence will have a field of influence, often referred to as a “domain”, which includes words and sentences of the ordinary type that co-function with the prominence to define the extent of the focus.

The placement by the author of prominence-domains throughout his literary work enables the Greek readers/translators to identify the development of the overall meaning of paragraphs and sections. For those who do not read Greek, there is little choice but to depend on the translator to get it right. Comparing English translations may help in determining the prominence-domains for yourselves.  The best thing to do is take Greek and learn to do it yourself.

While prominences can be carefully selected words placed at decisive positions in the sentence, paragraph, and section, special concern should be given to the use of verbal forms in understanding the meaning of the prominence and its relation to its literary setting. This concern will be immediately evident to Greek readers who are familiar with verbal aspect, mode, tense, and voice in Greek verb conjugations and participial declensions. It will not be so evident, if evident at all, to non Greek readers. While context can help relieve the non Greek reader from his disability to some extent, it will not be conclusive without reference to the exact Greek verbal constructions. One concern in point would be the difference between the aorist and the imperfect in a sentence. This would be particularly pivotal to the focus of the paragraph if prominence of the paragraph is a verbal form involving either the aorist and the imperfect.

Below, I have placed an English translation of Colossian 1:19 through Colossians 2:23. For the Greek readers, open your Greek text of Colossians to those chapters and verses and translate them and compare your translation with the translation below. Then, for both non Greek readers and Greek readers do the following:

1. Identify all literary clues that are listed above;
2. Analyze the verses to determine the paragraphs and identify their focus clues;
3. Identify all transition paragraphs leading to a paragraph with a new focus;
4. List each new focus that is introduced by transitional paragraphs or words or clauses/phrases and the verse in which each new focus is begun.
5. For Greek readers, compare the verbal forms in Greek with the English translations to determine whether or not the aspect, mode, tense, and voice of the verbal forms are accurately translated in English.

 19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;

  20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

  21 And you, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

  22 In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

  23 If ye in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

  24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

  25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;

  26 Even the ministry which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:

  27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

  28 Whom we preaching warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

  29 Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Chapter 2

 1 For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;

  2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;

  3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

  4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.

  5 For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

  6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

  7. Rooter and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

  8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

  9 For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

  10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

  11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

  12 Buried with him in  baptism, wherein also ye risen are with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

  13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

  14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

  15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

  16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

  17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

  18 Let no man begile you of your reward in a voluntary humilty and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

  19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

  20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

  21 (touch not; taste not; handle not;

  22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

  23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.                                   Return to Vol. 2 Issue 4 April 2009

 

Issue 4 April 2009  CHRISTIAN COUNSELING Return to Vol. 2 Issue 4 April 2009

                                                  Theological University of America  http://www.theologicaluofa.com

In this issue, we continue our study of Carl Rogers’ system of psychotherapy. To begin this issue we will take up the 19 basic beliefs underlying his system that we listed in the last issue. Please re-read the 19 basic beliefs now for they will be the first focus of our discussion in this issue.

Having read the 19 Rogerian basic beliefs, what foundation notion do you find throughout? I will select words and phrases from each basic belief as listed to suggest the foundation notion underlying Rogerian psychotherapy:

1. a continually changing world of experience;
2. the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual field is "reality" for the individual;
3. The organism reacts.………… to this phenomenal field;
4. the total perceptual field;
5. interaction with the environment………….. interaction with others;
6. ……..actualize, maintain and enhance the experiencing organism.;
7. understanding behavior;
8. attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived;
9. goal directed behavior……… the behavior for the maintenance and enhancement of the organism;
10. Values experienced directly by the organism;
11. experiences occur in the life of the individual;
12. ways of behaving;
13. behavior may be brought about by organic experiences;
14. the sensory and visceral experiences of the organism;
15. awareness of significant sensory and visceral experiences;
16. experience which is inconsistent with the organization of the structure of the self;
17. to the self structure, experiences which are inconsistent…..assimilate and include such experiences;
18. one consistent and integrated system all his sensory and visceral experiences,
19. individual perceives and accepts into his self structure more of his organic experiences.

Throughout the list of basic beliefs, what foundation notion do you see?

Experience!

We all know that human experience is a great teacher both for secular and divine purposes. For instance, Paul says that we should be able to recognize the Creator by our experience of the universe. And that is perpetually born out by every succeeding discovery of science. Who 70 years ago would have thought the atom could be split? The indivisibility of the atom as the basic component of nature’s architecture was not questioned until the atom was split and a whole new science of nuclear knowledge developed. We learn more about the complexity of nature and the unimaginable greatness of the Creator every time science turns up a new discovery either debunking what we thought we knew or confirming what, in fact, we do know.

But the effects of experience are not, of course, as we all know, limited to science. We began learning early in life that experience leads to knowledge, valuation, and consequences, even among the lower forms of life. My three Boston Terriers learned in a blink of the eye that a treat would immediately follow certain of their behaviors. And all you pet lovers know your dog never forgets the cause and effect relationship to any experience that leads to a treat.

So, we can agree with everyone – theist and atheist, believer and agnostic – that sentient living beings learn from experience and form behavior by experience, interacting with experience. Having said that, we have to ask if experience is the only or foundational component of the proper development of a human being?

The emphasis on experience is as old as Greek philosophy carried through the ages by various scholars of science, philosophy, and psychology to this very day. One of the most eloquent exponents of experience was William James who cast the virtues of experience into his philosophical doctrine of Pragmatism.

William James defined experience in the context of outcomes and based his philosophy of pragmatism on that doctrine. He stated,

“The pragmatic method is primarily a method of settling metaphysical disputes that otherwise might be interminable……..The pragmatic method in such cases is to try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences. What difference would it practically make to any one if this notion rather than that notion were true? If no practical difference whatever can be traced, then the alternatives mean practically the same thing, and all dispute is idle. Whenever a dispute is serious, we ought to be able to show some practical difference that must follow from one side or the other’s being right.”

This statement of experience has serious ramifications for Christian theism. The discussion of God and His existence is a metaphysical question. Does He exist or not? No matter! What are the consequences of the belief or disbelief? Whether God actually exist in reality and only in a proposition, is irrelevant, according to James, to the outcome of the concept of the existence or non-existence of God. As James said, “What, in short, is the truth’s cash-value in experiential terms”.

