Happy Birthday ...

... Kate! Wish we were there ...

And, as for myself, I have nothing in particular to report. In fact, I have to say that I may not be posting anything for the next week. I have a term paper on Galatians 5:15-21 due a week from today and, despite having put in at least 25 brain-hours so far, I'm just starting to get a handle on it now. I have a final exam in Greek a week from today as well so that's going to chunk into my time somewhat. Then, I have my Pauline Studies final that Wednesday.

So, I may not have time to report anything for at least a week. But, then again, I won't have anything to report either.

Here's what might possibly turn into an excerpt from my soon to be written paper:

'In verse 18, Paul says, “If build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.” In an English reading, this seems to carry the implication that Paul is not building things up and therefore is not demonstrated to be a transgressor. The difficulty with this is that the use of ei with a present indicative shows that this is a real condition. Therefore, this could be read as Paul saying that he is actually building something which he once tore down. As this sentence is followed by an explanation (preceded by gar), that Paul “died to the law”, we can safely assume that it is not the law that Paul is claiming to rebuild. This is despite the fact that the law, or justification by means of it, is the only thing which Paul “tore down” (kataluw) within this letter. In fact, it is the only thing which Paul has ever claimed in his writings to tear down. Therefore, to ascertain what it was that Paul “tore down”, we need to look for other destructive activity attributed to Paul by himself in this letter.'

In a future posting, perhaps, the mystery demystifies somewhat ... I hope ...