Randy Leedy has a post on B-Greek where he offers a reading plan he's developed for the Greek New Testament. He writes:

There are two basic plans: a sentence-focus plan that maximizes consistent length of readings (based on word counts) without ending a reading mid-sentence, and a paragraph-focus plan that tolerates greater variation in length for the sake of reading in larger thought units. I have laid out each of those plans over three terms: 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years. There is actually only one list of 365 passages for each plan; the difference is only that the 2- and 3-year schedules list the date for every second and every third day, respectively, for each reading. It is up to the reader then to subdivide each reading into 2 or 3 parts as seems fitting.

The lists (a PDF file) are retreivable via email. Rather than post Randy's email address here, please just head to the post on the B-Greek archives and follow the instructions there. I've just grabbed it myself, it looks interesting. I probably won't use it for the entire GNT, but I will consider using it to direct my next run-through the Paulines in Greek.

Randy is looking for feedback from advanced Greek readers, so if you qualify as one of those and want to evaluate his plan, please check it out and get in contact with him.

On previous trips to South Africa, I fell in love with the peppadew.

Now they're here.

They are so yummy. Find them. Eat them.

Some things readers of ricoblog may be interested in:

First, I'll be starting a random series of posts over on the Logos Bible Software blog about Greek Syntactic databases and Logos Bible Software. The first post (an introduction) is available today. I hope to do a post or two each week; I plan to start sometime next week.

Second, if you'll be at the meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) that precedes the SBL annual meeting, you should know that I'm scheduled to present:

Open Session: Biblical Languages
Radisson Mt. Laurel
Theme: Bible Software
Thursday, Nov. 17; 3:00 - 3:40 pm
Rick Brannan, Logos Bible Software
New Developments in Computer Tools for Teaching and Research in Hebrew and Greek Syntax

A colleague and I will be demonstrating different aspects of the work Logos has been doing in the areas of both Hebrew and Greek syntactic databases. Should be a hoot!

There are other presentations in the same session that are worth attending as well; I'd recommend the whole session. It runs from 2:10 through 4:30 on Thursday afternoon.

PW have a short article online on what is apparently called "God-Blogging".

There's even a conference called "GodBlog" coming up shortly. Of the five paragraphs that make up the article, the following paragraph was most interesting to me:

While the conference does not explicitly focus on helping bloggers parlay their work into books, one of the conference's sponsors is Multnomah Books, an evangelical Christian publishing house that publishes titles on current events and Christian living, as well adult fiction.

I won't be there (nor do I really want to be) but if anyone at Multnomah (or anywhere else, for that matter) wants to talk to me about books based on blog content ... well, the email address is (and has always been) available via link on the sidebar.

Hey, it's worth a shot, isn't it?

So about a year ago, I started delving into the Epistle to Diognetus as what I call "blog fodder". That means when I know I need to blog, but am running dry, I just hit the next section of Diognetus and write something (anything) about it.

I'm almost through Diognetus. What should I do next? I've created a small poll to help answer this question. I'd like to look further into any one of the below four documents:

• Polycarp to the Philippians
• Second Clement
• Martyrdom of Polycarp
• The Didache

If you have any preference in this area, please take the poll and let me know!

Votes are limited to one vote per IP address per day, I think. It'll be active for awhile. Vote early, vote often!

Thanks!

Update (2005-10-12): Looks like I fat-fingered "Philipppians" in the poll, but if I correct it now, I ditch the results. I've resolved not to vote in my own poll, though I really want to. If I were to vote, Second Clement would get the nod.

Update II (2005-10-12): Didache has the early lead. Still looking for some folks to give Second Clement the nod ...

Update III (2005-10-20): Didache is now in a commading lead. That's cool. I'm not ready to close the poll yet, so keep votin'! And thanks to the kind soul who voted for Second Clement. I'll just say now that if anyone out there hasn't read Second Clement ... you should.

After a long hiatus, I'm back onto the Epistle to Diognetus. I'm up to §11. You can read about §10; you can also get a quick list of links to all Diognetus posts here (bottom of page).

First off, you should know that this epistle, as we have received it, is likely two different documents. There is a large break between §10 and §11. Ehrman notes in a footnote, "The following two chapters [i.e., 11 & 12] appear to come from a different treatise; see Introduction. A gap is indicated in manuscript here."

Thus §§11-12, which come as a bit of a jolt anyway, are likely from a different document. But I'll treat both sections since they are included in the epistle as it has been transmitted down to us; but I won't be dwelling on these sections too long.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of this section (to me, anyway) is the frequent use of "the word" in reference to Christ, the second person of the Trinity.The below is §11 from Kirsopp Lake's edition with instances of "the word" made bold. Note that this doesn't include pronouns that have "the word" as a logical antecedent.

