Is This Study Guide Right for Me?
This guide is right for me if:
- I am willing and able to obtain and read Life in Year One by Scott Korb.
- I am willing and able to spend 30-60 minutes a week reading.
- I enjoy written reflections.
- I am willing and able to spend 30-60 minutes a week working on written exercises.
- I feel satisfied learning independently without real-time interaction with a teacher.
- I enjoy a reflective process that may lead to more questions.
- I prefer text-based work to video-based classes.
- I am curious about the culture in 1st-century Palestine (current Israel and Palestine).
- I am willing to use secular knowledge to better understand biblical texts.
- I want a brief overview, not an in-depth study.
- I am looking for a personal study guide, not a guide to lead a group study.
What You'll Get
Three emails per chapter, spaced a few days apart.
And of course, you can always e-mail me. I love hearing what people are thinking about while going through a class!
- Email 1: Chapter focus points
- Email 2: Reflection questions
- Email 3: I answer one of the reflection questions
And of course, you can always e-mail me. I love hearing what people are thinking about while going through a class!
Generative AI
Generative AI was not used to create the content of this course. By purchasing this course, you are supporting a human creator. Thank you for that support!
Generative AI was used to brainstorm the subtitle, email preview lines, “Is This Study Guide Right for Me?” phrasing, and to get a second opinion on if I was missing any disclaimers. Basically, I need help with the marketing parts of teaching! Final decisions and wording are my own.
Generative AI was used to brainstorm the subtitle, email preview lines, “Is This Study Guide Right for Me?” phrasing, and to get a second opinion on if I was missing any disclaimers. Basically, I need help with the marketing parts of teaching! Final decisions and wording are my own.
Sample E-Mail Series
E-mail 1
Welcome to the unofficial study companion for Life in Year One by Scott Korb! Instead of just reading a book, you’re embarking on a quest to connect what you read to your own experience. You’re looking for answers to “so what” and “who cares”. Let’s begin!
This Week’s Reading
Translator’s Note, Author’s Note, and Introduction from Life in Year One by Scott Korb
Key Points from the Translator’s Note, Author’s Note, and Introduction
These notes are intended to help you see the key themes in the chapter, not to replace Korb’s original work. You still need to read the chapter to have the background to answer the discussion questions.
Searches to Learn More
“bible translation process”
“how does bias affect translation”
In a few days, you’ll receive an email with reflection questions to help connect what you’ve read to what you already know.
This Week’s Reading
Translator’s Note, Author’s Note, and Introduction from Life in Year One by Scott Korb
Key Points from the Translator’s Note, Author’s Note, and Introduction
These notes are intended to help you see the key themes in the chapter, not to replace Korb’s original work. You still need to read the chapter to have the background to answer the discussion questions.
- Unless 1st-century CE Biblical Greek, also called Koine Greek, is your native language, you read a translation of the Christian New Testament.
- Translation is not a one to one comparison. Multiple American English words could be used for one Koine Greek word or vice versa. Translation involves choice.
- A translator(s)’ biases, including their theological beliefs, will affect what choices they make.
- Historians and other scholars still have questions about what life was like in the first century, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t know anything. We do have evidence for some things. Other things are educated guesses.
Searches to Learn More
“bible translation process”
“how does bias affect translation”
In a few days, you’ll receive an email with reflection questions to help connect what you’ve read to what you already know.
E-mail 2
Now that you’ve read the Translator’s Note, Author’s Note, and Introduction, here are two reflection questions to help you connect what you’ve read to what you already know.
In a few days, you’ll receive an email with my response to one of these questions.
- If you’ve studied another language: What is an example of how the same idea cannot be expressed in a literal word for word translation between your language and the one you studied?
- If you have not studied another language: Look up a word in a dictionary. How many definitions are given? Which one do you think of when you use the word? How could someone learning the language know which is the correct definition for what they are reading?
