The
full syllabus for your John class will be available during the week between Christmas and New
Year’s. In the meantime, I want you to be aware of an exam that is scheduled
for the first day of class. The goal is to have you ready to discuss the gospel and work with your Greek from Day One,
and because I have never had people actually do the pre-work for an intensive course without a test to motivate
them, we are starting with a test. The up
side: there will be less homework while you are on campus and after the last day of the intensive.
Entrance
Exam – 20% of the Course Grade
Greek Vocabulary
The
first part of the Day One exam tests your knowledge of the 300 Greek words that appear 50 times or
more in the New Testament. This is the same list of vocabulary all of you knew
at the end of Greek class. I know for many of you that was a while ago. It will come back.
On the test, you will identify the English meaning of a word given to you in context. All the
contexts will come directly from the gospel of John. These five sample
questions will give you the idea. You’ll notice that the words are sometimes in
forms other than their dictionary forms. Also, sometimes verbs are not in present
tense. Don’t panic. Look at the words surrounding the word in bold and you may
be able to figure it out even if it looks foreign at first. You will have 25 of
these word-identification questions, for half the points on the exam.
Sample of Questions
from Part One
Write an appropriate English translation
of the Greek word in bold type below.
1. Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος,
2. ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν
3. ὁ Ἰωάννης καὶ ἐκ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ δύο
4. ἵνα σωθῇ ὁ κόσμος δι᾿ αὐτοῦ.
5. οἱ μαθηταὶ λέγοντες·ῥαββί, φάγε.
A
variety of resources are available to help you review this vocabulary, such as
an excel spreadsheet and electronic flashcards. Click the Resources link at the left of this page.
Bible Content &
Culpepper Textbook
The
second part of the test will be short answer questions based on material from the
gospel of John itself and from the textbook (The Gospel and Letters of John) by R. Alan Culpepper, pages 13-105,
and 287-305. Only these pages are relevant for the test, not the whole book. This is about 100 pages of reading.
Sample of Questions
from Part Two
1.
What are the two levels
of the “two-level drama” some scholars (such as J. Louis Martyn) see in John?
2.
Culpepper lists these as particularly important ways of understanding
Jesus according to John’s gospel: Word, Revealer, Redeemer, Son. Choose one of
them, and write one paragraph on how that way of understanding Jesus appears in
the gospel of John. (Don’t attempt to be exhaustive, but do offer at least one
biblical text in support of your answer. If you don’t know chapter and verse,
describe the verse or story you are thinking of.)
Assignments in the
course will be weighted like this:
Entrance
Exam – 20% (Given January 9, 2012, in class)
Final
Project – 20% (Due 8:00 a.m., January 30, 2012)
Short
Exegetical Studies for Class – 10% each for a total of 60%.
Samples will be available before the beginning
of class, and these papers will be due:
·
Wednesday, Thursday,
and Friday of week one, and
·
Tuesday, Wednesday, and
Thursday of week two.