Crunch Time!

I’ll be leaving for New York City today, since I’ll be taking my Hebrew Bible comprehensive examination tomorrow. I’m hoping that my books and notes will fit into my backpack!

Yesterday, I took a particular approach to studying: I researched questions that came to my mind. Who wrote the Covenant Code, according to scholars? (Answer: the Elohist, yet others date it to eighth century Judah.) Why did Gerhard Von Rad believe that the Sinai covenant was a theme commemorated on Sukkoth? (Answer: I don’t know, but he maintains that it was celebrated at Shechem, since the covenant ceremony in Joshua 24 at Shechem looks like the covenant made at Sinai.) Did E. Knauf really think that Hebrew was an artificial language invented in the post-exilic period? (Answer: Lemche says that, according to Knauf, Hebrew was no longer a living language in the post-exilic period, and so the Hebrew of the Hebrew Bible was constructed to serve as a literary language.) What, according to Brian Peckham, was Isaiah’s problem with J’s notion of covenant? (Answer: Isaiah disliked J’s notion that worship was all that mattered, and Isaiah also rebuked Hezekiah for trusting in Egypt rather than God, prompting the Deuteronomist to defend Hezekiah as a man of faith—after, in his eyes, God’s approval of Hezekiah was made manifest by the defeat of Sennacherib.) And what was that pre-exilic artifact in which the God YHWH was invisible? (Answer: A tenth century terra cota from Taanach, a Northern Israelite city.)

Whether or not these answers are totally adequate, I do not know, but at least they’re in my mind so that I can use them on the exam, if necessary. Google books was really helpful yesterday, as was the Anchor Bible Dictionary.

In terms of how I will study today, first of all, I printed out all of my blog-posts that I wrote to prepare for this exam, and so I will consult some of them, whenever I feel a need to solidify my knowledge on a particular book. I also have the notes that I took on the books that I read. Second, I’m taking the book, Sources of the Pentateuch, which contains how Martin Noth divided up the Pentateuch into J, E, P, and later redactors. I want to get an idea of what in the Pentateuch belonged to whom, according to a prominent version of the Documentary Hypothesis. Even though the standard Documentary Hypothesis is not the only game in town, it’s still helpful for me to know it when I’m taking an exam in Hebrew Bible. And, third, I’m taking a few books on the Psalms, so that I can read about certain Psalms that may be on the test.

This is a nerve-wracking experience. Sometimes, I feel confident. Other times, I feel like I know nothing! But I hope to walk into that exam knowing enough to pass!

After I take my Hebrew Bible exam, I’ll be studying for my exam in rabbinics, and so I may blog about that topic as I study. That test will be a week and a half after my Hebrew Bible one! Even after I finish the rabbinics exam, however, I will still read books on the Hebrew Bible and rabbinics and blog about them—until I learned whether I passed or not! And, even then, I may still blog about those kinds of books, for I’m hoping to start writing book reviews for publication, so that I can get some publication experience on my CV.

I won’t be publishing comments until tomorrow evening, which is when I’ll be back from New York City. Talk with you later!

Insomnia, The Christian and the Pharisee

I’m having a hard time sleeping right now, and I have four hours before I have to get up. Part of the problem is that I’m thinking of some of the errors I made on my comps, and I’m afraid of the possibility of having to take them over again. The secretary told me that, if I have to take parts over again, then the best time is January, which is before the second semester. Otherwise, I’ll have to pay $1500 (or something like that) for candidacy in the second semester. Plus, I wonder how I’d take the comps in the second semester, when I won’t even be living in Cincinnati then. I can’t afford to stay in a hotel (or even on campus) for three weeks in a row—ordinarily, we have to have a week between each comp.

I say this because my Mom said “Whew” when she read my blog about my last comp, but now’s not the time to say “Whew.” I have no idea where I stand right now on them. And who knows when I will know? I hope I don’t come across as snippy here. I just don’t feel all that secure right now.

Plus, I’m just not sleepy. I slept well last night because I wanted a brief escape from having to worry about my comps. Now that they’re over, I can’t sleep. So worry is keeping me awake, and yet, paradoxically, so is a lack of worry—if that makes any sense.

