I Accept

When Job heard all the arguments made by his friends, his opinion about what God was doing hadn't changed. They didn't convince him at all, and he was still very angry and disappointed at Gods actions. Not only Job was disappointed at God, but God was disappointed at Job, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" (38; 2) At this point Job was very decided that he was disillusioned by God and that he wasn't going to change that idea. When people are so convinced about their own idea it's very complicated to change their minds, and especially where there's no actual proof for anything. When you are angry at someone else, you really don't want to know about the other person. That was what happened with Job, God wanted to let Job know that what he was doing was for his own good. At first Job didn't want to listen to God, which was more normal.

While he heard all the questions posed, and meanwhile he started changing his ways of thinking and started to accept the reality. As more and more people comment on his situation, people start realizing the truth of their actions and what they actually did. "Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not." (42; 3) after so many questions that God asked Job, he finally realized that the challenges God had posed before him were to help him and not to make him feel ashamed. It's very important that people recognize their mistakes and to let the other people that they were blaming know that they made a mistake.

Don’t Be Proud

Job was having a hard time for not accepting his mistakes, he, as many people blame others instead of recognizing their mistakes. This was one of the main problems Job had, he was very proud of himself. His friends wanted to help him, but as he was so stubborn, they had a very hard time convincing him. he still had hope that God will one day stop putting so many obstacles in his way, and that he could keep on with his normal life. "For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease." (14; 7) This is completely true you always have second chances, but before you even think about them, you have to accept your mistakes and your sins.

"When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness." (30; 26) you should never stop thinking on positive things, when you start to believe everything's bad, nothing will turn out the way you want it to be. This is very present in these chapters, Job wanted God to help him, but being so negative nothing turned out correctly. When people are depressed, the think everything that will happen and that's happening is wrong, nothing will turn out as they expected it. When they start looking further they realize that by thinking positively things can change and your life will change drastically.

You can never lose your faith, because if you just think in the cause of the problem instead of the solution or other options you have it will be impossible to proceed. "For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not." (33; 14) Elihu tells Job that God helps him in many ways, and tells him how to them through different situations, many that he will ot remember. I f you can't proceed, you will have a lot of trouble improving your life style and your thoughts. You always have to think in an alternate way with a variety of options. You have to seek in different places and occasions ways to resolve your problems.

Respect Others

Job was a very respectful man, he was very religious and responsible for his beliefs and actions according to God and his religion. This is an example of the Golden Rule, treat everyone as you expect them to treat you, he respected everyone, and they respected him, everything was mutual. "Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him." (2; 11) He also treated his friends with a great charisma, and in when Job was in a difficult situation, his friends returned everything he had done for them. When a friendship has been transparent for a long time being very sincere with others and having a nice feeling about the way your friends treat them, this will help you or others overcome more easily over difficult situations.

Even if man faces difficult situations they have to overcome them in some way, it sometimes will be through friends, mental power, or any other ways that people explore. "Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?" (4; 17) Many people might ask this question, and they should consider that God is superior to everything or everyone, why would humans have the same power as God? It is reasonable that man are different than God and they are each pure in their own way. God has more power over the world, but humans have power over their decisions and God has nothing to influence over this. Overall, God is better in some situations that don't include humans' decision, while humans are superior when it comes to decision making, they take their decisions according to their perspectives.

Obama’s Speech In Rhetoric

Most of the time Obama uses in his speech ethos, he is trying to say what he will do to improve, and how bad the country has worked in past years.

"Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story, of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to."

"Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less."

"America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this."

"And we are here -- we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight."

Occasionally Obama uses some logos, this is one example,

"But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time."

"The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives -- on health care, and education, and the economy -- Senator McCain has been anything but independent."

The time I watched his speech he had no pathos as he is in a formal speech and the use of pathos is not an adequate form to argument.

You Always Do It

David was very cordial and even when Saul died, he lamented it. He was always trying to improve everything, even the tribes that were near Israel. "Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel." (5;2) He was such a great and equal ruler, that the people from other tribes went to him trying to be under his reign. He wanted to do the most convenient thing for everyone.

David as all humans is not perfect he saw a married woman naked and decided to make out with her, but as a consequence God sent Nathan another prophet to make sure that David knew he had done something wrong. At first David was very selfish and didn't want to accept what he knew was wrong, but after a small story Nathan told him he finally accepted that what he had done was wrong. This happens very often when people take erroneous decisions that might affect their future terribly, but they think it's easier or better for them and not think on the future or the consequences that will happen. When they realize and accept their mistakes they start changing their paths according to what will be better for the surroundings. The same thing happened to David, "And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." (12;13) He still had to face the consequences which were terrible, his first son with Bath-sheba died. But as he confronted the consequences for having sinned, his second son, Solomon, was born well.