James states his ultimate test of truth thusly,

“To agree in the widest sense with a reality can only mean to be guided either straight up to it or into its surroundings, or to be put into such working touch with it as to handle either it or something connected with it better than if we disagreed. Better either intellectually or practically .... Any idea that helps us to deal, whether practically or intellectually, with either the reality or its belongings, that doesn’t entangle our progress in frustrations, that fits, in fact, and adapts our life to the reality’s whole setting, will agree sufficiently to meet the requirement. It will be true of that reality.”

Experience as a measure of truth has not been just for the philosophers and psychologists. Many people measure truth for their lives in terms of the outcomes of their experience. If life has gone well for them, if their experiences have wrought happiness, prosperity, and contentment, if their status among their friends and community is one of recognition and privilege, many people see these consequences of their experience as confirmation that their lives must be in tune with the Will and Ways of God. But, is that necessarily so? William James would say “Yes, if you want to believe in God and he would say “no, if you do not want to believe in God.” When experience becomes the measure of your metaphysical concerns, you have abandoned all hope for absolute truth and reduced the foundations of your faith or the lack of it to relative consistency adapting to the unrelenting flow of life’s changing circumstances.

Here, then, is an assignment that is necessary before we continue to develop “experience” as the foundation belief for Carl Rogers’ psychotherapy. But, first, let me stress that like Williams James’ philosophical commitment to experience as the measure of truth, Carl Rogers’ is no less so in his psychological commitment. Rogers stated in his book ‘On Becoming a Person”,

“Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience”.

 So, the assignment: research in the Old Testament and New Testament direct statements of God and God’s representatives indicating the place of experience in the development of the individual and Biblically recorded experiences of individuals that illustrate the place of experience in the development of the individual.

To properly place in context the teaching of others, particularly Carl Rogers, concerning the efficacy of experience, we must be certain that we know what is revealed either by direct statement or by examples of experience in the lives of individuals mentioned in the Bible. With that information in mind we will be better prepared to understand and sift the foundation notion underlying Carl Rogers’ system of psychotherapy.

Knowing that you will complete the assignment fully, we will proceed with additional information pertaining to beliefs and practice of Carl Rogers.

In returning to the place of experience in the thought of Carl Rogers, we will quote again from his work, ‘On Becoming a Person”,

“No other person's ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience.”

This statement clearly cuts the connection of intellectual activities of the mind from experience. Accept experience; do not question its implications, do not analyze it. With this view and appreciation of experience we eliminate from the picture every thing that is distinctively and uniquely human, our intellect. Whatever may be thought, the dictates of experience supervenes all other considerations for Carl Rogers.

Furthermore, although (and perhaps because) the intellectual powers of the mind are cut from the meaning of experience, Rogers, nevertheless, finds it necessary to keep returning to experience to gain further insight into himself and his development. He continues in his book, “On Becoming a Person”,

“It is to experience that I must return again and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming in me.”

And he is certain that only experience is a worthy influence and guide to becoming the person he can be. He wrote,

“Neither the Bible nor the prophets -- neither Freud nor research --neither the revelations of God nor man -- can take precedence over my own direct experience.”

Rogers makes a statement concerning the authority of experience that will raise the eyebrows of any person who is seeking stability, consistency, and certainty for his/her life. He wrote,

“My experience is not authoritative because it is infallible. It is the basis of authority because it can always be checked in new primary ways. In this way its frequent error or fallibility is always open to correction."

Translating that statement into a basis for life and for psychological counseling, an individual whether a counselee or not can only correct his/her life by experiences  – separated from the individual’s own intellect and from any other authority, divine or secular – that are, in fact, the root of the individuals or counselee’s problems in the first place. The turbulence that is inevitable when the cure (experience) is proffered by the cause (experience) of the distress and disease dooms the individual to a downward spiral of hopelessness.

In the next issue, we will continue with Carl Rogers into his principles of therapy and client-counselor relationship.

For an additional assignment to the assignment above pertaining to your research of the Old Testament and New Testament for the place of experience in God’s provisions for mankind, as a counselor, either a full time counselor or minister who counsels, consider how you have handled the question of experience as a source of remedies and solutions to any individual’s concerns whom you have counseled. Question your basis of dealing with experience as a factor of or, as the case may be, the totality of your approach to the root of the counselee’s concern.        Return to Vol. 2 Issue 4 April 2009

Issue 4 April 2009 WOMEN IN RELIGIOUS HISTORY

                                                                              Return to Vol. 2 Issue 4 April 2009 

                                     Theological University of America http://www.theologicaluofa.com

In this issue, I want to begin with a few comments on female slaves and freedwomen, two of the three classes assigned to women in the Roman society.

The sources for women slaves in ancient Rome were the same sources for women slaves throughout the ancient world:

Women and children captured in warfare or on the high seas by pirates and retained or sold as slaves;

Female children sold into slavery by their parents;

Female children and adults taken into slavery because of unpaid debts of their families;

Female children born to slaves;

Female babies rescued from exposure and reared as slaves;

The duties of a female slave could be whatever her master required, from household chores to economic services to public participation to personal submissions. The female slave in Rome had no rights, no privileges, only what her master allowed her. She could not marry and when she did conceive and bear children they were slaves and were often separated from her. Her life was at the pleasure of her master who could terminate her life at any time without legal recrimination.

When the Roman Republic passed into the Roman Empire, no immediate change in the status for female slaves was inaugurated, although, later, subsequent Emperors attempted to ameliorate the lives of all slaves, male and female.

The best hope for freedom by any slave was to be emancipated by his/her owner. When this did happen the slave entered the legally recognized class as “freedman” or “freedwoman” and since women entered that class, we should make some note of it.

The word used to refer to the freeing of the Roman slaves is manumission. There are some characteristics of manumission that applied to both female and male slaves and some characteristics that applied only to one or the other of the genders.

Applying to both slave genders is the type of manumission under which freedom was granted- formal or informal manumission.

Formal manumission followed a process that involved the courts and when completed granted the slave freedom and Roman citizenship without the privilege of holding public office, although any children born to the slave manumitted by formal manumission had full Roman citizenship including the right to hold office.

Informal manumission did not grant Roman citizenship. Although the slave freed through informal manumission could accrue wealth and property, at the death of the freed slave, the wealth and property reverted to his/her former master.