I’m trying to read a book for fun right now, in the aftermath of my comps—The Christian and the Pharisee, by Dr. R.T. Kendall and Rabbi David Rosen. It’s basically a series of letters between Kendall, a Christian, and Rosen, an Orthodox Jew. I’m having a hard time with the book. For one, Kendall makes no apologies about wanting Rosen to become a Christian, which turns me off, for I wonder why Kendall thinks that his worldview is the only way to see the world. There are different ways to interpret the Hebrew Bible, and that’s one reason that there are different religions—Judaism, Christianity, Christianity’s sects, etc. Kendall also expresses bafflement when Rosen says that Jews don’t think accepting the Messiah is all that important. Um, hello, Christianity is different from Judaism, Dr. Kendall: what Christianity stresses as important (“believing” in the Messiah) is not necessarily what Judaism chooses to stress!

But I’m having a hard time following Rosen, at times. In the letter of his that I read today, he said that Jews enter the World to Come—the good afterlife—through obedience to the Torah. But I wish he elaborated more on the rabbinic belief that the intermediate Jews (those who aren’t righteous or wicked) will go through a period of cleansing in Gehenna, a view I find rather cozy. Maybe he’ll get into that. So far, all he said was that Jews have different ideas on hell and purgatory. So this is a case of me wanting him to say something a certain way, and he chooses to say something else. You’d think that this would make him interesting—he’s baffling my expectations. But that’s where the paradox is: I’m having a hard time getting intellectual stimulation out of this book.

Something I like about the book, though: both sides aren’t extreme Zionists who believe in “Israel, right or wrong.” They’re for peace, and they criticize Christian Zionism.

I see snow outside. I would be nice if I could get a day off from work tomorrow, so that I can sleep and take it easy. But my school only closes when it’s REALLY bad outside. That’s how it was when I was a kid: all the other schools were closing when there was a blizzard outside, but not the school system that I attended.

I’m sorry if I offended anyone in this post. Have a good evening, or day, if many of you read this during the day-time.

Last Comp

I took my final comp today. I expected it to be the hardest, but, actually, it wasn’t that bad. The professor could have chosen much harder Greek passages for me to translate on the test, from the large corpus that I had to prepare. But I could actually make something out of the passages he gave to me.

Which Is Worse?

I hate the day before a comp. There’s so much anxiety—burn-out mixed with panic attack. Actually taking the comp is not as bad. At that time, I either know the material or I don’t, and I no longer have to do anything to prepare for the test, so all I can do is take it and try my best. I realized a few days ago that I dread the day before the comp more than the comp itself. I’m not sure if I’ll have to take any of these tests over again, or any specific parts over. But I will be glad to have some sort of respite after my final comp tomorrow.

Comp Number 2

I took my second comp today, the one in Hebrew Bible. (That means my school was open on this snowy day.) I’m not sure what to say about it. A lot of what I studied was not on it. There were some things that I wish I had studied more—which I’ll have an opportunity to do if I have to take a part of the test over again, or just for fun. (Blogging through Van Seters and other scholarly books actually can be fun.) But I tried to present what I did know, but I won’t be surprised if my professor will be scratching his head as he reads my essay, wondering what point I was trying to make. The translation part wasn’t that bad. I had to translate Psalm 50, which is one of the more provocative Psalms—the one where God says he doesn’t eat animal sacrifices. I got to bring in some of my scholarly reading on Psalms from my weekly quiet time, which was good.

The translation took some time, and the writing of the essays was like composing a five-hour blog post. At least it was with the way I was writing them! I was happy to be out of there! Whereas, last week, the eight hours went by fast, this week, they went by slowly, and I felt as if I had to spend all the time I could to do the question justice, or to hit points where I was inadequate, or just to arrive at something cogent to SAY!

I think my essay would have been better had I memorized the entire Hebrew Bible, or if reading Hebrew was as easy for me as reading English. But I made due with what knowledge I had while taking the test.

What I learned today is that taking this particular comp is not impossible. Challenging, but not impossible. I’ll know that if I have to take it over again, or at least parts of it.

My next comp is the Greco-Roman one, and it worries me.

But I’ll keep you all posted!

