Qoheleth

Chapter 9, 11:

terms and concepts to look up: allegory, metaphor, analogy, fable, parable, epic, symbolism, literalism, soliloquy.

Also, at the beginning of the 2nd century what was the first Christian symbol? If it was used as an acronym what did it mean? (without giving the answer this is the best way I could phrase the Q:)

Pick a couple of words and give a 42 second synopsis, next Tuesday, of the 2 or 3 you choose.

Just answer these with a quick one sentence responses.

Since the President just spoke in Israel, with all the historical dilemmas facing this region, when was the last period of time in history that there existed a Palestinian state in that region?

When Jesus comes back, as he promised, did he say that he would arrive at a certain location? Was it Jerusalem? Are you going to be taken there? Or something else? (Oooh, the answers you might give..)

Does the Bible explain the idea of blind faith -- a type of faith that can't be reasonable or logical but transcendent and personal?

How often in the NT, when there is evangelism described, is a personal testimony (story of your life) given to make an appeal for Jesus used? Where are the passages? (I know, this is more than a one sentence answer but…)

In ten words or less can you explain the meaning of life? ( Hint: from one of the Ecclesiastes chapters.) Whether pleasure or achievement or contentment ...struggle, pain, endurance, wisdom etc.

In our brief look at this piece of "Wisdom Literature" here in the OT we have seen struggle and tension between colliding views of life. The Qoleheth is writing of these distinctive conflicting views from the stand point of "under the sun and under heaven." The wisdom of our contemporary culture could be stated as such: " the race is to the swift and the battle to the strong.” With all the epics of literature and man's struggle against fate written about. But this expression is a fundamental denial of something that is spoken of in scripture itself.

Ec 9:9-12 --read this portion--

{In verse 18: sin is in the same mode as folly throughout the wisdom literature format. They are equivalent.} Am I correct in this?

Appreciation and success in life or….

that is just the way life is:

As viewed with a good portion of wisdom and perceived-- under the sun. The race is not always to the best, swiftest, cunning, charismatic and such because sometimes the race is fixed. Against the will and desire and choice of the individual.

Ec 11 and “investing in the future.” in the ‘bread and water’ poetic phrasing. Looking at life from the vantage of the “long haul.” Rather than trying to find meaning in our life from immediate pleasure and immediate consumption. This is WISDOM. Sowing your seed for the future. Whether labor or money or devotion, we invest these with the future in mind. But in chapters 9 and 11 we can’t and aren’t given this privilege of being able to view the future. Thus, a race isn’t based on cute lock solid ten-point principles to live by.

Here are three men who are my examples for these ideas: come up with some yourself.

1. Bach: How did is life and work turn out for his life? Not after word but in life. He published …10, SDG, …

2. Mendelssohn: the same. Look him up. Or wait for Tuesday.

3. Herman Melville: Here is a fuller answer.

(1819 –1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His first two books gained much attention, though they were not bestsellers, and his popularity declined precipitously after only a few years. By the time of his death he had been almost completely forgotten, but his longest novel, Moby-Dick — largely considered a failure during his lifetime, and most responsible for Melville's fall from favor with the reading public — was re-recognized in the 20th century as one of the chief literary masterpieces of both American and world literature.

Moby-Dick has become Melville's most famous work and is often considered one of the greatest literary works of all time. It was dedicated to Melville's friend Nathaniel Hawthorne. It did not, however, make Melville rich. The book never sold its initial printing of 3,000 copies in his lifetime, and total earnings from the American edition amounted to just $556.37 from his publisher, Harper & Brothers. Melville also wrote Billy Budd, White-Jacket, Typee, Omoo, Pierre, The Confidence-Man and many short stories and works of various genres.

If it is considered by you'll as a good, it is my intention to read the 9th chapter of this epic allegory. In the book Father Mapple is a pastor and former whaler speaking to those attending his fictional seaport town church before the crew leaves port.

