Ruth, Mark, and old dates

I haven’t posted in a while. That’s in part because I was very busy and then when that ended, I had so much to do to catch up and part of me didn’t want to “publicly” return, lest I find myself with even more work. But I’ve decided to stop that (and if you’re still waiting on a reply or other from me for the last 3 months, well, I still plan to get to it :-)).

I did finish a rather large project last week. That is, I didn’t do much on it last week, but I did do the finishing part. That’s always a nice feeling. Ten other large projects are waiting; that’s not a nice feeling :-). But it beats being bored. I suppose at times like these I thank the Lord for those jobs I had in college and grad school where I actually was bored (and hated it). I don’t think I’ve felt a second of boredom for the last 9 years.

But you’re not reading for that. How about various items of interest that I’ve bumped into lately?

1. Today is Shavuot (or was, the sun has now set). Last night the moshav had a little celebration at the threshing floor. Quite appropriate and reminded me of how things might have been in ancient times. Except that I showed up after a day’s work in the office and not hot and sweaty after a day out harvesting the fields. In the synagogues they read Ruth on this holiday, and for the occasion the Jerusalem Post has an interesting article on Ruth. Interesting, but I wouldn’t necessarily agree. Does make me want to study the book more, which makes it a worthwhile read.

2. Blogger Michael Pahl raves about his experience watching a dramatic one-person performance of the Book of Mark. His comments reveal the value of this sort of thing (for instance, seeing the book as a whole, the way it was written – we so rarely do that!), and motivate me to think about doing something like this some day. I’m not much of an actor, but I don’t think it would take much acting ability to create a worthy presentation. There are various sections of Scripture that could work for this. (If you want to see more, the storyteller’s website is www.markhisword.org; I believe there are others who do this sort of thing).

3. For about a year I’ve been mentally developing a new website, and for the past few months, a friend has done a lot of work in putting pages together. The goal is for it to be a counterpart to BiblePlaces.com, in showing the land and people as they were before “modernization.” It’s the online version of the Historic Views of the Holy Land CD series (but with new material from forthcoming volumes). My immediate problem is the choice of a good domain name. I have about 30 I’ve thought of over the months, but none that seems perfect. Perfect would be 1) easily remembered, and thus not too long; 2) accurately communicates the content; 3) is appealing to a broader audience (thus “Bible” in it is better than “Palestine”); 4) is available. Any ideas?

4. On my recent trip with a group of seminary students, I played one game that lasted about one minute. It was the only “betting” type game of the entire trip. Of course I lost. My punishment was a swim in the Sea of Galilee. With a few things thrown in (or left on). Some in the group were kind enough to film it, edit it, and post it on the world wide web. I mention only for those of you who no longer have any respect for me. It is here. For those of you who still hold me in any regard whatsoever, instead read this NYTimes article on a 2,000-year-old date that sprouted and is growing. Quite amazing!