Minimum conditions were set for manumission, among them was the necessity of the freed slaves to maintain themselves economically. Some slaves were given a portion of land to till, others were given jobs or ownership of small shops and services. In Roman society, a freedwoman would need a man to meet these conditions of freedom. Undoubtedly, the relation between the man and woman would at the least be an accommodation to satisfy the condition of freedom, personal feelings aside.

There is so much more to be said about the classes of persons in ancient Roman society and I can only touch on the subject for the purposes of this study. So, knowing that we are leaving much behind, but perhaps having introduced the subject sufficiently to gain an idea of the circumstances of women in their respective classes, we should now move onto women in the service of Roman religion.

At the outset of our study of women in Roman religion, we should take a few moments to discuss ancient Roman religion. As with many ancient religions, the impetus to the development of religious activities is the confrontation by the human race with the forces of nature about them and what to do about them. Without revelation or scientific verification, the human race is left to its own devices to make sense out of the world in which it lives. While there is regularity in nature, there is also capriciousness in nature; while there is dependability in nature, there is also unpredictability in nature. In a pre-scientific age with no special revelation from God, among the first questions that would arise would be “How does a person deal with the lack of consistency that nature demonstrates? How does a person order his/her life in a natural environment where order of life is challenged by randomness?” Given limited knowledge, resources, and no specific revelation from God, a person makes a deal with the forces of nature. But, first a person must personalize these forces so as to be able to communicate with them. The personalization of these forces comes to be the paganization of these forces. In other words, these natural forces are given personality as living entities commensurate with the powers and behaviors of their nature. Now, in the mind of the ancient and primitive people, a rapport of sorts can be established between them and the forces of nature denominated by names and personality. And this is the situation when we begin our study of ancient Roman religion.

Roman religion is a study of human adaptation to natural forces of the known and the unknown, the expected and the unexpected, the benevolent and the malevolent, an adaptation that ranged from the least manifestation of the forces of nature to the greatest. There is no exact time line as to the religious adaptation the Romans began to devise to accommodate the variety of natural forces which they faced. Some of their adaptations were inherited from the Etruscans and other sources in the peninsula of Italy, some imported from around the Mediterranean, some with sources rooted in a mythological past. So, rather than try to delineate an accurate time of the various accommodations the Romans devised for understanding and dealing with the natural forces, we will present the generally accepted categories of Roman religion.

At the least level of accommodation, the Romans came to realize that practically everything, animate or inanimate, possessed a spiritual reality. In order to navigate through life in a world replete with seen and unseen spirits abiding in every known element of the seen and unseen world, the Roman had to find ways of placating and satisfying those spirits. In view of the fact that life was essentially rural in the misty beginnings of Roman history and Roman religion, it is not a surprise that the Romans came to terms with spirits living in the plenitude of nature involved in rural life. Thus, the Romans had to accommodate the spirits of the home and the field.

In the home, a plethora of spirits required the solemn attention of the family. At this point, to avoid turning this issue into a history and characterization of Roman religion, I will mention the types of spirits that clustered in the home and with which the Roman family had to make an accommodation. The assignment is that you research each of the types of the spirits mentioned here and include your information with the information in this issue. Here are a few and more important of the types of spirits of the Roman home:

Manes

Lares

Penates

Genius

Larvae

Lemurs

Outside the home into the agricultural fields of the family, the Roman farmer encountered many spirits and gods. As certain rites developed in the home to placate and satisfy the various spirits of the home, so many festivals developed to placate and satisfy the gods of the field, vine, and agriculture generally. Again, it would not serve our purpose to detail these spirits and gods nor to elaborate on the festivals. Here, again, is an assignment for your research. I will mention a few important festivals without elaboration and a few gods associated with the festivals. The assignment is for you to do a thorough research of the spirits and gods of the fields and the festivals associated with placating and satisfying them.

Major Agricultural Festivals:

Liberalia

Fordicia

Parilia

Cerealia

Vinalia rustica

Floralia

Ambarvalia

Meditrinalia

Saturnalia

Gods placated and satisfied by the festivals:

Liber

Tellus

Ceres

Flora

Meditrina

Saturn

As some rural areas became more densely populated, the need for social and political organization arose and with that came the need for governmental functions and laws regulating society and civic life. Among the most important functions of these new governments was that of maintaining the proper relationship with the gods. Although the names of the state gods were different and their powers more extensive, by nature they were only elaborated, sophisticated forms of the primitive spirits honored in the primitive homes and fields of the primitive Romans, meaning their dispositions were whimsical, self-centered, and self-serving.

The official religion of the state was a highly ritualized set of formulas and acts necessary to implore the beneficent blessings of the state gods. Worship in any sense of devotion and adoration as in Christianity was not an impediment to a proper relationship with the gods of the state, but it was in no sense a prerequisite to the proper relationship with the gods of the state.

The formulas and acts were carefully constructed to address every anticipated expectation of the god being addressed as well as possible expectations that the god may want at the  time but never before indicated was necessary for his/pleasure and satisfaction. Every thing was spelled out with no deletion for any reason during the performance of the rite. Because of the strict requirement of detail the Romans knew they must have a specialized priesthood whose responsibility was to know, supervise, and perform the ordinances of the state religion. Thus, the Romans elaborated a hierarchy of priesthoods each dedicated to a god and his/her expectations. It is important to our discussion to mention a few of them, not in anyway exhaustive, but illustrative of the extreme care the priesthoods demonstrated in their duties.

State priests and priesthoods were organized into “colleges” of priests. Each “college” had various qualifications for membership and various duties to perform. In the case of the College of Pontiffs there were both priests and members who were not priests who performed sacred and essential religious function for the state. The list is rather long and the detail is extensive. It will not contribute to the fabric of this issue and series of issues on women in Roman religion to include a discussion of them all. I will, instead, make an assignment regarding the “colleges of priests” and ask you to do the research. As we discuss women in Roman religion in this issue and the next, I will refer to various ones of these colleges with the confidence that you have carefully researched each of them, having become very conversant with each.