Yes, read some. I am not a terrific crafter and delineator of all the tones and nuance of these written words but this is worth the try. It is that good. Why? It works because with the words to look up this week it will shed a dimension on the “story-allegory-parable” of Jonah that is not taken up in the 4 chapters in the book of Jonah. I’ll find out how much each of you knows or remembers about this classic. Should be a rich 8 to 10 minutes. There are some 126 chapters or something close to that in the book.

Bruce

In the Tanakh/Old Testament of the Bible, Jonah is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25 (as a prophet in the time of King Jeroboam II) and in the Book of Jonah. Jonah is also mentioned in the New Testament, in Matthew 12:38-41 and Luke 11:29-32. He was the son of Amittai (meaning 'My Faithfulness'), from the Galilean village of Gath-hepher near Nazareth.

The book of Jonah is read every year on Yom Kippur as the Haftorah at mincha.

Mosul:

is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some 396 km (250 miles) northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linking the two sides. Despite having a large Kurdish population it does not form part of the area controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government.

The fabric Muslin, long manufactured here, is named for this city. Another historically important product of the area is Mosul marble.

In 1987, the city's population was 664,221 people; the 2004 population estimate was 2,339,800, and by 2008, population was estimated to be 2,600,000.[1] It is Iraq's second largest city after Baghdad, and substantially larger than Basra, the third largest city of Iraq.

The city is also a historic center for the Nestorian Christianity of the Assyrians, containing the tombs of several Old Testament prophets such as Jonah and Nahum.

Biblical Nineveh

The Middle East through the eyes of the ancient Israelites

In the Bible, Nineveh is first mentioned in Genesis 10:11: "Ashur left that land, and built Nineveh." Some modern translations interpret "Ashur" in the Hebrew of this verse as the country "Assyria" rather than a person, thus making Nimrod the builder of Nineveh.

Though the Books of Kings and Books of Chronicles talk a great deal about the Assyrian empire, Nineveh itself is not again noticed till the days of Jonah, when it is described (Jonah 3:3ff; 4:11) as an "exceeding great city of three days' journey", i.e., probably in circuit. This would give a circumference of about 100 km (60 miles). It is also possible that it took three days to cover all its neighborhoods by walking, which would match the size of ancient Nineveh. At the four corners of an irregular quadrangle are the ruins of Kouyunjik, Nimrud, Karamles and Khorsabad. These four great masses of ruins, with the whole area included within the parallelogram they form by lines drawn from the one to the other, are generally regarded as composing the whole ruins of Nineveh. It was also mentioned in Jonah that Nineveh was an evil city that needed to be condemned. To fix this problem, God sent Jonah to preach to Nineveh, and they repented.

Nineveh was the flourishing capital of the Assyrian empire (2 Kings 19:36; Isa. 37:37). The book of the prophet Nahum is almost exclusively taken up with prophetic denunciations against this city. Its ruin and utter desolation are foretold (Nahum 1:14; 3:19, etc.). Its end was strange, sudden, tragic. (Nahum 2:6–11) According to the Bible, it was God's doing, his judgement on Assyria's pride (Jonah Nah). In fulfilment of prophecy, God made "an utter end of the place". It became a "desolation". Zephaniah also (2:13–15) predicts its destruction along with the fall of the empire of which it was the capital.

Nineveh's exemplary pride and fall are recalled in the Gospel of Matthew (12:41) and the Gospel of Luke (11:32).

Nineveh in classic history:

Before the excavations in the 1800s, historical knowledge of the great Assyrian empire and of its magnificent capital was almost wholly a blank. Vague memories had indeed survived of its power and greatness, but very little was definitely known. Other cities that had perished, such as Palmyra, Persepolis, and Thebes, had left ruins to mark their sites and tell of their former greatness; but of this city, imperial Nineveh, not a single vestige seemed to remain, and the very place on which it had stood became only matter of conjecture.

