So many books!

so little time

How are your projects for 2025 going? I had decided to read through my Tyndale House Greek New Testament in a group led by Gary Shogren, and also read Nancy Dawson’s All the Genealogies of the Bible and Kevin deYoung’s Daily Doctrine (a one year daily systematic theology).

I’m behind in Nancy Dawson’s book, but hope to complete it, though over a longer period of time. I’ve got lots of excuses for why I’m behind! One is that the book is heavy, so carting it from the book shelf to the dining room table where I’ve been reading it* is hard work for a 72 year old bloke. Each article in the book is really interesting, but I have to be in the mood to read some more. I have read about a hundred pages (that’s 20% of the book) and am up to 1 Samuel chapter 1 and the chart of Eli and his priesthood.

Mrs Dawson has gone to a lot of trouble to relate the charts to one another and to use them to tell the Bible story as she takes you on the journey.

I’m making better progress in Kevin deYoung’s book. It’s quite an easy read (for a systematic theology) and has five readings for each week. I’m up to Week 17 … so I’m a little ahead. We’re about to tackle what the Bible says about sin, having just read his interesting exploration of Man (humanity) as the Image of God.

Today in my THGNT I finished the Gospel of Mark, including the long ending, and the next book to read is Matthew. (The readings, set by Gary Shogren, are intended to be in order of difficulty. When you leave John’s writings, at the beginning of the project, you do notice that the rest are more work.) I’m ahead of the group, and pleased to be still going!

But! I’ve taken on a little more, as you may see in the picture. I’m revising my Hebrew, using Daily Dose of Hebrew - the two minute videos on one verse in Hebrew, and the lessons. All free of charge. And, I’m using Logos Bible Software's Introduction to biblical Hebrew. (This is not free, but I did get a 50% discount.) Both of these are done by Mark Futato. The Logos version is deliberately slow and made as easy as possible. But, if I hadn’t spent 4 years studying Hebrew in the late 70s, I don’t know if I’d have made sense of it, if I were a new Hebrew student. I would be intrigued to learn how a person who had never done a language before would find it.

The Daily Dose of Hebrew and the Logos course are similar, but not the same. It’s an interesting exercise to go through the material with each course. (Hoping it’s going to stick!)

But wait: there’s more! I’ve also got two listening projects. When I’m in the car on my own, I listen to David Suchet reading through the NIV UK version of the Bible. It’s now October, which means I’m 75% of the way through. We are in Jeremiah and ke LOE zjinz. (Who knew that some British people say Colossians like that?) And, we have a few verses of Psalms or Proverbs each day, too.

My other audio project came about when my daughter Cathy gave me some Aldi ear pods, after she received some Apple air pods for Christmas from her husband, Philip.

I’ve never used these sort of headphones before, and have never listened to anything while I’ve been walking. But, now I have these thingies, when I take our dog Louie for a walk, I’m listening to Andrew Wilson read his own book : Remaking the World. He sounds so much like Hugh Laurie (but he tells me I’m the first person to say so!) It’s a most interesting book! He says our postChristian world is partly a result of Protestantism!

What have you been reading or listening to?

* You won’t tell anyone about all these books on the dining room table, will you?

(SO MANY BOOKS

SO LITTLE TIME

is pinched from Jim Beale’s t shirt)

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