College of Pontiffs (In this college please give particular attention to the Pontifex Maximus and Rex Sacrorum and Flamines Maiores and Flamines Minores

Vestal Virgins (of great importance to Rome and to our study)

College of Augurs

College of Fetiales

The Haruspices

The Triumviri Epulones

The Sodales

Fratres Arvales

Duoviri sacris faciunis and the Sybylline Books

Cult of the Emperor

In the course of Roman history attitudes toward religion were expansive, allowing almost any foreign god admittance to the Roman pantheon. Early in Roman history, for example, the influence of the presence of Greek gods is evident. As Roman circled in conquest around the Mediterranean, other gods were elevated to the Roman pantheon. But, a time came toward the end of the Roman republic when gods of mystery religions were not so welcomed because the secrecy of their rites countered the Roman instinct for openness and control. Another assignment in this issue is to trace the development of the Roman pantheon from early republic times until the demise of the republic.

And, last for this issue, is one more assignment. Considering that Roman society was from its foundation a patriarchy, why are there so many important goddesses? And why were the Vestal Virgins so important and completely indispensible?

You have much to do in assignments from this issue. If time could be taken to discuss all of these matters pertaining to Roman religion, we would do it. Albeit each of the research topics is very important, they are well within your grasp and by your doing the research, you will have the background you need for the concluding issue next month on women in Roman religion. Then, we may spend a couple of issues on Egyptian women in religion. After that, we will go back to the Bible and history to compare women in the religion of the Jews with the women in the other religions we have discussed in the past few issues.

I would suggest that you begin to review the earlier issues in which we discussed women in the non-biblical religions we discussed.                                         Return to Vol. 2 Issue 4 April 2009

Issue 4 April 2009       GREEK        Return to Vol. 2 Issue 4 April 2009

                                         Theological University of America  http://www.theologicaluofa.com

Last issue we were working our way into participles. The last thing on the lesson of last issue was a little Greek to translate with a number of participles. How did you do with them? Don’t worry. If you didn’t get it right yet, keep working on it. We will soon review in our study of participles everything you will need to know to translate it.

In this issue, we plunge right along into participles. We raised the question of the article with the participle but did not answer it. The bit of Greek to translate at the end of the last issue included three participles with articles. Take a look at the end of the last issue.

Let’s take a look at an English example or two before going to the Greek participle with an article.

First, just this simple phrase: running horse

Next, just this simple phrase: a running horse

Last, just this simple phrase: the running horse

No big deal, is it? You talk this way all the time.

Ok, in English again: the believing man.

Simple, simple, simple. Preachers, teachers, and ordinary Christians say that phrase with no trouble.

Ok, in Greek:  Jo pisteuwn  [anqrwpo~    The believing man

That Greek construction means the same thing as our English construction. Really very simple, isn’t it.

Let’s change up the English a bit. Suppose we are talking about a man who is talking with other men and we want to point out that particular man. If we know he is a believer among non-believers, we might say, “the one believing” or “the man who believes”. Without splitting hairs, we can say that those two statements in English mean the same thing.

Ok, go to Greek. Jo pisteuwn  [anqrwpo~

It means the same thing as “the one believing” or “the one who believes”

Let’s practice a few participial forms in English and translate them into Greek present active participle in nominative masculine singular:

The one preaching

The one knowing

The one buying

As you have translated these English examples they are all in the nominative case. Here is a mini assignment for right now before you go any farther. Take each of those Greek phrases and translate them into each of the cases, singular and plural with the proper articles. I will give you an example to get started:

Genitive Singular – English (obviously) of the one preaching

Genitive Singular – Greek (hopefully obviously) tou khrussonto~

Now that you have completed this mini assignment, we want to introduce a couple of old friends to the family of participles. You remember our old friends “middle” and “passive” voices, don’t you? If not, please take time now – second mini assignment – to refresh your memory on those old friends, either by looking at earlier issues here or referring to a textbook. If all that fails, we will be showing participial declensions in the middle and passive that will stir your memory, I am sure.

Let’s get some mechanics down for the present middle participle: what does a present middle participle look like? Well, we are about to find out in all its declensional glory. To the surprise of no one we will start with the nominative case and work our way down to the accusative case, both singular and plural. Keep in mind, that the endings for the middle and passive participles are also old chums. So, no worry.

We’ll continue to use luw for our example. So, here goes – the present middle/passive forms:

Singular

Nominative luomeno~

Genitive luomenou

Ablative luomenou

Locative luomenw/

Instrumental luomenw/

Dative luomenw/

Accusative luomenon

Plural

Nominative luomenoi

Genitive luomenwn

Ablative luomenwn

Locative luomenoi~

Instrumental luomenoi~

Dative luomenoi~

Accusative luomenou~

Are we dealing with identical twins? The present middle participle and the present passive participle look exactly alike. But, boy, do they do different things. And that means we have to know the context to know if we are dealing with middle or passive. It is not difficult, because a normal sentence will sound pretty weird if you mix up the two participial voices. We will have some sentences to work on coming up.

Right now, we’ll mess around with some simple verbs which you will convert to present active and middle/ passive forms and decline them, singular and plural, in the masculine gender with the article proper to each case. Then, a moment for you to shine – translate them. After you translate them we will combine Greek participles as part of a sentence with English as the rest of the sentence. Why? To get a good sense of how the Greek participial phrases fit into an English sentence. After all, that is our ultimate goal – translate Greek into English.

So, first – 5 Greek verbs that you will convert to present active and middle, passive form which you will decline throughout all cases, singular and plural, with the proper article for each case. Oh! Just do the masculine gender in all these exercises for right now.

Pempw

lambanw

didaskw

speirw

egeirw

Now the participle in Greek and the other parts of the sentence in English. We start with the singular of the participle. After you have done these participles in the masculine singular; rewrite these sentences and put them in the masculine plural. Do all sentences in the active and middle/passive forms with the article proper to each case.

Jo pisteuwn  is baptized.

I listened tw/ didaskonti/.

The labor tou speirontou requires much endurance.

The Lord withdrew tou legontou.

Jesus saves ton the one obeying.

Good! Very good! With that little exercise behind you, I am giving you an assignment in the Greek text itself.  Break out your New Testament Greek text. Pick out some chapters of Paul’s letters and search them for present participial active, middle, and passive forms. Make note of their cases and how they function in the sentence and, of course, translate them. I think if you can find 25 participials that will be ok. If you really want to take after it, go for 40. That should keep you in the Word for a while.

Next issue, we will continue with participials. Please study each issue on participials thoroughly and do all the assignments.                                                                                     Return to Vol. 2 Issue 4 April 2009

 

Issue 4 April 2009               HEBREW                                  Return to Vol. 2 Issue 4 April 2009

                                     Theological University of America http://www.theologicaluofa.com

Welcome back to Hebrew!

