I am sitting in the Old and New testament class here at the Pacific School of Religion. It is team-taught by Professors Jeffrey Kuan and Mary Tolbert. The lecture so far covers the sources and dates of portions of the Christian Biblical canon. Mr. Kuan has an engaging lecture style. He has obviously emphasized certain details in this class, because he will stop and ask a question like, "So, which book in the Older Testament was written most recently?" And the room choruses, "Daniel."
Actually, they could have read that off a hand-out, but it is still interesting to compare the lecture style and points of emphasis in this class vs. my class back at WLS.
Now he is introducing something new --- the Ethiopian canon. I didn't even know there was one.
Much later.... Prof. Kuan was just reading from the Mishnah Yadaim, a rabbinic document discussing which books "render the hands unclean." They are arguing about which books of the Kethuviim (sp?) are (basically) canon. The idea is that these books are so holy, one cannot touch them. The hands, in relation to their holiness, are unclean, hence, elaborate ritual washings in order even to approach their use. Apparently even today among orthodox Jews, they use a metal pointer to read from the holy books, so as not to touch them.
This is interesting, and it is nice to know I don't need to take notes!
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