In the days of the Greek historian Herodotus, 400 BC, Nineveh had become a thing of the past; and when Xenophon the historian passed the place in the Retreat of the Ten Thousand the very memory of its name had been lost. It was buried out of sight.

Week 4

Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the "right or opportune moment". The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies "a time in between", a moment of undetermined period of time in which "something" special happens. What the special something is depends on who is using the word. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature.

In rhetoric

Kairos was central to the Sophists, who stressed the rhetor's ability to adapt to and take advantage of changing, contingent circumstances. In Panathenaicus, Isocrates writes that educated people are those “who manage well the circumstances which they encounter day by day, and who possess a judgment which is accurate in meeting occasions as they arise and rarely misses the expedient course of action”. Kairos is also very important in Aristotle's scheme of rhetoric. Kairos is, for Aristotle, the time and space context in which the proof will be delivered. Kairos stands alongside other contextual elements of rhetoric: The Audience which is the psychological and emotional makeup of those who will receive the proof; and, To Prepon which is the style with which the orator clothes their proof.

In theology

The term "kairos" is used in theology to describe the qualitative form of time. In rhetoric kairos is "a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved. In the New Testament kairos means "the appointed time in the purpose of God", the time when God acts

• (e.g. Mark 1.15, the kairos is fulfilled). Metanoeo; met-an-o-eh'-o; to change one's mind and amend with abhorrence one's past sins. and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." kai legwn (5723) oti Peplhrwtai (5769) o kairov (the decisive epoch waited for or opportune or seasonable time, the right time) kai hggiken (approaching, coming near5758) h basileia tou qeou; metanoeite (5720) kai pisteuete (5720) en tw euaggeliw.

It differs from the more usual word for time which is chronos (kronos). chronobiology, chronometer

• Mathew 2:7: Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared (exposed to view and resplendent). Tote Hrwdhv laqra kalesav (5660) touv magouv hkribwsen (5656) par' autwn ton xronon tou fainomenou (5730) asterov (astare'),
• zeitgeist: the spirit of the time; the spirit characteristic of an age or generation, The general moral, intellectual, and cultural climate of an era, Zeitgeist is German for “time-spirit.” For example, the Zeitgeist of England in the Victorian period included a belief in industrial progress, and the Zeitgeist of the 1980s in the United States was a belief in the power of money and the many ways in which to spend it.
• Yeom or yowm: Day as opposed to night, day as in circadian or 24 hours, a division of time, a 'day's' journey, time in general, a calender year, temporal references of either today or yesterday or tomorrow. A continuation to fullness, ever, whole, age, afternoon, day of days.

Asides: The NT never quotes Ecclesiastes.

Sophists. Sophia and the Italian beauty. Sophoi in their occupation.

Propaganda and proposition.

Post hoc means "after the fact".

post hoc fallacy

The post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this therefore because of this) fallacy is based upon the mistaken notion that simply because one thing happens after another, the first event was a cause of the second event. Post hoc reasoning is the basis for many superstitions and erroneous beliefs.

Many events follow sequential patterns without being causally related. For example, you have a cold, so you drink fluids and two weeks later your cold goes away. You have a headache so you stand on your head and six hours later your headache goes away. You put acne medication on a pimple and three weeks later the pimple goes away. You perform some task exceptionally well after forgetting to bathe, so the next time you have to perform the same task you don't bathe. A solar eclipse occurs so you beat your drums to make the gods spit back the sun. The sun returns, proving to you the efficacy of your action.

You use your dowsing stick and then you find water. You imagine heads coming up on a coin toss and heads comes up. You rub your lucky charm and what you wish for comes true. You lose your lucky charm and you strike out six times. You have a "vision" that a body is going to be found near water or in a field and later a body is found near water or in a field. You have a dream that an airplane crashes and an airplane crashes the next day or crashed the night before.