If you take a look at the close of the last issue of Hebrew you will see that we  closed with a peek at the Hebrew article. Why not take a moment to re-read the information in the previous issue on the Hebrew article because we are going a little farther into the Hebrew article in this lesson.

One of our “games” last issue was to observe the Hebrew article when it was used with various Hebrew nouns. You probably noticed that the vowel under the Hebrew article changed to accommodate different noun spellings.  Hopefully, you also noticed the dagash in some of the consonants following the h article.

What follows are the many faces of the Hebrew article. It is ok to have a favorite; but we need to make friends with all of them. Here’s what we will do. First, I will list the Hebrew article in its many faces, then, the initial noun consonant that determines the way the Hebrew article looks. And don’t forget the dagash. Now you see it; now you don’t, depending on the kind of consonant that follows the article and begins the noun.

The “faces” of the Hebrew article.

h¾

h,

h;

The “face” of the Hebrew article in various circumstances:

h¾

When a Hebrew noun begins with an ordinary consonant a dagash follows the h and is placed in the first letter of the noun. For example, sWSh'

Now, you will see the h' without the following dagash in the first letter of the consonant. That happens when the h' precedes either h or j

 

But wait! There are other ways the h¾ relates to a noun beginning with h or j

 

h;

 

When h is the first letter of a noun with the qamas vowel and has an accent, the article form is h;, for example, rh&;h;

When a r [ are the first letters of nouns the article form is h;

h,

Now we come to the article form h, This form precedes nouns which begin with

h; j; j} [; with these conditions:

When the article precedes an unaccented h; [; the article form is h,

When the article precedes an unaccented or accented j; the article form is h,

When the article precedes jÕ the article form is h,

It is clear that this information about the Hebrew article can become confusing. The best way to learn this is by observing the various article formations with actual Hebrew nouns associated with each of the various Hebrew article forms. So, I will list a few words here that will give you an opportunity to practice the various Hebrew article forms with the pertinent consonant of the nouns.

÷b²a²

Vyai

vaOr

lg<r<

rd,[¾

÷yi['i

ds,j,

br,j,

rh;

dwOh;

rd;h;

rp;[;

sm;j;

ylij}

We will stop the study of this issue at this point. However, it is important that you study carefully the article, its forms, and the effect of various nouns on the article.

I have listed 14 nouns that you can use right away to practice articles and nouns together. In addition to those nouns, you should select at least 14 more Hebrew nouns to combine with the correct form of the article. Please combine this issue with the previous issue in your study of articles and nouns.            Return to Vol. 2 Issue 4 April 2009

 

Books, Media, Blogs, and Resources by the Brethren

                                                                Return to Vol. 2 Issue 4 April 2009

                                     Theological University of America  http://www.theologicaluofa.com

Dr. William Denton: “CrossTies Devotionals”  at this link:  http://www.lulu.com/content/18924                                                                “Real Bible Study 4 Kids”  at this link: http://www.lulu.com/content/267194

Dr. Phil Sanders: "Adrift: Postmodernism in the Church" at this link:            http://stores.homestead.com/GospelAdvocateCompany/Detail.bok?no=111
                          "Let All The Earth Keep Silence" at this link: http://www.starbible.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=41&products_id=193&osCsid=0c5f71ff6aa8b3f45d57222728d52d1c

Dr. Daniel H. King Sr:

Hebrew and Hellenistic Thought in the Book of Wisdom

We Have a Right,  Responsibility and Authority in the Spiritual Realm

At the Feet of the Master Teacher

Commentary on the Gospel of John

Commentary on the Epistles of John

Commentary on the Book of Hebrews

The Days of Creation, Searching for Happiness?

Ezekiel

all of Dr. King's books at this link: https://www.akcart.com/truthcart/products.aspx  Enter author's last name in Search space at the lower left hand side of this site to view these books

Dr. Donald Givens: Storms of Life: A Commentary on Ecclesiastes at this link:  
                                                                    www.amazon.com search keywords: "storms of life, don givens"

Dr. Gary Hampton:  The following books at this website http://www.hesterpublications.com/

Christ is Superior: A Study of the Letter to the Hebrews                                                                                 Developing Patient Determination (1-2 Peter)                                                                                                      God's Way to Right Living
In the Beginning (Genesis)
Letters To Young Preachers
Practical Christianity: The Letter of James, Brother of our Lord
Strengthening the Temple of God: A Study of I Corinthians
That You May Know (Letters of John and Jude)
The Earliest Christians: A Study of the Acts of the Apostles
The Sufficiency of Christ When God Ruled Israel (Joshua and Judges)

Unseen Hand This book available from http://www.publishingdesigns.com/

Teresa Hampton
The following books available from http://www.publishingdesigns.co 

Leading Ladies 

Come to the Garden

The following books available from  http://www.hesterpublications.com/

Illuminating Shadows
Jesus and His Relationship with Women
Let the Little Children Come (Co-Author)

Stephen M. McQueen: You Can You Know You Can at this link: http://www.amazon.com/You-Can-I-Know/dp/1412054206/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226464690&sr=1-2   

BLOGS
James Chaisson Blog Learn New Testament Greek - http://www.learnntgreek.org/index.php
An excellent blog for discussion, study, and research. Brother Chaisson is  doing a fine work.

RESOURCES
Lewis A. Armstrong Christian Resources - http://www.christianresources.i8.com 
Christian resources for all your church of Christ related resources for online research. This site supports the needs of the brotherhood for easily finding internet resources.
Brother Armstrong is for former librarian for the Libraries and Archives for Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas.

                                            Dr. Gary Hampton Biographical Information

Gary C. Hampton has been preaching since 1968 and has done work in North Little Rock, Arkansas; Mobile, Alabama; Valdosta, Georgia and Cookeville, Tennessee.  He is now serving as the director of the East Tennessee School of Preaching and Missions in Knoxville, Tennessee.  He graduated from Freed-Hardeman University with a B. A. in Bible in 1976, received his M. A. (1996) and PhD. from Theological University of America (2006).  Hampton has 18 books in print and has written for The World Evangelist, The Voice of Truth International and the Gospel Advocate.  He has preached in 25 states and done mission work in 5 foreign countries.  Gary and his wife Teresa have two children, Nathan and Tabitha.

