Trinity Lectures begin

Well well... two days in to the Trinity lectures starting, and already it seems that the tough stuff is here! Yesterday we had 1 hour of Old Testament, and 2 hours of Hebrew (mercifully the 2 hours of New Testament in the morning were cancelled as the lecturer was unavailable). Then today we had an hour of liturgy, then the journey into Dublin for another hour of Old Testament, and two hours of Greek.

So we're now attempting to learn not one, but two new languages at the one time. Now, admitedly, it is my own choice to do both Greek and Hebrew, but this is our only opportunity for doing the 'Intro to x' classes, and I think it will be important to be able to handle the Biblical texts in their original languages, to assist my preaching and teaching in the years to come. So we have: aleph, bet, gimel, dalet, he, vav, zayin, het, tet, and so on in Hebrew, and alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, and so on in Greek... aaaaaaaaagh! The recommendation of the lecturers is 10 or 20 minutes per day on each language to learn them, rather than cramming for the wek in one or two hours. But I am slightly concerned I'll be all jumbled up and get the alphabets mixed up. We'll see how it goes though.

In Old Testament this week we have been looking at similarities between the Hebrew Scriptures and other 'myths' from the middle East talking about creation etc, so I know that this whole area of study will be interesting and difficult, as I try to make sense of how it all fits with the knowledge that God's Word is truth, and that it is sufficient for our salvation.

Other than that, I am enjoying college life - tomorrow we have one class at 9am, and then on Thursday our lectures have been cancelled so it is a completely free day. So I can see a few wee trips out on my bike around parts of Dublin, or at least the city centre, to get to know it alll a bit better, and to have some time away from the college. If only it wouldn't rain! This past few days the rain has been fairly constant, and it means we get wet when we're out and about (yes, imagine that... people get wet in the rain! - and Lynsey said my blog was deep???). I do have a waterproof coat, but might have to invest in some decent waterproof trousers too, so that I stay a bit dryer when cycling!