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Biblical Backgrounds was interesting today. I love that class! I am learning so much, and discovering just how much of the Bible I have misinterpreted. The significance of many cities is so clear now, and also the correlation of each to the words Jesus spoke there. For instance, did you know that the fact that we are the bride of Christ and Jesus’ words, “this cup I offer to you” and “drink from it all of you” are directly related? Me either, until today. So I shall now educate all you uneducated. ;)
Back in Bible times, when a young man wanted to propose to a girl, he and his father would go to her and her father, and they eat a meal together, just the four of them. (Wow, that was a long sentence. My apologies.) The fathers would then barter back and forth about the bride price. It was a very large sum of money, equivalent to the about price we pay for a house. Before/during/after (can’t remember the exact timing) the discussion of the bride price, the young man would offer the girl his cup of wine. If she refused it, his offer was rejected. But if she drank from his cup, she was telling him, “Yes, I accept your life, and I give you mine.” Sound familiar? Yup, Jesus asks us to be His bride by offering His cup. And just as the bride comes with a bride price (money, etc), so we come at a price- the death of Christ.
That is what this class is all about: learning what scriptures meant to those in Biblical times. The authors of the Bible had no need to give background on their analogies or parallels because it was all blatantly obvious to everyone. We, however, are so far removed from that culture, both in physical distance and in society, that we often misunderstand all the ins and outs of Christ’s words. I am finding more and more that each place at which Christ spoke there was a special meaning of His words to them personally. He used word pictures relevant for each city. In Gethsemene, He warned that whoever led a child astray would be better off with a mill-stone around his neck and thrown into the sea. Well, guess what was made in Gethsemene??!? Olive presses! (The mill-stone was part of the olive-press.) To relate olive presses to Gethsemene would be to us as relating Detroit to cars. So you see, everything Jesus spoke about was incredibly relevant to the particular group of people there.
So are you educated now? J

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I give my speech for Oral Comm today. I’m trying not to think about it so I won’t get nervous. I have practiced it out loud twice and once in my head today. Out loud works better because otherwise my mind starts to wander. But as long as I remain calm and go from point to point I’m sure I’ll be fine. Ok, enough about that. I’m making myself nervous.

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I don’t have too much homework this week, which is nice. It’ll probably snowball on me at the end of the week, but oh well. I’m going to really get busy tomorrow.

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Ha.