Back in FL

It is almost surreal to think that it has been a month since I last posted anything. But, as we are flying over the Atlantic on our way back home to start a new journey I can’t help but look back with extreme thankfulness and contentment on what was a life-changing trip.

To catch everyone up, the last 4 _ weeks have been comprised of lectures, research, and enjoying the Cambridge way of life. We had 3-4 lectures per module, each lecture being 3 hours. The modules were: Papyrology, Dead Sea Scrolls, Epigraphy, Rabbinics and Septuagint with a one-day excursus on Philo of Alexandria. In addition to that we took a side trip to London to visit the British Library and British Museum.

Here’s a brief summary of what each module covered:

Papyrology – Focus was placed on reading, and translation of documentary letters discovered in Oxyrhynchus from the 1st – 3rd century. Although these letters and documents are sometimes ignored or marginalized in comparison to the literary papyri we found – as many have before – that these documents give us an firsthand account of how people lived and conducted business in the 1st century. The importance for NT studies is that many of these letters reflect very similar language to that of the NT, and in some cases may even reflect early Christian letter writing (more to come on this as I’m writing a paper on one particular letter which is thought by some, not all, to be the earliest Christian letter outside of the NT).

Dead Sea Scrolls – For this module we had an external professor from the University of Birmingham as our lecturer. She is a first rate scholar in her field, and was able to give us some insights into cutting edge research being done in relation to the Dead Sea Scrolls (particularly the Damascus Covenant / Document, and the Community Rule).

Epigraphy – Focus here was placed on the interpretation of Civic and religious life from within the Greco-Roman context that the inscriptions are from. Being that our course director and field excursion leader taught this module, many applications were made while on our 2-week trip in Greece and Turkey. Our paper for this module was to be based on an inscription that we chose in Delphi, and to translate it and write on its relation to the community and context contained therein. I’ll post more info on this one in the future as to what I’m writing on, and some of the errors made by previous scholars who have published the particular inscription that I’m working on.

Rabbinics – This was one module that I had the least amount of experience in, and was most anxious about being that I’ve only had 1 semester of Hebrew going in. But, as I found out I wasn’t the only one weak in Hebrew as two of the other students hadn’t had any at all. Our lecturer is one of the research fellows at Tyndale House, and is one of the only scholars in the world to have done as much research on the dating of Rabbinic literature to pre-70 CE with its application to NT Studies. Our lectures focused on how to use the Rabbinic sources (as they can be nearly impossible to navigate), with lectures on the Pharisees, Divorce in the 1st century, and the impact of Jewish prayer on Jesus and the NT.

Septuagint – Our lectures here focused on more introductory material, and how those in the 1st century thought of this translation. Philo of Alexandria, and Josephus both wrote about the translation, the former describing the selection of the translators and the reverance by which they treated their work. We were given a fragment of a text and were to identify it and translate it in class. One interesting thing was to see that although the translation was in Greek they wrote the tetragrammaton (YHWH) in a Paleo Hebrew script, and never used the word Lord (kurios), at least in the translations that are extant.

On our trip to London we were able to see Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest complete copy of the NT (also containing much of the OT as well) dating to the 4th century.

In addition to all this I was able to spend time in Cambridge, which is a beautiful town, with my wife, and meet a lot of people from all over the world that came to study at Tyndale House.

We’re happy to be back, and look forward to seeing our church family again. Thanks to all at GCF for your prayer and support – You guys rock!!

Here’s a couple pics from around Cambridge…

Back in Cambridge

After a long day of traveling, we arrived back in Cambridge. As I was looking through some of the pictures I took while on the trip, I realized how much we were able to see – amazing sites – in what now seems like such a short time.

Yesterday was a day off to recover from the trip, and get acclimated to life here at Tyndale House. We met with the librarian to get a run down on procedures for using books, and assignments on desks for working while we’re here. The library here is impressive to say the least. Plus, we have access to the network of libraries at the University of Cambridge.

I also set out yesterday on a bike into town to track down a grocery store, which was a unique experience, but kind of an adventure on its own. For example, ordering a pound of lunch meat, when they don’t measure in pounds, but instead call their main unit of currency a pound (GBP) is sure to draw a confused look from the counter clerk.

