I am backkkk...if you missed me, blame the intensive Biblical Hebrew language course that took me away this summer.
Regent College offers Intensive Summer Courses taught by invited lecturers from other institutions. Invited faculty include sought after names such as Malcolm Guite, Gordon T. Smith, and Rick Watts. Interesting topics are taught daily across a week or two, so people who are working can take it while on vacation (or not, everything is online these days thanks to the pandemic). If you are keen...wait till next summer because I told you this too late haha. My bad.
While there are interesting topics to explore in summer, I missed them all because I had to tackle Biblical Hebrew. Let me tell you about this giant...
Biblical Hebrew 1 & 2 (a.k.a. "Suicide Hebrew")
So, foundational Hebrew language courses are normally taught over 2 semesters x 14 weeks = 28 weeks (6 credit hours). The summer intensive program covers this in merely 7 weeks.
That means nothing but Hebrew daily at four times faster than the normal rate (covering 1 month's worth of content every week). It also means we cover a week's worth of vocabulary every day, and take an exam every week, and learn to read and translate the Hebrew Bible by the end of the course. Now I know why they affectionately call it "suicide Hebrew". In order to graduate in 3 years, I plan on doing it again with "suicide Greek" next summer. Ho ho ho.
But is rewarding to hear rhyme and rhythm of the Psalms in Hebrew. And the book of Ruth...it really can be the plot of a Chinese drama series. Scandalous Naomi (which by the way should be properly pronounced as "NO-omi".)
The Christian Spirit
Thankfully, there was still opportunity to take 1 other summer intensive, and I chose this course with Bruce Hindmarsh. We learned about the spiritual practices of those who came before us.
Did you know that for the Desert Fathers, going into isolation in the wilderness is not to be far from the evil of the world, but rather to face temptations head on? To them, the desert is where Jesus was tempted, where deceiving thoughts are the loudest. But while they may be mostly in isolation, they are not completely alone. The hermits do live in community, albeit at a distance from each other, something like our circuit-breaker / social distancing measures these days...
This course was taught across 2 weeks, immersed in lots of prayer.
Now I have a 4-week break before Fall classes begin. I am off to catch some sun.
Image: My name in Hebrew. It means "the one who belongs". My dad gave me this name saying I belong to God.