- In 2,000 years, how would a translator know which definition to use when interpreting the last thing you wrote? What might confuse them? What cultural concepts would they need to know about to understand what you wrote?
In a few days, you’ll receive an email with my response to one of these questions.
E-Mail 3
In 2,000 years, how would a translator know which definition to use when interpreting the last thing you wrote? What might confuse them? What cultural concepts would they need to know about to understand what you wrote?
“Professor said he realized he overshot on the exam, so the grading is being adjusted.”
In this text message, I used “overshot” to mean that the professor used questions on the exam that were too hard for what we had learned. In 2,000 years, a translator might not understand the cultural process of grading on a curve when the majority of students do poorly on the same question of a test. The translation team might debate if my text means that the professor took an exam or if it means that the professor gave an exam.
There would be arguments over what “overshot” means. Is it a literal description of some sort of exam-taking/giving method that has been lost to history? Is it an idiom or metaphor? Does the exam have something to do with gun rights policies and debates, or perhaps it was a firearms skills test?
To answer those questions, the translators would need to consult with historians and archeologists who specialize in 21st-century US culture. They might initially decide that my text meant that the professor gave an exam to students, but put the date too far out so that students had forgotten the content by the time the test happened (overshot the timing). A few decades later, more texts and writings might be discovered that clarifies how exams and grading worked in the 21st-century US. Those discoveries might lead the translators to change their translation to mean that the professor weighted the exam too strongly (overshot how important it was for demonstrating learning). That’s closer to the original meaning, but still needs refinement.
This is an example of how translation works. Sometimes translators get things perfect. In my example, they understood that “exam” was a test. Sometimes, it takes future discoveries to help them know how to translate a word (e.g. my “overshot” examples).
In a few days, you’ll receive the first email for Chapter 1.
“Professor said he realized he overshot on the exam, so the grading is being adjusted.”
In this text message, I used “overshot” to mean that the professor used questions on the exam that were too hard for what we had learned. In 2,000 years, a translator might not understand the cultural process of grading on a curve when the majority of students do poorly on the same question of a test. The translation team might debate if my text means that the professor took an exam or if it means that the professor gave an exam.
There would be arguments over what “overshot” means. Is it a literal description of some sort of exam-taking/giving method that has been lost to history? Is it an idiom or metaphor? Does the exam have something to do with gun rights policies and debates, or perhaps it was a firearms skills test?
To answer those questions, the translators would need to consult with historians and archeologists who specialize in 21st-century US culture. They might initially decide that my text meant that the professor gave an exam to students, but put the date too far out so that students had forgotten the content by the time the test happened (overshot the timing). A few decades later, more texts and writings might be discovered that clarifies how exams and grading worked in the 21st-century US. Those discoveries might lead the translators to change their translation to mean that the professor weighted the exam too strongly (overshot how important it was for demonstrating learning). That’s closer to the original meaning, but still needs refinement.
This is an example of how translation works. Sometimes translators get things perfect. In my example, they understood that “exam” was a test. Sometimes, it takes future discoveries to help them know how to translate a word (e.g. my “overshot” examples).
In a few days, you’ll receive the first email for Chapter 1.
Find Me Online
The Variety Page Limited is loosely focused on biblical studies and applied theology.
The Variety Page Blog is where I write about whatever catches my attention.
The Variety Page Circular is the companion newsletter to The Variety Page Blog. That's where you can find out about classes, new sheet music, and read more of whatever caught my attention.
The Variety Page Reads is where you can shop for books I've read and found worth sharing.
(*I earn a commission from Bookshop.org for purchases made through The Variety Page Reads.)
The Variety Page Blog is where I write about whatever catches my attention.
The Variety Page Circular is the companion newsletter to The Variety Page Blog. That's where you can find out about classes, new sheet music, and read more of whatever caught my attention.
The Variety Page Reads is where you can shop for books I've read and found worth sharing.
(*I earn a commission from Bookshop.org for purchases made through The Variety Page Reads.)