However, sequences don't establish a probability of causality any more than correlations do. Coincidences happen. Occurring after an event is not sufficient to establish that the prior event caused the later one. To establish the probability of a causal connection between two events, controls must be established to rule out other factors such as chance or some unknown causal factor. Anecdotes aren't sufficient because they rely on intuition and subjective interpretation. A controlled study is necessary to reduce the chance of error from self-deception.

The form of the post hoc fallacy can be expressed as follows: * A occurred, then B occurred. * Therefore, A caused B. When B is undesirable, this pattern is often extended in reverse: Avoiding A will prevent B.

• More and more young people are attending high schools and colleges today than ever before. Yet there is more juvenile delinquency and more alienation among the young. This makes it clear that these young people are being corrupted by their education.
• "I can't help but think that you are the cause of this problem; we never had any problem with the furnace until you moved into the apartment." The manager of the apartment house, on no stated grounds other than the temporal priority of the new tenant's occupancy, has assumed that the tenant's presence has some causal relationship to the furnace's becoming faulty.

It is often shortened to simply post hoc and is also sometimes referred to as false cause, coincidental correlation or correlation not causation. It is subtly different from the fallacy cum hoc ergo propter hoc, in which the chronological ordering of a correlation is insignificant.

Post hoc is a particularly tempting error because temporal sequence appears to be integral to causality. The fallacy lies in coming to a conclusion based solely on the order of events, rather than taking into account other factors that might rule out the connection. Most familiarly, many superstitious beliefs and magical thinking arise from this fallacy.

Belief in homeopathy and other alternative medicine remedies is based on this fallacy as well. Many symptoms disappear after a while; but if a remedy was applied, it is often thought the remedy "worked" when in fact not using the remedy would have had the same effect.

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The regression fallacy. Exposure:

One of the most common occasions for the Regression Fallacy is illness. People are most likely to seek treatment for an illness—especially experimental treatment—when they are at their sickest, that is, their condition is an extreme one. They take a remedy, and then get better due to regression to the mean, but they attribute their regained health to the effect of the remedy. This is one reason why some people will swear by such bizarre treatments as drinking urine, or psychic surgery.

"It worked for me", they say, when all they really know is that they took the remedy and they got better. Due to regression to the mean, many people will get better no matter what treatment they take, even none at all. Some will die, luckily for the snake oil salesmen, since the dead won't be around to badmouth the snake oil that they took before dying.

Regression to the mean is one reason why it is difficult to determine whether a potential remedy is really effective; one cannot tell simply by taking it when ill.

Texas sharpshooter fallacy

The Texas sharpshooter is a fabled marksman who fires his gun randomly at the side of a barn, then paints a bullseye around the spot where the most bullet holes cluster. The story of this Texas shooter seems to have given its name to a fallacy first described in the field of epidemiology, which studies the way in which cases of disease cluster in a population.

Example:

The number of cases of disease D in city C is greater than would be expected by chance. City C has a factory which has released amounts of chemical agent A into the environment. Therefore, agent A causes disease D.

Exposition:

This fallacy occurs when someone jumps to the conclusion that a cluster in some data must be the result of a cause, usually one that it is clustered around. There are two reasons why this is fallacious:

The cluster may well be the result of chance, in which case it was not caused by anything.

Even if the cluster is not the result of chance, there are other possible reasons for the clustering, other than the cause chosen. For instance, in the Example, if disease D is contagious, it may be clustering around some person who carried it into the city.

At best, the occurrence of a cluster in the data is the basis not for a causal conclusion, but for the formation of a causal hypothesis which needs to be tested. Patterns in data can be useful for forming hypotheses, but they are not themselves sufficient evidence of a causal connection. In short, correlation is not causation.

Exposure:

This fallacy lives up to its striking name because the Texas sharpshooter takes a random cluster, and by drawing a target onto it makes it appear to be causally determined, as if the Texan were shooting at the target. Similarly, when looking at data, there is a danger of jumping to a conclusion that a random cluster is a causal pattern. Without further testing, such a conclusion is seldom if ever justified.