Today, we again had some time to relax before our modules start tomorrow. We met our professors, and got a quick overview on what we’re going to cover. For our Papyrology module, which starts tomorrow, we got our first assignment – translate 2 letters from Oxyrinchus, one of which was a photocopy of the original that I couldn’t make out a single word of, but he gave us the translation in a different font as well. I spent about 2 hours translating one of them, which was basically a letter about payment to a mouse hunter! Egypt had a problem with mice in the 1st century, so much so that one letter notes that the record of a document was destroyed by a mouse eating it.

The living arrangements here aren’t bad at all. I’m sharing a small flat with another couple, the husband of which is a fellow summer school student from Cali. The town is really nice, although it does rain a lot. So, that basically catches ya’ll up on happenings here – I’ll try and post a bit on each of our modules and projects, but from here on out I’ll be basically be living in the library, and drinking coffee / tea. For each of our modules we have about 2500 words to write, plus an add’l paper on our archaeological trip (so about 40 pages total, due by the end of August).

Here are a couple pics form our last night in Kusadassi…

Day 12-13

On our second full day here in Turkey we set out for the Selcuk Museum, which houses the top finds from Ephesus. One thing that we all agreed on is that the Turkish people / government have done a great job at preserving their country’s archaeological history. They showed off many of the sculptures that were found, and had little shots of where the statue was found and what condition it was in.

Regarding inscriptions (one our focuses on the trip), the museum had a huge slab that contained instructions regarding harbor matters, that was later re-used in a church – St. John’s – which is also believed where the tomb of John (who wrote the Johanine Biblical letters) is contained.

After that we stopped for lunch at a nice little cafe on the way back to the Ephesus site. I had a pide, and a Turkish coffee. The pide, is kinda like pizza on a thick bread – I loaded it up with some crushed pepper – and devoured it. It was probably the best lunch I’ve had on the whole trip. Compared to the Greek coffee – both are made in a similar style (small cups, grounds in the bottom, strong), the Turkish was much better.

Back at Ephesus, we casually walked through the site again taking note of items that we might have skipped over on the day before. The highlight for this trip was when we visited what has been named the Serapion (which is kind of a guess, as the altar that it contains is to an unknown deity). This part of the site is officially off limits to tourists, but our course director, Dirk, managed to get permission. We were supposed to be escorted by the Polis (how they spell police – and they carry automatic machine guns), but when nobody showed up when ventured on by ourselves. The path leading there was overgrown by grass and thorn bushes, but we were able to get through without too much trouble. When we arrived, we saw massive stone columns (about 15 meters high – approx 45 feet), which were mostly broken and fallen down, but still impressive. The temple there was dedicated to some sort of deity linked to water. This was a reocurring theme we saw throughout Ephesus – they were far advanced in their plumbing, and ability to deliver water within the houses. They also had several bath houses (mostly from the Roman era), and had multiple spots within their houses that had basins for water as well. To get an idea of the size of the Serapion site, see the pic below.

After Ephesus, we headed back to the hotel to relax before dinner. The heat here is scorching – by the way, just after we left Greece they are in record high temperatures as well – so it is definitely a sight to look forward to, to get back to the hotel and shower or hit the pool.

Day 13

This morning we set out for the site of anceint Priene. Today was a field excercise of sorts for us, in that we were given a basically blank map (it did have some things identified in German), and were to navigate our way through the site taking note of particular structural items – such as the theatre, Bouleterion, gymnasium, and anything else that stuck out to us. Further, we were given the challenge to hunt down an inscription that was originally discovered and published, but the last time it was seen was in 1905. Dirk, our course director, is writing a paper on this city, and wanted to see if we could track it down. The hard part is that it was last seen below the acropolis of this site (basically it was on the side of a mountain). So we set out to find it, but after I lost my hat I went back to find it, then back up the hillside by myself. Shortly after I couldn’t find anyone, so decided to see how high I could go. After about 15-20 minutes I stopped to cool down and regain some strength, when I noticed another person from our group about 100 feet down! I went a little too far, but even though I went much higher, none of us could find the location of the inscription, which would have marked the entry of water into the site back then (now it was just a bunch of broken rocks and the remains of the city wall). Still I was able to catch a spectacular site from how high I was (see the shot below), and until now the inscription will remain hidden (unless it’s in a museum somewhere that nobody knows about.

