Monday, January 28, 2008

Am I a Masochist?

My daughter, Rachel, has been bugging me to update this blog....share some thoughts. Since the majority of my "down time" is spending studying.....here goes.

Have you ever started something and wondered "What in God's name am I doing !?"....

This phrase reverberates in my mind since I started my class, "Biblical Greek and Hebrew". Yes, some of us are gluttons for punishment!

Image working a full day and then sitting in class for three hours trying to wrap you brain around:

Εν αpχη nν ο Λόγος, και ο Λόγος nν προς τον Θεόν, και Θεος nν ο Λόγος ... which means:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word

That's Greek. Word order is similar, letters can be learned and is actually very EASY compared to HEBREW! (see the same passage from John below).

בראשית היה הדבר והדבר היה את האלהים ואלהים היה הדבר׃

Hebrew is read right to left and it's impossible to find any similarity to English. Originally when the languge was written but did not contain vowel sounds. Later little dots, dashes and other markers were added to help readers but they are not easy for me to pick up....must be these old eyes of mine.

Our professor continues to encourage us and I'm sure I will survive this 16 weeks. In fact, I've decided this is a very humbling experience for me. My classes normally easy and I've never had a challenge of this magnitude.

Hopefully, as I used to tell my children, this will be a 'character building' experience!

also, I'm sure the amount of Motrin I have purchased is helping the economy!