In lieu of the many other posts I have floating around my brain and yet to make it to the digital page, I offer some reflections on the week just gone.

This week, and now for the 6th time in a row, as a tutor at least, I was teaching at the Macquarie Ancient Languages School, which operates twice a year, summer and winter. Each session I’ve taught what was formerly labelled Koine, now Biblical/Patristic Greek course. Actually, I’ve never covered a Biblical text per se, on the rationale that there’s no shortage of resources to help students read New Testament texts, but there is a considerable dearth of help to read anything non-canonical (or even LXX), especially if you come from a Biblical background and not a Classical one (I have always found classical students to do rather well, which I generally attribute to the combination of a broader experience of Greek, and for those who have gone through several years of classical study, much more exposure to the language).

Over those six sessions, I have instead taught the Martyrdom of Polycarp, The Passion of Perpetua (in its Greek recension), Selections from Josephus, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Acts of Thecla, Nazianzen’s Oration 29, Nyssen’s De Deitate Filii et Spiritus Sancti, and in this week just complete, Hermas’ Visions. I had originally planned to do Visions 1-4, as a discrete unit, but we moved at a rapid pace, and I had full days instead of half-days, so we also covered Vision 5, which itself is the start of the second ‘half’ of the book, and in our last day read some of Polycarp’s Martyrdom as well.

It’s always good, and refreshing, to spend some time just teaching Greek. There are not enough opportunities like this around, for me in teaching, but also for those keen to spend time in the language and in texts. I had a small but enjoyable group of four this time around.

Anyway, that’s it for this week. Plenty of other things to get on with for the present.