                                          Teresa Hampton Biographical Sketch                                                              Teresa Hampton has spoken to women across the U.S., Canada, and Scotland.  She has written four study books for women: Illuminating Shadows, Leading Ladies, Come to the Garden, and Jesus and His Relationship to Women.  She coauthored Let the Little Children Come, a three-year complete curriculum for Vacation Bible School, and is currently working on another book. She also writes and sends a devotional e-letter called Wellspring.

Teresa is married to Gary C. Hampton. She and Gary have two children, Nathan and Tabitha. In the summer of 2006, Gary was named director of East Tennessee School of Preaching and Missions, in Knoxville, TN. Gary and Teresa reside in Knoxville, TN, and work with ETSPM under the oversight of Karns Church of Christ.

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INTRODUCING  NEWSLETTER EVANGELISM BY GLENN DAVIS 

Introduction to Newsletter Evangelism

 

         How many of us remember the 1950's and 60's and all the evangelism and growth going on then?  Today most congregations are declining and going out of existence!  The Christian Chronicle recently did a series of articles under the title of “Are We Growing?”   A summary of the series concluded that for the most part, we are not growing!  That means precious souls are being lost on a daily basis and congregations are being lost on a yearly basis. 

         It doesn’t have to be this way.  I personally use an extremely effective form of evangelism that will work for any person or congregation that uses it.  If every congregation in the brotherhood used it, we would become the fastest growing church on the planet.

         What is this method?  I call it newsletter evangelism.  It involves passing out a series of about 25 different newsletters to homes in your area by church members who volunteer to have “paper-routes” of the size of their choosing, for about a 3 month period.  After passing out the series of newsletters, members then go into the community and meet these fine people, which becomes an enjoyable, warm, welcoming experience.

         By first distributing these newsletters over a short period of time, people get to know of the congregation through these newsletters and form a very favorable impression of the church through the newsletters.  When someone finally shows up to their home, they will find that these neighbors have already welcomed your congregation into their homes many times over and have enjoyed your company while not yet having met one of your members.

         The church is transformed from a group in the community that didn’t have much of a favorable rating to a group that now has about a 90% favorable rating, thanks to the newsletters.  When follow-up work is then done, it is done in a very enjoyable environment, rather than a more hostile, unpleasant one.  This makes personal evangelism a successful and fun experience.

         No one enjoys doing things that they are not successful at and is not fun to do.  After using this approach prior to starting any evangelism effort, success and fun can once again be a part of personal evangelism in each and every congregation!

         ContactGlenn Davis and he can give you more details on how you can get started doing newsletter evangelism.  It is now being taught at major preaching schools and bible colleges and universities.  You, too, can benefit from this wonderful approach to personal evangelism.                                                           Telephone:  (714) 523-2435
Email:  newsletterevangelism@yahoo.com

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Volume I - 2008

I 1 - 2008

Issue 2 - 2008

Issue 3 - 2008

Issue 4 - 2008

Issue 5 - 2008

Issue 6 - 2008

Issue 7 - 2008

Issue 8 - 2008

NNEW TO YOUR JOURNAL: A BLOG!!! Its formal title is TUAfrsj. That stands for Theological University of America    Free Religious Study Journal.  You will find a link to your Blog after each study topic of each issue. While your thoughts are on the subject you may want to share some comments and ideas or you may want to return to the Blog later after you have had an opportunity consider your views. In any event, please participate in the blogging related to the studies of each issue. We will all benefit from your contributions. Thanks, Jim         BLOG:/span>  http://tuafrsj.wordpress.co

FREE RELIGIOUS STUDY JOURNAL                                              The Theological University of America  -                                                                   Serving the Church of Christ Since 1987                                                       Distance Learning                        http://www.theologicaluofa.com                        E-mail: info@theologicaluofa.com                        Telephone: 1 800 347 8658 Volume I Issue 2     *Copyright 2008                     Theological University of America     425 Second Street S.E.     Suite 610     Cedar Rapids, IA 52501