This is our last night in Kusadassi, as we set out tomorrow morning back on the ferry to Samos, Greece – then small plane to Athens, connecting flight to Heathrow, 2 hour taxi to Cambridge. So, it will be a long day of travel – we’ll leave 8-8:30 am, and arrive in Cambridge around midnight. I’ll probably end up at the same internet cafe in Samos while kill time before our flight, so I’ll post some add’l pics and thoughts from there.

When we get back to Tyndale House, we’ll have Monday as a day of rest then on Tues or Wed, we start our modules, and there is a conference hosted by Tyndale House that we will be able to participate in as well. All in all, I’ve enjoyed traveling to these amazing places, but am looking forward to getting back to Cambridge and settling in a bit. As we get there I’ll probably post less frequently, but will post pics on Flickr as I venture around the area, and definitely when we go to Italy July 16-17, I’ll post about that as well.

Thanks for all the emails / comments, and your prayers as I’m out here!

Day 10 – 11

Picking up where I left off yesterday, we met back up to catch the ferry, which turned out to be a smooth ride, with some great scenery. We arrived in Turkey about 1.5 hours later at the same place where cruise ships dock. We had to wait in line to buy a visa and go have our passports checked, which also went very smoothly. It was actually just as quick as coming into Turkey than as it was England.

We walked to our hotel room about .5 – 1 mile away, and were pleasantly surprised to find it to be a nice place, good sized rooms, a pool on the roof – also with a great view of the water, and FREE internet!! Sounds to good to be true – well, in what makes no sense to me, the signal of the wireless internet will be full strength one second, then nothing the next and won’t connect again, but it does seem to work for extended periods of time. So, everything is looking good.

As far as our excursions this morning / afternoon, we headed for the site of ancient Ephesus – modern day Selcuk – where Paul traveled, planted a church, Timothy was a pastor, and also where John is said to have spent his retirement years. Compared to the other sites we’ve been to this one is by far the best. The Austrian government has partnered with Turkey over the last 100+ years, spending millions in excavations, and recreating this site. I’ll post more on this in the days to come as we will be spending a couple days going back there, as well as going to the museum in Selcuk which contains most of the finds from the Ephesus site.

Here are a few pics from the ferry ride over and from today, the Celsus Library at Ephesus, and an example on how the Turks are looking to make money on everything, and be funny at the same time!

Day 10

4 Hours of sleep, a very small and cramped plane ride, and hot hot weather. Thats today’s big events…

We’re waiting for a ferry to pick us up and take us to Turkey, but in the meantime we’re just doing some shopping and hanging out.

I’m in a little internet cafe now, so this will be quick…still don’t know if the hotel will have internet, but we’ll find out!

Here’s a couple pics from the island here…

Day 9

Today was our last full day in Corinth, as we are leaving for the airport in 6 hours where we’ll catch a plane for Samos, and then head to Turkey. For our travels today we checked out the site of Ancient Epidauros, known for its fantastic theatre – where they still put shows on – and for it being the center of the worship of Esklepion (might have spelled that wrong). People in ancient times would travel there for healing, as well as medical procedures. Often they would make casts of body parts that were ailing them and offer them at the temple.

The theatre was spectacular, as it was almost completely in tact. They did demonstrations of the acoustics to show that you could hear a sheet of paper being torn in half from the highest row. It was nice to be able to see this functional theatre, to be able to better picture what the other ones would have looked like that were in ruins.

I have no idea if there is internet at the next hotel, and if there is – how much it will cost. So, if you don’t see any posts for a while, that’s why. The hotel in Turkey is supposed to be nice, but nice for Turkey may be something different altogether. Thus far things haven’t been bad at all (except for the bunk beds in Athens), so I’m not gonna worry about it.

