Dr. Nick Elder
@nick_elder
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Assoc Prof of NT @UDSeminary & @UDubuque | Ancient Media | Papyri | Positive Vibes Critical Pedagogy | Un/Specs Grading | 2000–2020s Dad Rock | Midwesterner
Dubuque, IA
Joined October 2010
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I’ve taught first-semester freshman, grandparents, and most folks in between.
You want to know what teaching tactic everyone responds to?
Caring for them as human beings.
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"Did I carry you for ten months and nurse you for three years so that you would not remember to write me by letter?!?"
Hikane would like a letter from her son, Isidoros.
O. Ber. 2.129 (1st cent. CE)
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“What? No. It can’t be. Oh FFS.”
Wordle 233 5/6
⬛🟨⬛⬛🟨
⬛⬛🟨🟨⬛
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Unaccredited seminaries (such as, say, Grace Bible Theological Seminary) should not be giving anyone degrees in anything. Full stop.
Theological seminaries should not be giving women degrees in pastoral ministry. Full stop.
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The Apostle Paul be like
City I dislilke: Any in Galatia
City I think is overrated: Jerusalem
City I like: Philippi
City I love: Thessalonica
City I most feel myself in: Corinth
City I still need to visit: Rome
City I dream of living in: Any in Spain
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My article "'This Hand is Validation:' Philemon as a Pauline Holograph" was accepted for publication in New Testament Studies.
In it I argue that Paul wrote Philemon entirely in his own hand.
A quick 🧵of the argument. (1/6)
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Two 2nd cent. CE letters from Thermouthas about pregnancy, almost assuredly written in her own hand.
To her mother:
"We are seven months pregnant now!"
To her brother:
"Mother and I want you to know that if Herois gives birth, we are visiting you. It is absolutely necessary!"
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When I teach New Testament Intro to seminarians,
one of the first things that they do in the class, after reading A. J. Levine's "Bearing False Witness: Common Errors Made about Early Judaism,"
is to identify myths they held about Judaism and correct them.
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To introduce pseudepigraphy I have students write emails in my name.
Today in class we gamified it by having groups guess if select emails are authentic or not.
The rounds got progressively harder with more points awarded per correct answer.
Super fun. Would recommend.
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What are your favorite two words in academia?
I'll start: open access.
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Interesting fact:
No one has ever been upset when a book, chapter, or section of text clearly presents its central argument with the words “The argument of this book/chapter/section is XYZ.”
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Today in Greek I, subscripted iotas were called "baby iotas" many, many times.
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You need to know that there is a 1987 episode of The Real Ghostbusters that features a battle between Marduk and Tiamat in Central Park.
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It’s been exactly one year since my wife, Beth, was diagnosed with cancer.
This has been far and away the hardest year of my life personally, our life as a couple, and our family’s life together.
Beth presently has no evidence of disease. We’re looking ahead to bluer skies.
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It should be required that every New Testament scholar read this book before throwing out percentages about literacy or citing *that* other book on literacy rates in Greco-Roman antiquity.
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Last week I told students the unhappy news that my wife begins chemotherapy next week.
They have been sending emails and gift cards, signing up for our MealTrain, and offering to lead classes.
I’ll never, ever underestimate how special the professor-student relationship is.
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These 2nd cent. letters were sent from the same person, Apollinarius, a recruit, to his mother, Taesis, on the same day.
But they are written by different scribes.
They uniquely allow comparison of the practices of two different persons writing a letter on behalf of another.
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Universities should have post-teaching sensory-deprivation tanks available to professors.
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Making Greek 1 exams open-book, open-note, and revise-and-resubmit-able has been the best pedagogical decision of my semester.
Could not recommend it enough for other language teachers.
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The story of the widow giving her last dollar to the temple is sandwiched between Jesus’s warning about the scribes’ tendency to *devour widow’s houses* and his prediction of the temple’s destruction.
Somehow it’s still made out to be an object lesson about cheerful giving.
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Assistant Professor of New Testament
📈📈📈
Associate Professor of New Testament
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I love seeing that so many people on here accomplished their writing goals for 2021 and published many interesting things.