1. Mine are no strange discourses nor perverse questionings, but having been a disciple of Apostles I come forward as a teacher of the Gentiles, ministering worthily to them, as they present themselves disciples of the truth, the lessons which have been handed down.
2. For who that has been rightly taught and has entered into friendship with the Word does not seek to learn distinctly the lessons revealed openly by the Word to the disciples; to whom the Word appeared and declared them, speaking plainly, not perceived by the unbelieving, but relating them to disciples who being reckoned faithful by Him were taught the mysteries of the Father?
3. For which cause He sent forth the Word, that He might appear unto the world, Who being dishonored by the people, and preached by the Apostles, was believed in by the Gentiles.
4. This Word, Who was from the beginning, Who appeared as new and yet was proved to be old, and is engendered always young in the hearts of saints,
5. He, I say, Who is eternal, Who today was accounted a Son, through Whom the Church is enriched and grace is unfolded and multiplied among the saints, grace which confers understanding, which reveals mysteries, which announces seasons, which rejoices over the faithful, which is bestowed upon those who seek her, even those by whom the pledges of faith are not broken, nor the boundaries of the fathers overstepped.
6. Whereupon the fear of the law is sung, and the grace of the prophets is recognized, and the faith of the gospels is established, and the tradition of the apostles is preserved, and the joy of the Church exults.
7. If thou grieve not this grace, thou shalt understand the discourses which the Word holds by the mouth of those whom He desires when He wishes.
8. For in all things, that by the will of the commanding Word we were moved to utter with much pains, we become sharers with you, through love of the things revealed unto us.

There are a few things to note that we are dealing with references to Christ instead of, say, Scripture in general. First is that "the Word" above is an active participant. He does stuff. He appears, declares, commands, and does all sorts of other stuff. Additionally, v. 4 notes that this word is the same word that has been since the beginning -- which is a direct allusion to Jn 1.1.

There's a lot going on in these few verses. I wish we had the balance of this letter to see the whole context that these comments were originally found in.

Next up: EpDiog 12.

So, I wasn't going to blog about my birthday. Yes, it is on Saturday (tomorrow).

But I was reading the Fragments of Papias over my lunch hour today. They are excerpts about a dude (Papias, whom some say was disciple of John) who wrote five books on exposition of the sayings of Jesus. Today, we only know he wrote them, we don't have any remnants of the books outside of some few citations (primarily from Eusebius). Some say Papias may have been the scribe/amanuensis for John when John's gospel was composed. Anyway, here's something from one of those excerpts, this one from Irenaeus:

But that the age of thirty years is the prime of a young man's ability, and that this extends even to the fortieth year, everyone will admit; but after the fortieth and fiftieth years, it begins to verge toward advanced age. This was our Lord's age when he taught, inasmuch as the Gospel and all the elders who lived with John, the Lord's disciple, in Asia testify that John delivered this tradition to them. For he remained with them until the time of Trajan. And some of them saw not only John, but other apostles as well, and heard this same account from them and testify concerning the previously mentioned account. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 2.22.5; quoted by Holmes, Apostolic Fathers, p. 593)

I'll be celebrating my 34th birthday this Saturday. Until reading the above quote from Irenaeus, I'd never stopped to think that Jesus' disciples may have been roughly the same age as I am now when they walked with Jesus.

Can you imagine that these disciples, adult converts to Christ, are the ones who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, started preaching the message in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and even unto the ends of the earth? And that message has persisted down to us today?

Whoa. God is awesome. When I think, "What new things can God do in me, with me, and through me?"; when things start to seem old — he makes them new again. He's got plans for all of us; he's nowhere near done with us. Where is he leading you these days?

Tonight I'm doing some revision of some stuff I've written on 1Ti 3.14-16:

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory. (1Ti 3.14-16, ESV)

In my reading of First Timothy, this section is the central focus. The letter has to do with false teaching infiltrating the church; false teaching that is both seemingly innocuous and deadly serious. The letter warns the church to get back on track; and to do that they need to know the truth. The false teaching -- all aspects of it -- must be expunged; the church must reclaim the truth and preach it anew, with vigor and haste.

This piece of Scripture clues the recipients in to what that truth is. While this is seen as the "mystery of godliness", it really isn't a mystery. It is pretty clear. The hymnic/creedal section describes Christ, and it describes what he has done.

Anyway, as I'm going through this, I start to ponder: What is the difference between belief and intellectual assent? That is, there are things that I can, logically, admit to being possible. But in my mind, that is somewhat removed from belief. If something is believed, it implies (to me, anyway) that one's actions will change to fit one's beliefs. Mere intellectual assent doesn't.*

Believing something does not necessarily imply that the substance of the belief can be logically proven. I can fervently believe something without being able to prove it. This is what faith is all about, and why it is so vital and necessary in the life of a Christian.

So I ask myself: These essentials listed in 1Ti 3.16 -- do I believe them, or do I only assent to them intellectually? That is, is this information that changes my life and causes me to act differently from those who are not Christian? Or do I simply say, "yeah, that sounds about right" and then go on in life with no resultant change?

This truth about Jesus Christ must be believed. It cannot exist only in the intellectual realm of one's mind. Belief is reflected in action. Jesus was God incarnate on this earth; He was crucified. He rose from the dead, and he sits at the right hand of God Almighty. Easy letters to type; but do I believe it? Is my life different as a result? Is this truth foundational to my way of living?

I like to think so, and I like to think that I do my best. But I know I fall short. I need to do better at believing what I believe I believe. (got it?). Praise be to God for the gift of His Son, my Savior and Mediator; for the gift of the Holy Spirit, my Comforter and Helper; and for his never-failing mercy and grace. I would be lost -- in every sense of the word -- without them.

* For example, I'll assent that you could determine an eight-case noun system in Greek. But when I'm reading Greek and declining nouns ... I'll use five-case every time. I'd say that while I'd "intellectually assent" to an eight-case system; I "believe" in the five-case.