The Day Before…

I’m studying for my Hebrew Bible comp right now, which I will take tomorrow. I wonder, later on today, if I’ll get the same sort of mixture between burn-out and panic attack that I got last week, while studying for my rabbinics comp. Last week, I was studying the rabbinic texts to prepare myself to translate and to explain them. I’m not doing that so much this week, for my Hebrew Bible professor told me that, in terms of what I’ll have to translate on the test, anything in the Hebrew Bible except the Book of Job (which is difficult) is fair game. I can’t read the entire Hebrew Bible by tomorrow, so I’ll probably hit a few prominent poetic passages: Exodus 15, and the Song of Deborah.

In terms of translation, I’m relying on the fact that I have read a lot of biblical texts in Hebrew for my weekly quiet time, and for my study. I’ve done the Pentateuch. I’ve done Joshua-II Kings. I’ve done Ecclesiastes and (I think) the Song of Solomon. I did Isaiah. I’m a little weak, however, on other prophets and the Book of Proverbs. For many chapters of Proverbs, it’s not easy to translate a passage by looking at context, for the chapters contain sentences that follow each other and really don’t have much to do with each other. My professor once said that, in Proverbs, it’s hard to determine what one sentence means in relation to another, whereas, in Job, it’s hard to determine what one word means in relation to another. I guess that’s why I won’t be tested on Job!

Today’s burn-out may come as I try to iron out all the different beliefs on the composition and sources of the Pentateuch, which can become a headache. I decided to take my comp with this professor because I wanted to learn the scholarly spectrum when it comes to the Hebrew Bible. I find different approaches to be interesting. Today, my study of them may lead to burn-out and panic attack! Or I may find what I discovered last week while I was working through the Mishnah tractate on vows (Nedarim): I’m actually interested in what I’m reading, but I’m stressed at having to know it for a test the next day!

In any case, I’ll be studying and incorporating prayer into my day. I probably won’t be able to publish comments until tomorrow evening, when I’ll be done with my Hebrew Bible comp—so don’t think I’m snubbing you if your comment doesn’t appear for a while.

I’ll probably let you all know tomorrow how my comp went! God bless.

Faith Amidst Insecurity

One reason religion exists is that there is so much insecurity in the world. A line that I used to hear is that, as long as there will be math tests, then there will be school prayer. In my case, having to take comps increases my prayer life. There’s a lot of worry as I prepare for them, but even the activity of taking them is like going through a mine-field. Things can be going smoothly, and then, BAM, out of the blue, while taking the comp, I run into a particular subject-area in which I’m not confident.

I seriously wondered if God would bless me on these test, when I’ve been questioning Christianity a lot over the past few years. But that’s just been me being honest. I’ve also wondered if God would answer my prayer to pass the tests—primarily so my loved ones and I won’t have to pay the huge fee next semester that registering for comps entails. I wonder this after reading Ecclesiastes, which seems to say that God just lets things go: God doesn’t always intervene to set things right in the lives of people. I don’t even need to read Ecclesiastes to feel this way, for I can observe it when I look at the world!

But I can pray. And I try to find comfort in the idea that God loves me, regardless of how I do on my comps.

Not that I’ve heard any news about the first one. These are just my reflections.

Comp Number 1

Last night, I was studying for my first comp, the one in rabbinics. I felt as if I was having a panic attack mixed with burn-out! But prayer got me through. I started reading some of the midrashim as if they were bedtime stories, getting me to a state of sleepiness. And that helped.

This morning, I thought that my comp would start at 8 a.m., but it actually started at 9. That gave me an extra hour to study. And that was an hour of quality study.

I’m not sure how I did on this comp. I was expecting this to be the easiest one, but, believe me, it was no joke! I took the full eight hours on it. I think that the first four hours were spent on translating. I could make sense of the passages. Some questions I answered well, some, I hope I answered them well! I wonder what the next two comps will be like.

Believe it or not, those eight hours actually flew. I wondered before I took the test how I could take a test for eight straight hours. I was told that, when I’m taking it, I’ll feel that I don’t have enough time. That’s the way it was for me today. I wasn’t dithering or day-dreaming or taking breaks through any of it (except for that one restroom break): I was working.

I doubt that I’ll have to take the whole thing over, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d have to take a few sections over. I’ll have to see!

Now, on to study for my next comp!

Providence? Self-Esteem?