THE CURRENT TOPICS IN THE FREE STUDY JOURNAL   Church History                                                                                                      Colossians Counseling (Christian) Women in Religious History Greek Hebrew Please scroll down to see all the topics’ materials Welcome To Your Free Religious Study Journal I am very happy to visit you again this month. Before we proceed, I want to mention to you who may be receiving the Free Religious Study Journal for the first time today that you are receiving the second issue of the Journal. If you would like to have the first issue of the Journal, please let me know at admin@theologicaluofa.com. There are a number of possible reasons you are receiving issue 2 first, but the most likely one is that there was not a proper connection with your computer at the time we sent issue 1 of the Journal. I apologize for your inconvenience. We continue in our studies begun last month and add the beginnings of our Greek and Hebrew studies. Your Free Religious Study Journal has many possibilities for use. Of course, there is the personal use that each of us can make in our private study time. But, your Free Religious Study Journal fits well with small study groups. Many of you may meet weekly with your friends for study of the Bible or of an important related topic. Your Free Religious Study Journal could be the resource that provides a systematic guide and stimulus for your study group. We will be most pleased to send the Journal to anyone in your group or to anyone whose e-mail address you provide us. They will receive the Journal each month, providing fresh and interesting material for study and meditation. A new feature will be included in your Free Religious Study Journal beginning next month. We will ask a brother or sister in Christ to share some things about his/her Christian life and service. It will be inspiring and informative to learn what others in Christ are doing to magnify and glorify His Holy Name. Please let us hear from you. Your comments about the Journal will be greatly appreciated. If you believe the Journal would help others in their study, please either forward to them a copy of your Journal each month or send us their e-mail addresses and we will send them a copy each month. Please use the following e-mail address for your comments and information:   admin@theologicaluofa.com God bless you, Jim Benton CHURCH HISTORY OK! We are ready for our second round of church history. I hope you had an opportunity to dig into the suggestions of last month’s church history section. If so, why not take a few moments right now to review that information. This month, we want to go a little farther in setting the stage for the beginning and expansion of church in history.  We will also anticipate some important political and theological figures as well as a few really early important issues that confronted the church in the early centuries. But, first, I want to put this question before you: what is the Jewish Diaspora and what importance did it have both for the Jews and the young church? The idea and reality of the Diaspora covers a very large period, but, for our purposes, let’s think of its meaning and impact during the intertestamental period and the early centuries of the church. History in the intertestamental period was always seething, very often boiling over into mortal conflict with various players involved. You might ask yourself questions as follows: What is the Diaspora? When did it begin and why? Who were the main parties to the conditions prompting the Diaspora? What effects did the Diaspora have on the Jews and the Christians, particularly Christian evangelists? To what extent geographically did the Diaspora take root? For Christians, was the Diaspora a positive or negative reality or was it a mixed blessing? On the very day of the beginning of the church in Acts 2, there is a passage of scripture that was historically true probably because of the Diaspora. Can you identify that scripture? What about that scripture that has the earmarks of the Diaspora? By the way, can you locate in your mind’s eye the various nations, regions, and peoples mentioned in that passage of scripture? If not, why not clear that up this month and have a really good idea of their geographical locations. Let’s take a turn here and mention some important Roman Emperors. I don’t want to turn this into a study of the History of the Roman Empire (that would be a worthy study and if enough of you indicated by e-mail that you would like to plow that field for a while, we will begin a study in the History of the Roman Empire as soon as we complete one of the studies we are doing now.) but we must have some inkling of the movement of the Roman Empire in history as it effects the church. You spent some time with Augustus in the first church history issue. He expired in 14AD and Tiberius became emperor. After a few emperors well known to you, future emperors Vespasian and Titus came upon the scene and for Christians and Jews Vespasian and Titus have an important role in religious history. Gather up all the information you can about Vespasian and Titus as relates to the Jews and Christians. A third emperor I want to mention lived quite a ways down the stream of time – Emperor Diocletian. I will give you this about him – there was persecution afoot for the Christians. But, he did something else with the empire that would have a lasting effect not only on the history of the empire, but most certainly on the history of the church. Exactly what was that? What was the long term fall out from his action regarding the empire? A fourth emperor that is worthy of attention is Constantine the Great. You just have to know that with the title “the Great” that he did something the Christians of the time really, really appreciated. What other reason would he come down in church history as Great? So, what did he do and what was the fall out of it all. Very interesting study with very large ramifications for centuries to come after him. We’ll stop right there with the emperors. More to come, but with your already busy ministry schedule, the others can wait. Now, for some issues. Just a few now. Like the emperors, we’ll add a few more over time. Gnosticism Marcionism Arianism  Finally, a few geographical spots to locate with some attention to their history prior to the coming of the church and afterwards. Many more spots to come as we progress. But for now, here we go: Arabia Syria Parthia Armenia Pontus Bithynia Cappadocia Galatia Thrace Macedonia  Keep in mind this is not geography for geography sake, although that probably is a good enough reason to ponder these locations. Primarily, we want to see how they fit in the unfolding of church history. That is it for this time. Farewell and God’s speed until next time. God bless! BLOG: http://tuafrsj.wordpress.com   \ COLOSSIANS Do you remember your years in grade school? I have a rather hazy blur of those years with a few highlights that remain clear, even vivid in one or two instances. How to write a letter was one of the early lessons I have found useful down through the years. Remember that lesson? Among the basics of a letter, we learned to include a salutation, the body of the letter, and a complimentary close. But, it got more complicated with each new year in grade school. Somewhere along the way, we learned that a paragraph is a complete thought with a topic embedded in it as the central reason for the paragraph. Then, the high tech elements began to demand attention. For example, if I had more than one paragraph, I should indent each paragraph and that each paragraph should logically relate to the previous paragraph and the subsequent paragraph (now the teacher didn’t use that kind of language then – gratefully). And on it went. I thought at the time that a letter must be an endless procession of interconnections leading to a conclusion supporting a purpose or two. And that is about right! What we have in Colossians is a letter. It too has form and a purpose or purposes and it is written according to accepted procedures of the time. The first research project for this issue on Colossians is to study the form of letters in the first century. There is an abundance of research materials on the topic and you should be able to find useful information in your personal library and the internet. If you don’t have these resources available to you, take a look at Amazon.com and consider buying a book or two on the topic.  Now, having spent some time on researching the word “letter” (you may need to use the word “epistle” in your search machines or when looking in the index of books you have available.  No surprise here – epistle is from the Greek word we translate as letter. The word “epistle” is a transliteration, not a translation.), take the information you have turned up and apply it to the letter of Paul to the Colossians. What do you see there? Any salutation? How about a body? Any concluding remarks and complimentary close?  Any surprises that don’t fit with what you learned about letters written in the first century?  What do you make of the surprises? How do they fit?  You’re doing great! With that little project behind you, go back to the beginning of the epistle. Assuming you have identified a salutation, body, and complimentary close (if they are there. Are they?), this is the time to look for the broad topics that Paul has weaved into his epistle.  