Just another day in the Interpretation of the New Testament:

Apparently the Epistles of John are not very popular here. Several students left the class shortly after signing the roll. We started class by comparing passages from the Gospel of John to passages in the First Letter of John to determine same or different authorship. (They were written by different authors, by the way.) My MTS cohorts and I sit and chat amongst ourselves. Bad little MTS students, we did not (nor do we ever, really...) bring our Bibles to class.

Many other students appear to be immersed in other work as well. One of my friends regularly does his Greek homework in the class, and several others have long since abandoned note taking and are now fully engaged in daydreaming. "I'm just here to sign the roll," is a common sentiment. Attendance in this class is absolutely required. One suspects the professor has learned over the years that in order to guarantee regular attendance grades must depend upon it.

On any given day in this class students sit in front of their laptops engaged in earnest typing and stare with profound concentration at their screens. At least, I assume that's what it looks like from the front of the class. From my vantage point, however, a very different story reveals itself. The screens most regularly display Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Hearts, Minesweeper, or Free Cell. Many write letters, check e-mail, or surf the web.

And today, when we were asked to open our Bibles to the First Letter of John, the guy in front of me pulled out his Biblia Hebraica. Yeah...something tells me he's not participating in this little comparative exercise, either. Welcome to Seminary.