Language
I'm trying to cultivate a new habit, and the title is it. Everytime I find myself writing something like, "the word ὑπόστασις means "blah de blah blah'", I stop and rewrite it to something more like, "the word ὑπόστασις translates as 'blah&
Greek
(I'm mostly in the midst of doing a lot of thesis writing, but thought I could take some time out to ride a hobby horse). * Knowing a language isn't a qualification for teaching a language. We usually think that knowing something is a pre-requisite for
Uncategorized
Yesterday (well, today if you're living in the past like the USA) is/was International Mother Language Day, and I thought I'd write some thoughts about it. My mother tongue is English. I sometimes wish it wasn't, but it is just an accidence [sic]
Thesis
Most of my training in biblical studies occurred in a Reformed Protestant context, for which I am quite thankful. However, one of the problems of Protestant perspectives on early church history is a tendency to think, "right doctrines, dodgy exegesis". The narrative constructed is that the early church
Uncategorized
A few days ago this post appeared highlighting a new feature for Logos users, at least those on the subscription Logos Now model (which I am not). As a big advocate of reader's editions for students to move into more fluent and extended reading, I was pleased to
Uncategorized
Hi, I'm Seumas and I'm a chronic codeswitcher. Code-switching occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages or language varieties in a single discourse event. It's not a bad thing necessarily, indeed when I was in Mongolia and speaking with competent
Greek
This past week I’ve been leading a small group (quite small!) through the 2nd century text, ‘The Acts of Paul and Thecla’. It’s a very interesting text which relates the story of how a young betrothed woman in Iconium meets Paul, becomes entranced by the teaching of Christ,
Uncategorized
Perhaps not the most common myths about Christmas, but these are the ones I regularly have to interact with online. 1. Christmas is a Christianisation of celebrations for Sol Invictus Given that the first indisputable dating for Christmas to Dec 25th is the same document (the Chronicon of 354) that
Greek
Here's the shortest case I can make. There are, depending on edition, 138,020 Greek words in the New Testament canon. Here are some comparable English works: 134,462 - The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien 134,710 - Schindler's List, Thomas Keneally 135,420
Uncategorized
Patristic Readers At the start of November I published the first volume, the Martyrdoms of Polycarp and Perpetua (Available now at createspace, and Amazon). This month I've been doing three things: I've just finished proofing the third Gregory text, and started compiling the vocabulary. I also
Updates
Well, I'm wrapping up from the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting 2015, and thought I'd compile some thoughts from it. Travel to/from Since I had to foot the bill for my own flights, I flew Korean Air from Sydney to
Uncategorized
This Thursday I'm off to SBL Annual in Atlanta. I'll be presenting in the Development of Early Christian Theology section on the Saturday at 4pm. Feel free to come along if you like hearing about exegesis in Basil. It's been 13 years since I