What are they? State them clearly to your self. Actually, you might write them down and use them for central thoughts from which to clarify and relate all the elements of the body of his letter. Right here, I want to suggest a method of gaining understanding of the structure, message, and purpose of an epistle which also applies to our study on Colossians. It is “discourse analysis”. Again, back to the research mode. What does “discourse analysis” mean? What does it do and how does that help us get a grip on Colossians? A good little exercise for us is to learn what we can over the next month and apply this method to Colossians before we meet again in the next issue of the Journal. If you haven’t run across this method before, it could be eye-popping or, on the other hand, it may leave you non-plussed. In any event, it is highly acclaimed by some and worth our time to study it. Yes, we will look at other approaches to gaining an understanding of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. We are not quite through yet. A little theological question – what is meant by “Christ” as it applies to Jesus? What light is shed on your answer by a study of relevant passages in the OT and in Jewish thought of the time? Take a long look at the New Testament uses of Christ, compare them with the related information you found in the OT and in Jewish contemporary thought. Think about the “Christ”-“Messiah” connection in the scripture. Just how important is having a scriptural understanding of “Christ” and ”Messiah”?  Why would anyone (Jews, Muslims, etc.) oppose the use of the words “Christ” and “Messiah” when referring to Jesus? Now that is really important in our current world situation!  OK. We have come to the conclusion of issue 2 on Colossians. But, just this last concern – did you read Colossian three times since last month? Bravo to you who did!   See you next time. CHRISTIAN COUNSELING  Here we are again! Back on Christian counseling. Welcome! Happy to see you!  Just how weighty is the responsibility of the Christian counselor? Think about that for awhile and write down your thoughts as they become clear to you.  Part of the answer to that is that some person has come to you as a resource and guide to help him/her through a serious problem as he/she perceives it.  First, we want to think about the person; second, we want to think about the counselor; third, we want to think about the transaction between the person and the counselor.  First, the person – Beverly comes to your office at the appointed time. You know nothing about her in any personal sense. You have never seen her before and, as far as you know, you know no one who knows her.  At this point, you have no idea why she is coming to see you except for your counseling service. All you know is that she made an appointment to see you on a given day and time and she has arrived.  But are you really that ignorant of the person who has come to see you?  Let’s set up two hypothetical situations to indicate an answer to that question.  The first hypothetical situation – from your state university you completed your Master’s degree in psychotherapy with a distinct Rogerian flavor (if you are not aware of Carl Rogers, now is the time to take a break and do a little research. Try the internet. You probably can get enough information to give you the basic premises. Or try an encyclopedia. But, get some info on Rogers! Ok?)  Now, that you have a smattering of Rogerian psychotherapy, what basic assumptions will you make about a person from a Rogerian point of view whom you have never met who comes to you for counseling? Take a little time to think through this. Write down your thoughts as you brainstorm this question.  The thoughts you write down become the projections of fact by which you characterize this person who has come to see you.  What you know about that person is the projections you make from the premises of your Rogerian stipulations about human nature. You say to yourself, “I know this much about this woman” and you are referring to those projections based on the Rogerian point of view.  The second hypothetical situation - you completed your Master’s degree in Christian counseling from a Christian school known for strict respect for the Word of God as pre-eminent for good in all the affairs of mankind. Along with your major in Christian counseling, you completed a number of courses in Biblical Studies through which you learned of the creation of mankind in the image of God and of the eternal destiny of mankind.  You learned of man’s inherent dependency upon God and God’s love for mankind.  Now, with your understanding of the origin of mankind and God’s love for mankind, what basic assumptions will you make about a person whom you have never met who comes to you for counseling? Take a little time to think through this. Write down your thoughts as you brainstorm this question.  The thoughts you write down become the projections of fact by which you characterize this person who has come to see you.  What you know about that person is the projections you make from the premises of your religious understanding about human nature. You say to yourself, “I know this much about this woman” and you are referring to those projections drawn from the Word of God.  Now, compare the results of your Rogerian exercise with the use of the Word of God. Are they diametrically opposed? Do they support one another? Are there elements of each that function well with elements of the other?   Does it make any difference how you understand the human nature of Beverly? Does it make any difference whether you think of Beverly as the outcome of a long succession of evolutionary chemical reactions or a person whose original ancestors were especially created by God and for God? Detail your answers to each option and compare them. Draw conclusions as to the implications for your responsibility as a counselor from each option. Right here, it will be most beneficial to track down in the OT and NT statements and situations which light up the scriptural insights a Christian counselor should have in approaching and resolving counseling responsibilities. Record the citations. Read them several times. Meditate on their meaning that particularly relate to you as a counselor. Try to imagine their application in real life situations which you have already encountered or will encounter. Clearly, to gain the most from today’s discussion of Beverly and the two hypothetical situations of this issue reflection on the material presented is essential. Take time to think through every aspect of the material presented. If you have a study partner or partners, share your insights and thoughts with one another. It will help get to the deeper meanings if you have a study partner(s) in these sections on Christian counseling. Keep reading in books on Christian counseling and psychotherapy as well as secular psychotherapies and psychotherapists. We will cover the material as the months pass. Gaining a good background in these matters will make the studies in Christian Counseling in the Free Religious Study Journal more beneficial. Next month, we will take a little time to discuss the counselor in the area of responsibility as a counselor. Following that discussion, we will discuss the transaction. For a “kicker” at the end of this study, let’s begin a study of leading persons in psychotherapy and counseling psychology.  Unquestionably, you will disagree with much that you read. But, there is much, also, to be gained and used in a proper Christian counseling context. I mentioned Carl Rogers. Now, we will add Sigmund Freud. Is there anyone who hasn’t heard of him?  Dig around and see what you come with in Freud’s career and influence. Look at it critically! What’s good? What’s bad? Apply your knowledge of scripture to your critique and evaluation of the information you are gaining? Sift it and determine if there is anything there that you as a Christian counselor can use. Until next time, God bless you! WOMEN IN RELIGIOUS HISTORY Hello my dear friends, sisters, and brothers in Christ! Nice to visit with you again this month. Is there any subject concerning humans more ennobling and inspiring than studying the wonderful women of religious history? Even when you take into consideration the failures (we all make them folks; it is not gender driven.) the overwhelming positive and uplifting testimony of the lives of the women in religious history gives insights into what we all should be and can be. Clearly, from the scripture, the world was not complete without a woman. Recall the episodes in Genesis where Adam was naming all the animals and looking them over? Every thing was perfect; everything good, as God Himself had said. But, God wanted to make a very big, important point to Adam and all the rest of us – as perfect and good as His creation was, it was not complete! Something, someone was missing! Just imagine how Adam was feeling. Who did he talk to? Well, I have two pets (Boston Terriers) and you can only talk to animals for so long and not be considered a bit strange. Who did he spend time with? The animals had their own lives to live and there is no indication that any of them wanted to spend time with Adam. What was around among creation with which he could share his feelings and innermost thoughts? Narcissus in Greek mythology spent a lot of time looking at himself in water’s reflection and maybe Adam saw himself occasionally in the water that was around. And, if he did, he no doubt thought “am I the only one like me?” “Is there no one who thinks and feels and loves the way I do?” No there was not; not until God decided Adam had realized both his need and the importance of the solution God was about to prepare. Today, read and reflect upon the creation story in Genesis. I emphasize “creation” not the “fall” story. Much too often, the “fall” is the magnet that draws our thoughts to Eve. Sure, she sinned. So did Adam. In the big picture, sin has caught us all, male and female? Would the results would have been the same if Adam had sinned first and then Eve? I would rather us think about Eve as the first woman, the first wife, the first mother, the first person who probably took care of everyone when they were sick, hungry, or in some other kind of need. I often think of Abraham Lincoln’s statement, “All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother!” If you see a good mother as a good gift from God, then Abe’s statement is probably true. I feel quite confident that each of you located and studied in the Old