Pre Test and Ecclesiastes Notes

There is nothing quite as humbling as a pre-test in any part of life. Your hopes and dreams are simultaneously crushed in piece(s) of paper. Just when you begin to think you know something! However, the pre-test we took today was not as nightmarish as ones I have taken in the past. I felt pretty confident when making the physical corrections on the front of the page but struggled to match a reason with the correction I made. Some of the answers on the back of the sheet I have never seen or heard before! Despite this fact, many of the terms I have seen before, but I could just not recall their meaning. I know with some vocabulary lists and practice I will be good to go (I hope).

Ecclesiastes Notes

·      It all begins with the Bible

Ø  Where we get the “LITERARY CANON”

ü  “legit” books and apocryphal books

Ø  Birth of literary criticism

Ø  Close reading necessary

ü  Salvation

ü  Right v wrong

ü  Interpretation and MEANING of symbols

·      Why is the Bible so important?

Ø  Mythological criticism= people deal with the same concepts across time and space

Ø  Cultural impact= stories, source of symbols, good v evil, poetry, politics, etc. (Bible is relatable to present day)

Ø  Few people know what it says, let alone know what it means

·      Ecclesiastes traditionally means teacher or preacher. Literally in Greek it means “gatherer”

Ø  All a translation of Hebrew in Greek into Latin into English

Ø  Part of the TaNaK, the Hebrew bible made up of the Torah (teachings), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (writings)

Ø  Hebrew didn’t have spaces between words. Greek had no punctuation.

Ø  Writing has evolved as technology has evolved. 

In an odd sense I am almost excited to learn more about the Bible. I will be the first to admit I ignored any type of religious teaching that was thrown at me in Sunday School. I suppose it was the drawn out and extensively long Catholic masses that turned any sort of childhood interest in religion off. My siblings share my same primitive dislike for religion. Another reason could be the timing of church on Sundays: eight o'clock on a Sunday morning. Not ideal for a group of three young children who were yearning for sleep. Whatever the reason may be, neither I nor my siblings have much attraction to religion. With that being said, maybe the story and examination of Ecclesiastes will spark a long lost interest in the Bible.