My primary goal was to submit my book manuscript. I didn’t accomplish it.
I also didn’t write any new articles.
And that’s all okay.
#RealAcademicBios
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“This class is not the nightmare I thought it would be, and Dr. Elder is not the nightmare I thought he would be.”
This is the stuff promotion and tenure applications are made of.
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Since I now have a TT position, my institution pays my membership fees to professional societies.
That’s real neat.
But why in the world aren’t grad programs and institutions doing this for the people that could really use it, namely grad students and contingent faculty?
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10yo wrote a grant proposal for a new soccer ball.
TBH, I’m not seeing much by way of impact here. Goals not measurable. Probably gonna reject it.
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Did I print my name badge before the conference? Hell yes I did.
Is it on my office desk in eastern Iowa? Hell yes it is.
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Rick rolling students with this fake document link in the LMS will never stop amusing me.
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Today, after some decades of speaking and reading the English language, I realized it’s the K-9 unit because “canine.”
The funds for my MacArthur genius grant should be dispersed by the end of the month.
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Every year I am more convinced that learning students’ names in the first few class sessions and greeting them by them regularly is one of the most important things professors can do to facilitate learning.
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Silvanus booked the gig in Alabastrine:
“I’ve agreed to play the flute with my entire band for 8 days, beginning the 24th of next month.”
P.Col. 8 226 (2nd cent. CE)
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It is really, really, really important that we teach future pastors not to repeat falsities about ancient Judaism that so often just get mapped right onto modern Judaism.
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📚BOOK GIVEAWAY📚
Follow and RT for an entry
RT and @ a grad student to give them 2 entries
(I dislike this sort of self-promotion, but received some author copies of the paperback version of my book and would like to get them into hands of those who might use them.)
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This morning during the sermon one of my 5yo daughters whispered in my ear,
“Pastor Stephanie has learned so much about the Bible to teach us. Someday I want to learn and teach like her.”
Imagine whispering back to her,
“No, you can never do that.”
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My book with
@eerdmansbooks
, _Gospel Media: Reading, Writing, and Circulating Jesus Traditions_, is now with a project editor.
One step closer to publication!
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I know the legends about scholars waking up extra early to write for an hour or two everyday are supposed to be inspiring or whatever,
but they just communicate that things that are good for one’s physical health, like sleep or exercise, are less important than publishing.
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Annual reminder that s’mores are 800% better with peanut butter cups
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Knowing and regularly using students’ names is an effective pedagogical strategy.
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Not all syllabus boilerplate is the worst.
Consider putting Basic Needs statements into your syllabi.
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Bible Professors in public:
Stranger: “What do you do for a living?”
Me: I work down town.
“Where?”
At the university.
“What do you do there?”
I teach.
“Teach what?”
Old books and stuff.
“So you’re a Bible Professor?”
Fine. Yes.
“My uncle is a pastor.”
Oh. Cool.
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A reality show in which senior, tenured faculty members teach as adjuncts across multiple institutions for a semester.
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@drjjwilliams
10,000 pages of non-technical reading is over 500 hours of planned out-of-class engagement of reading alone. There are 2,520 total hours in 15 weeks. Do you recommend particular reading strategies for skimming with that kind of reading load?
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My second book will be published with
@eerdmansbooks
.
*Gospel Media: Reading, Writing, and Disseminating Jesus Traditions*
(More shameless self-promotion, presentation of the book's argument, and chapter summaries in this thread unfolding over the next several days)
1/
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What is the best way to end a conference presentation?
Wrong answers only.
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I’ve read a lot of pedagogy books the past five years or so and they all amount to the same conclusion:
The most successful classes are the ones where you don’t really know wtf you’ll do when you walk in but you’re armed with a sticky note with a few underdeveloped ideas.
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The texts for my spring undergrad classes can be acquired for less than $25 total,
and I’m really proud of that.
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This is the platonic form of a garbage opinion piece written by an insecure white man with a serious case of imposter syndrome:
“Any chance you might drop the “Dr.” before your name? “Dr. Jill Biden” sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic.”