Here’s a couple pics of the theatre…

Day 7 – 8

Another 2 for 1!

Day 7

Yesterday (Sunday) was intended to be more of a light day, but we still ended up doing quite a bit of traveling. After morning prayer / Scripture reading we had the mid afternoon free to relax. Around 3 we set out to see where the Isthmian games took place, and to the harbor (named the Ancient Diolkos) where the ships used to come in and were actually pushed on to shore, and transported to the other side of the channel by a hewed out passage. This made travel to the other side of the country much easier than having to sail around the southern islands.

The highlight of the day was when we went to Heracleion, which was on the other side of the coast from where we’ve been staying, but was the most beautiful spot in relation to beaches and water. We drove through the mountains for a while, and eventually came out on a cove that had a private beach. It reminded me of something from the movie The Beach, minus Leo – actually the Greeks are the opposite of Hollywood, being that most of the guys are hairy and wear speedos. Then we ended the little trip by sitting at the waterfront eating some ice cream popsicles. Here are some of my favorite pics…

Day 8

Today was by far the longest day of the trip, except for the first travel day when I flew into England. We started out at 8:15, drove for 3.5 hours to get to the site of Ancient Delphi. Although, not specifically related to the NT, Delphi gave us a great look at culture of the Greeks – as well as one of the most complete archaeological sites, by which we were able to get a good look at what some of the other ruins would have looked like had they not been in ruins.

Weather wise it was over 100 F – the hottest day of the trip so far. Plus, we decided to hike up the mountain trail to get to the ancient Stadium – which was very well preserved. Also of importance was the Gallio inscription. Gallio was the brother of Seneca, and was the proconsul of Achaia (the larger geographic region of which Corinth was a city) while Paul was in Corinth (see Acts 18:12).

We also received our first assignment today: to pick out a particular inscription from the site – translate it and write approx. 10 pages describing its implications on life in that time period. Because of the heat, I really just went around and took a few shots of some of the inscriptions that I could make out the best. It really is amazing how much they wrote down on stone – there were several walls that were nothing but inscriptions – as it was a way for them to permanently record civil, economic, and religious statements.

I can’t remember being so exhausted and hot in my entire life! But it was well worth it based on what we were able to experience – and tomorrow should be a lot lighter as far as travel. Tomorrow is our last full day in here, then we head out 5 am Wednesday morning to Athens airport to fly to Samos – spend the day shopping and hanging out – then take a ferry to Kusadassi, Turkey.

Day 6

Morning came early, and sleep seemed more important than food, but I knew if I didn’t grab something the hiking and heat would zap any energy from me. We headed out at 8:15 for the Acrocorinth, the mountaintop that has an ancient altar to Aphrodite that was used as a site for mass prostitution, which overlooks the countryside. The Franks built a fortification on it as well, the remains of which are mostly what is visible. As we hiked up it, you could see both sides of the country from the coast we were on, really beautiful. It reminded me of Jamaica, but not as high up as we were there.

After hiking we hit lunch in Ancient Corinth at a sweet spot where we made friends with the owner, and who has the best gyros I’ve ever had, for only 1.80 euro. After lunch we headed back for the hotel to get some rest before heading out again, and dinner.

Here are a couple pics of our hiking adventure…

Above is our group that I traveled with – from left-right (Wayne, Grant, Me, Dirk, Mike, Dave [in back], Vicky, and Karen).

