During our recent travels to Ethiopia, Rhoda and I were able to participate in the launch festivities for the new PhD program at the Mekane Yesus Seminary in Addis Ababa. The EECMY is the largest Lutheran church in the world (12 million members). It is an honor to be part of this project and to be teaching in it this fall in Addis.
Shortly after I accepted the invitation to teach this fall at the Mekane Yesus Seminary, a colleague there asked if I could raise money and bring ten new Greek New Testaments for the first class of PhD students. Resources for them are limited and sourcing these books is challenge. My desire was to get for them the premier research edition, the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece 28. I sent emails to about thirty colleagues, friends, and former students. Within a week, the request was fully subscribed, and more. The first ten copies are on their way!
Since about 2000, my primary external focus has been excavation and research associated with the Northeast Insulae Project of the Hippos Excavations. I was set to return to the Albright Institute in Jerusalem last October for more work on the research when those plans were disrupted by the war between Hamas and Israel. I have no idea when I might return again.
Then this spring, I received an invitation to be visiting professor for a semester in the new PhD program at the Mekane Yesus Seminary in Addis Ababa. The seminary is affiliated with the Ethiopian Evangelical Church of Mekane Yesus, the largest Lutheran denomination in the world with over 10 million members. I will teach Advanced Hermeneutics and Advanced Biblical Greek in that program.
Once the teaching begins, I plan to post a weekly update here. If you are interested in following my work.
I will soon be setting up a way by which you may subscribe to these posts and receive them via email. I will echo these posts on Facebook.
Below are a few pictures of the seminary from my visit there in 2023.
It was my pleasure to address the Mekane Yesus Seminary in Addis Ababa at the inaugural lecture series for the Rev. Dr. Yonas Deressa Research Center on 26-28 April 2023. This center will become the locus for new PhD programs in Biblical Studies, Biblical Languages, and Theological Studies to be offered by the seminary beginning in another year.
Under the topic of “Apostolicity in the Church,” I delivered three plenary lectures: “The First Apostles,” “After the Apostles,” and “Apostles Today.” Of particular focus for this series is the use of to title of “apostle” and claims of apostolic authority in many African Independent Churches.
I am hopeful that my work was beneficial for the church and set the stage for rigorous scholarship among coming generations of church leaders in Ethiopia.
After teaching Hellenistic Greek at Concordia for 27 years, I was saddened early this year when the World Meteorological Association announced in March that they would no longer use the Greek alphabet to name hurricanes. Supposedly Greek letters like “alpha” and “beta,” from which comes the word “alphabet,” are too confusing.
So I was heartened today to read that the @WHO has announced, easy-to-say labels for #SARSCoV2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) & Interest (VOIs): letters of the Greek alphabet! Read more here.
For variants of concern:
For variants of interest:
Greek is back! It is not a dead language, even though these variants can kill.
Want to learn more about Greek? Come and study with me at CSP!
Now, if I can just figure out why people turn to Greek to describe disasters…
