My Syriac flashcards come in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. You may not have known that Excel can be used for flashcards, but let me assure you it’s pretty sweet. You’ll need to enable the macro once you open the Excel file. Here’s a screenshot of what that looks like in Excel 2007.

I’ll be updating the file as the semester progresses. Right now the flashcards are incomplete and are only up to date with what we’ve covered in class so far. I’ll be updating the file and this post as I update the flashcards every week.

Download Leshono Suryoyo Syriac Flashcards

Download: SyriacFlashcards-HealeyLeshonoSuryoyo-KataDrew

Status: Complete (Chapters 1-14 including interrogatives, demonstratives and independent personal pronouns)
Last updated: April 24, 2010

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Required Font: Serto Jerusalem

Like Healey’s text these flashcards use the Syriac Serto script. The flashcards utilize and therefore require the Beth Mardutho Meltho Syriac Fonts, specifically the one in the package called Serto Jerusalem. The font pack containing Serto Jerusalem is freely available through the Beth Mardutho web site on the Meltho Font download page. Click the download link, fill out the form (if you wish), agree to the license, and then you’ll be able to directly download the fonts. The following operating systems are supported: Microsoft Windows, Linux/BSD, Unix, and Mac OS X.

I also use this font to do my homework in Word. To do this you need to add a Syriac keyboard through the Windows Control Panel by going to Change keyboards or other input methods.  From the Keyboards and Languages tab click Change keyboards… . Click Add and then scroll down to Syriac in the list of languages. I recommend the Syriac Phonetic keyboard. Then switch to this “keyboard” when you want to type in Syriac with the Serto Jerusalem font. Vowels are added by first entering the consonant on which they appear and then using Shift plus another key. For example, for a ptoho (the one in Serto that sorta looks like a Greek alpha), you hit the consonant on which you want it to appear and then the Q key while holding down Shift. The other vowels are found on the W, E, R, T, and Y keys if I remember rightly.

Update: This is the same font used in Leshono Suryoyo.

Help

If you need help with any of this, simply leave a comment and I’ll be glad to help.

Here’s who I’ve found so far by various and sundry means:

• Daniel Moore @onwardprogress
• Tim Jones @TimmJones
• Doug Hull @KDH3
• Drew Maust (me) @admaust

Below are Akin’s thoughts prefacing an article which he included in his email:

The secular media and some pollsters are: 1) arguing that many evangelicals are considering voting for Senator Barack Obama and 2) attempting to provide a rationale for why they could morally justify voting for him. Attached is a lengthy and compelling argument by Professor Robert P. George of Princeton University that puts to rest such “foolish talk.” Read this thoughtful response and see if you can find it morally conscionable to vote for “a president of death.”

I would likewise encourage you to read Professor George’s “thoughtful response” which you can find in-full on Dr. Akin’s blog at the following address: http://betweenthetimes.com/2008/10/14/why-faithful-evangelicals-cannot-vote-for-barack-obama.

Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He serves on the President’s Council on Bioethics and on UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST). George is a Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute of Princeton, New Jersey.

With Dr. Akin’s permission to “send it to whomever” I have created a PDF which you can use to attach his entire email and the article by Professor George to an email of your own and/or to print to share with others.

Download PDF (48kb)

I wouldn’t recommend starting this way given the cultural connotations.

We need Christians/seminarians/ministers/pastors/missionaries of all backgrounds. If you’re interested in chemistry, by all means go hard after it. If you’re interested in psychology, get it. If you really click with languages, study linguistics. If you’re thinking of being super-practical, become a nurse or maybe an accountant. But what we don’t need is homogeneous Bible degree seminarians.

Will a Bible degree put you ahead in seminary? Sure. Will not having a Bible degree automatically put you behind? No. If you love philosophy and theology, you’ll study philosophy and theology, or philosophy with a special view to theology. College is equipping you to learn on your own. So what better way to put that into practice than by studying theology, the Bible, biblical languages, etc in addition to your studies on your own. We need theocentric and biblical microbiologists and P.E. teachers and businessmen.

At the same time, however, be focused: don’t study architecture just to get a degree so you can go to seminary. Study architecture because you’re interested in the Sagrada Familia and you love Jesus and want to help people build efficient and appropriate church buildings.

Even with that said, I would study classics, history, linguistics, English, philosophy, and/or nursing. Yep, nursing.