1. I’m studying for my rabbinics comp, which I’ll be taking tomorrow, and, lo and behold, James McGrath has a link by Simon Holloway on “The Development of the Halakha.” Coincidence, or divine providence?

2. I’m listening to Joel Osteen right now, and he’s talking about how we should carry ourselves with confidence. I do this better now than I did in the past. My voice doesn’t tremble as much when I’m in people’s presence, and I look people in the eye more often. But I still tend to mumble, rather than speaking to others in a clear, audible voice. People still say “What?” after I speak. Also, there are some groups in which I am comfortable, and some groups in which I’m not, and I tend not to manifest confidence in the latter situations. My twelve-step group helps me to have more confidence than I used to have. Because I go to a meeting most mornings, I feel a little more confidence around people in the afternoon. It’s like I’ve been gently eased into the day through my meeting. And the meetings are positive. I generally leave them with hope rather than despair.

Joel is speaking against the attitude of apologizing for one’s existence. I often have this sort of attitude. But I don’t know how I can believe that I’m fun to be around, when there have been people who have disliked me. I don’t know how I can believe that I’m competent in job situations, when there are job situations in which I wasn’t competent. Something I really like about my library job is that I do most things right, however. But the battle to have self-esteem is still a challenge.

Robert Wilson on Scribes and Prophetic Writings

I’m reading Randall Heskett and Brian Irwin’s The Bible as a Human Witness to Divine Revelation off-and-on, and I thoroughly enjoyed Robert Wilson’s article in it, “Scribal Culture and the Book of Isaiah.”  It tied together a lot of loose ends. 

One thing that I have to know for my Hebrew Bible comp is Philip Davies’ view on Israel’s scribal culture.  Wilson summarizes that.  According to Wilson, Davies believes that not many people in ancient Israel could read, but that there were small scribal elites that were associated with the political and the religious establishments.  Wilson states on page 99, as he describes Davies’ position:

“This relatively small arena for scribal activity in turn delayed the production of written biblical texts until the Persian period or later.  Even then, writing was a monopoly of scribal elites, who created texts to support their own interests as well as the interests of the government and the religious establishment.”

In the case of prophetic literature, Davies believes that letters containing divine oracles were preserved in the royal archives, but that “these oracle collections would not have resembled the Bible’s prophetic books as they now exist.”  In Israel’s post-exilic period, the Israelites became interested in composing a national history, and Davies believes that was the time when “the oracle collections [were] supplied with historical and cultural contexts of the sort now found in Jeremiah and Ezekiel.”  Moreover, for Davies, “some of the oracles from the collections found their way into the historical narratives themselves, creating the prophetic stories now found in Samuel and Kings.”

This echoes some things that the professor giving my comp has said: that prophetic literature is not really historical, but was a literary exercise, and that the alleged historical contexts of the prophetic writings were attached to the text at a post-exilic date.  At least that sounds like what Davies is saying.  When Davies says that the oracle collections were “supplied with historical and cultural contexts” (to use Wilson’s summary of Davies), does that mean the historical and cultural contexts were artificially attached to anonymous oracles, whose historical setting the scribes did not know?  Or does it mean that the scribes knew these oracles’ historical setting, and simply made that clear in their formulation of prophetic literature?

In addition to Wilson’s summary of Davies, I appreciated his discussion of how biblical texts could have been composed in exile.  I asked in a class if a certain text was exilic, and the professor asked me how people could compose texts in exile, without a sponsor.  I had just assumed that the Jews could compose texts in exile, and that biblical scholars had some way to account for that.  After all, didn’t many of them date P to the exile?  I was sure they wouldn’t do that if writing in the exile was impossible.

But Wilson discusses how it could have been possible, even when Israel lacked a political establishment and a temple.  He states that there were scribes whom people approached whenever they needed something written, whether that be “certifying economic transactions, writing wills and marriage documents, and generally doing any writing that private citizens wanted done.”  And so you had Jews in exile who could write, and who did so as part of their business.  Some of them could have come together to produce a document such as, say, Second Isaiah.  And we see in Scripture that small religious groups—circles around a prophet—wrote and preserved the prophet’s words.  This was the case for First Isaiah (Isaiah 8:16; 30:8), and also Jeremiah.