Classes started last week, and for the first time in roughly forever I’m teaching a new course.  I posted the syllabus for my course on the Greek New Testament last week.  Here are the instructions I give the students for writing their weekly position papers.

These are exercises you too might be interested in – they are easily done, but highly illuminating.  Or at least they are meant to be.  Some of them (such as the first) make best sense in the context off a class discussion, where I can point out things that some readers wouldn’t pick up on; others (such as the second and third) are pretty self-explanatory.

The final two involve “collations” of manuscripts.  That involves taking a portion of a Greek manuscript (ancient hand-written copy) and comparing it word for word, letter for letter, with a modern printed Greek edition of the same passage, in order to note each and every difference, in order to see how alike they are.  That’s the first step to establishing the differences among our surviving manuscripts.  It requires not only the ability to read Greek, but also the ability to read Greek *handwriting* (in various forms), which is one of the things I’ll be teaching the students.

 

 Greek/Religious Studies 409

Instructions for Papers

 

Position Paper 1: The Varying Christologies of John

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