Lastly, keep an Amazon wishlist and every book you hear recommended, add it. Tell people that for your birthday, Christmas, Easter, Kwanzaa and Flag Day, you want something off that list. Go ahead and get all you can: you may not have time to read them now, but they may serve as references or your curiosity. You might just eventually have time to read them, but for the time being, your book shelf will look impressive.

You can’t read enough. But remember:

Of course, what would a concert be without a bootleg? I bet Mendelssohn’s never seen a bootleg before. Anyways, praise for Dr. John L. Davis and tonight’s uplifting performance of this masterpiece. I bet you’ve never heard Binkley Chapel like this before:

01-01-SEBTS-Elijah

01-02-SEBTS-Elijah

01-03-SEBTS-Elijah

01-04-SEBTS-Elijah

02-SEBTS-Elijah

I was listening very carefully when C.J. preached. Sometimes at a conference like this people are very enthusiastic and demonstrative in their response to the preaching. But tonight as C.J. preached, there was a holy silence in this room. There was not much stirring because we were standing on holy ground. I’ll never, ever look at the Garden of Gethsemane the same again.

Download the entire message at the SEBTS chapel schedule page.

Within the past two weeks, and within a week of one another, two religious figures have passed away: Dr. L. Russ Bush of Southeastern Seminary, 22 January, and Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), 27 January. After attending a Friday night lecture on the Mormon view of the soul, death, and the afterlife at the local LDS stake in Wake Forest, I was interested to read how the death of their president would be presented to the public. This would be a prime opportunity to demonstrate through the death of President Hinckley their views on death and the afterlife. I expected headlines on the official LDS web site to contain some sort of religious euphemism that would hint at their beliefs, such as: “President Hinckley Has Gone to Be with the Lord” or “Hinckley Now Becomes as God Now Is.” Nothing to this effect was published, but “Beloved Church President, Gordon B. Hinckley, Dies at 97.”

Call this a missed opportunity or professional journalism avoiding religious jargon, but I, honestly, was surprised. I clicked the headline to read the whole article, thinking that surely inside would be the religious language the title had forgone. “President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97…President Hinckley was known, even at the age of 97, as a tireless leader who always put in a full day at the office and traveled extensively around the world to mix with Church members, now numbering 13 million in 171 nations.” No mention of what I was looking for; but maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.

I wouldn’t be writing this, however, if Dr. L. Russ Bush hadn’t passed so closely to Hinckley. The title of the article written bringing the news of his passing is very different than that of Hinckley: “The Homegoing of Dr. L. Russ Bush.” “Homegoing ” says it all. Dr. Bush has not become a homemaker as Hinckley, but has gone home to be with the risen Savior. President Akin remembers Bush as “a champion and faithful warrior for the cause of Christ.” Dean of the Faculty at Southeastern, David Nelson, sums up what is contained in the article’s heading when he says, “We are truly grieved at [Bush's] passing, because he was a kind, gracious friend and leader, but of course, because of his faith in Christ, ours is a hopeful grief as we know he is in the presence of the Lord he loved.” Dr. Bush preached the Gospel in life but also in death: when he passed it was said of him that he is in the presence of the Lord he loved. Journalist opportunity seized: the result of a life lived in devotion to Christ is shown to the public.

Maybe I’m making more out of this observation than it merits, but nonetheless, it is an observation. Has Mormon journalism merely foregone religious jargon or absconded with their beliefs? Baptist journalists and spokesmen gladly publicized the Christian view on death and the afterlife, giving the reader a peek into Christian theology, a theology that doesn’t have anything to hide to save face. Contrasting orthodox Christianity and Mormonism on such basic tenets as death and the afterlife show them to be very dissimilar, and for a faith that considers itself Abrahamic as well as Christian, it has much to fear in open, public juxtaposition of the two which could have taken place had Mormon journalists openly shared their beliefs. It then makes sense why a non-religious obituary should be published.

Moreover, we have Mark Dever Tuesday, February 26 (cf. Capitol Hill Baptist Church [that this page has a Netscape fav icon is stultifying]). His current sermon series is entitled “Pierced for Our Transgressions.” You can most likely guess the inspiration for such a series and the content thereof considering his endorsement of the book by the same name. We can only hope that he brings a sermon in this vein.

Lastly, get ready for a Canadian kerfuffle on April 8 when Dr. Hogg brings history, humor and homily.

Anyone I missed that you’re looking forward to? Student preaching week? Here’s the full lineup.

Download Seow Biblical Hebrew Flashcards

[Edit: check the vocabulary list in the Excel file against the chapter's vocabulary list in the book which you are trying to learn first before studying that chapter. I think there are a few discrepancies.]