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The gospels all describe themselves using *different* media terms:
Matthew 1:1: Book (βίβλος)
Mark 1:1: Good News (εὐαγγέλιον)
Luke 1:1: Account (διήγησις)
John 20:30: Document (βιβλίον)
#amwriting
#gospelmedia
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‼️🚨📘BOOK GIVEAWAY📘🚨‼️
We’ve got 2️⃣ copies of Gospel Media to give away.
2 ways to win:
🔄 Retweet or QT to enter a drawing. Ends 12/15.
❔ Correctly guess one of the two artists/bands thanked in the book’s acknowledgements in the comments below. Limit 3 guesses.
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My favorite short answer question to come out of assigning this text (so far) is
"In about two paragraphs explain what Judaism was like in the time of Jesus. In your response, describe at least one misconception about Judaism and offer a corrective of that misconception."
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another semester of still not submitting that nearly finished article
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Does anyone know how much percentage is taken off if we submit our conference abstracts late?
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My new second-favorite non-literary papyri is P.Oxy. 33.2677, a plug-and-play template for creating cheirographs. To my knowledge, it has not been translated and published in its entirety anywhere. (4/6)
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Just me out here doing the Lord's work by writing multiple-choice questions.
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Fun fact: non-Christian chi-rho was an abbreviation for, among other words, ἑκατονταρχίας (“centurion”).
Here it’s used as such in a 2nd cent. CE receipt for the partial repayment of a 1,000 drachmae dowry to Petronia Sarapias from her ex-husband, Iulianis Apollinarios.
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No one asked for it, but here it is anyway:
writing letters by hand in Greco-Roman antiquity: a 🧵.
1/X
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I just listened to an otherwise v good podcast on Ephesian Artemis w/ an otherwise v smart classicist
who referred to Acts as 1 Timothy and said it was written by Paul.
Is this how biblical scholars sound when we write and talk about classics?
And why is this chasm so wide?
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🎉🎊Done.🎊🎉
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I’m a few days late on the Twitter timing here, but anywho:
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Stop talking dirt on the gospels!
Mark is EXCITING
Luke is PROGRESSIVE
John is UNIQUE
Matthew
Thomas is CLANDESTINE
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TFW your book is about to be eviscerated by people way smarter than you.
@LizzieShively
@sccarlson
@IanNelsonMills
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There are those in academia who have worked in the service industry and there are those who have not.
The former can *always* identify the latter.
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An ESPN announcer for the Utah-Baylor game just said
“How fitting would it be if Bishop was the one who put the baptists under?”
This is the theological commentary I watch college football for.
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Kicking off
#sblaar23
with a fantastic set of papers on enslavement in ancient fiction with
@jkingdy3
@JonHatter
@clcobb629
@ChanceBonar
and
@Katie_Kleinkopf
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Cheirographs that are written entirely in the debtor's own hand are called "holographs" and those that are written in someone else's hand, whether in whole or in part, are "allographs."
I suggest the rhetoric of Philemon 19 works much better is Philemon is holographic. (6/6)
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I saw a job advert today.
For the 1st time in years I’m not writing applications. This affords me *so much* extra time and mental energy.
TT faculty need to do better acknowledging what a burden applying for jobs is for contingent faculty and grad students.
#AcademicChatter
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This academic year has kicked my ass.
My family moved to a new city a month before it started and my wife began treatment for cancer three months later.
But my spring grades are now submitted. And that is something.
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*Someone posts a genuine question in a biblical studies Facebook group*
Literally all of the comments:
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Dionysius and Thasos have paid back their loan of 480 silver drachma, as indicated by the Xs on this cheirograph (i.e. handwritten contract).
Colossians 2:14 probably refers to this practice:
“…striking out the cheirograph against us with its decrees.”
P.Corn. 6 (17 CE)
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Just revisited these articles for a session in the Enoch Seminar today and am happy to report that I still agree with my arguments in them.
The short of it is that Mark engages Enochic traditions in exorcistic accounts.
As always, happy to share PDFs.
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A student gave the best presentation on Revelation 12:1–6 (the woman clothed with the sun) and I just really need to show you the art she used for it, in the order it appeared in her presentation.
Maha Rukab, "Woman Clothed with the Sun" (2019)
Acrylic on Cardboard, Diptych
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