Day 4 – 5

Here are two posts in one…

Day 4

We started out today in Athens, by visiting the National Archeological Museum, and the Epigraphic Museum. The first gave us some insight into some of the archaeological finds that were originally excavated at the sites we visited yesterday such as the Acropolis, and the Ancient Agora. The Epigraphic Museum was a side trip of sorts as our program director was excited to see the world’s largest collection of Greek inscriptions (13,485) all of which are on stone. Although there weren’t any that specifically pertained to the New Testament, it helped in giving us a broader picture on how the Greeks kept record of civil records, and how the written language has developed.After the museums we trekked through Athens via bus, and foot back to our hostel, then checked out and continued walking to pick up our rental cars. It was another hot day at around 35-37 Celsius, which is about 95 Fahrenheit. So needless to say we were ready to hop in the AC rental cars and get going.About two hours later we arrived in modern Korinthos where we’ll be studying Ancient Corinth, the site where Paul traveled and planted the church there on his 2nd missionary journey. We had some trouble finding our hotel, and were a bit anxious regarding the condition of it. We were told that it was an upgrade from the hostel we were staying in, but that’s about it. Well, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that it is a sweet beach resort directly on the water. We have our own bathroom, we can flush tp down the toilet, and don’t have bunk beds!! The down fall is that they charge 5 euros for 1 hour of internet time, which is basically a rip off – so I’m going to use it sparingly and write these posts in Word before posting, and probably only be able to include a picture or two until we get back to Cambridge and I can upload everything to Flikr.Our day ended by watching the sunset from the Acrocorinth, looking over the city of Korinthos and the water beautiful water below. Tomorrow we start early and will visit ancient Corinth, and will be here until Tuesday when we head out for Turkey.

Day 5

Yesterday we had some internet issues, but today it should be working–We left early this morning to go to Ancient Corinth and had an onsite lecture on the Civil Administration of the city – how it was governed both on a provincial and local level. We spent the rest of the morning free to roam the site to hunt down a couple inscriptions and check out the bhema, or place of pronouncing judicial decisions (see Acts 18:16-17). First thing we did was set out to find the Erastus inscription which was discovered in the east entrance to the theatre. This inscription is of particular importance because Paul references a Erastus in Romans 16:23 – and while it is assumed that Paul wrote the letter to the Romans from Corinth, it is very likely that this is the same Erastus, but it is not entirely conclusive (If you want further details on the specifics on this I can post the info on the article we were assigned to read regarding this).We trekked down a relatively steep incline and were able to inspect the remains to search for this inscription. However, after about 45 minutes in the sun, we gave up and went back to get help. Well, it turns out we walked right over it – we weren’t looking on the ground for it!After a bit more observations we left to get out of the sun – and away from the bus loads of tourists that were converging on the area. We returned later in the afternoon to get an introduction to the economics of the city – i.e., shops and the meat markets, as well as take a closer look at the temples.Tomorrow we have breakfast at 7:30, and leave at 8-8:15 to hit the Acrocorinth, which I am really looking forward to – when you see the pics you will understand.Oh, I almost forgot – after dinner we went to the Cenchrae harbor, located just down the road from the hotel, which is where Paul traveled into and is where he cut his hair before leaving for Ephesus (Acts 18:18). The location by the water was surrounded by fence, but we were able walk by the beach and get into the site. There was a placard on site that said that there was also an early Christian church there at one time (how early we don’t know, we didn’t see any evidence that could tell us). There were also several pillar bases, which probably dated to the time of Paul (we weren’t exactly sure, but I will check when we get back to Cambridge). I found the inscription of PH on each of the bases, which could have been the capital Greek letters rho, and eta –or it could have been graffiti. Either way, it was an exhilarating experience as we were able search around the site for clues.

Day 2 / 3 – Athens

Yesterday we left Cambridge for Heathrow airport to hit up our flight to Athens, Greece. Overall the flight was smooth, and we arrived on time. We caught the metro, which was totally crowded but actually pretty nice. We got off at the station and were welcomed by what looked / sounded to be a political demonstration with a bus hooked up with megaphones shouting things, that were echoed by others.

Our hostel is in downtown Athens, in an area called Platka. Our hostel is not bad, but we’re definitely looking forward to the hotel at Corinth that we hit tomorrow. Internet coverage is spotty, and half way through uploading a ton of pics to my flickr account I dropped signal. So, look out for those pics later.

Athens is sweet, the food is great, but its as hot as Florida, maybe hotter – so walking around in the peak of the heat was a bit draining today.

As far as our tour today, we hit the Roman and Ancient Agora, Mars Hill, and the Acropolis / Parthenon. I took over 100 pictures, 90 digital and about 30 film. Until I get all those uploaded, here’s a shot of me with the Parthenon in the background…

Cheers!