You Are Not The Only One

Samuel was a great follower, he always wished for Israelites to be as faithful as he was. Unfortunately most of Israel was losing their faith. Until Samuel could finally persuade them and they started to believe as they did before, the only thing they wanted was to have a king. Samuel didn't want this, but God said it was fine if they still had faith. This was very important, because if people forget what they believed in, this will be forgotten for a long time, and the king will be more important than God. This was the only inconvenience they could have, but this didn't really turn out as it was expected.

God and Samuel were very demanding with the election of the king, they wanted to please the people, but at the same time the king should be faithful. Saul was a good follower. After some time he started to give the material things more importance rather than following God. This is something that still occurs to many people, they get involved with others and they forget their principals and just care for the material things. When Saul was dropped from being king, David replaced him. Saul was very jealous and became resentful towards David "And Saul eyed David from that day and forward." (18:9) Many people are resentful for some tiny details that are not worth anything, they may find many other things that are better, but they still want the thing that others have.

The First Book of Samuel

Don’t Leave

When the Israelites where now living more as a community and set up, the LORD decided to leave them work the first six days of the week, and rest the seventh day, that hasn't really changed in our society because most of the people work Mondays through Saturdays and they rest Sunday. When Moses talked with God, the people started making many offerings, and the LORD wanted them to do many more things. "The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls."(30; 15) The LORD expected everyone to make an offering, he didn't want someone to give more or less than another and he was just trying to give credit for the purpose of the action and not the action as a whole.

"And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him." (32; 1) people tend to follow one person and when they leave, the rest of the group suffers because they have no idea of what to do. This was what happened with the children of Israel, they started to follow and worship another god, the God of gold. The LORD wanted the Israelites to believe in him, and since they started to follow the God of Gold, he sent back Moses with his commandments and shone his face up so that all the Israelites would follow him and not the other god. "And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him in mount Sinai." (34; 32) God can accomplish all that he wants, one way or another, difficult situations may occur to his followers, but everything will somehow get better.

Obey With No Problems

Everything the LORD says will always happen, but the people around him, his followers will never have problems if they listen to their orders. When the LORD sent them food, they would have plenty for all, and they would never starve if they listened to Moses orders given by the LORD. "And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating."(16;18) Even with hard situations, the LORD sent some help, and many people still didn't believe that the LORD would help them. In many occasions they tried to challenge him, but in different ways, the LORD would send some help.

Moses was very obedient, and he not only obeyed the LORD's orders, but other people's orders as well. When his father in law went to see if everything about the LORD and the way the Israelites were living he convinced Moses what he had been doing was wrong and too much for him, and told him how to change, he did. Not knowing if that was true or not, he changed his way of having order with the Children of Israel. "So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said."(18; 24) He was very naïve, and that was what led him to take most of the decisions, good or bad he took. When people do things as everyone tells them to, they could do some things that could harm the people, mainly if it's in this time period, where people are seeking for violence and negative acts.

God's commandments and will where heard by the Israelites, even though some were a little hard to accomplish, they all had severe consequences if not obeyed. It's incredible how much time has passed and these commandments are still followed, or people try to obey them. Still in chapter 21 lines 23-25, it says "And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe." This is something I consider violent, and it was not only stated in the Exodus, but also in Hammurabi's Code, which is now considered brutal.

Slavery Will Never End

God wanted to free the Israelites from the Egyptians, but as you know, he used Moses for this purpose. God could trust on Moses to do obey to any of his orders, therefore he sent him to talk with Pharaoh. You may see this as the slaves being the Israelites and the Egyptians being their owners, which seems true. Egyptians didn´t allow the Israelites to do anything without their permission. Moses had to ask permission to Pharaoh to let them go out of Egypt. "And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me." (8; 1) The Pharaohs actions led to the nine plagues, and after a hard fight Moses finally had the Israelites free. In the case of slaves it was more complicated because they didn't have any one to argue for them that would bring their owners a consequence, instead the Israelites had the LORD "And he said, To morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the LORD our God."(8; 10)

The Jews celebrate Passover every year, this event started since the Israelites were freed from the Egyptians. It is an event to thank the LORD of freeing them from the Egyptians, it was a moment of joy that they weren't owned by some other culture. And as a way of thanking the LORD, they celebrate Passover, "And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD's passover." (12; 11) It was a time to go back and be thankful for the LORD's actions in their favor, trying to help them. "And it came to pass the selfsame day, that the LORD did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies." (12; 51) Jews are very grateful for the freedom the LORD gave them, not being under the reign of the Egyptians, the Pharaoh , and not being in their lands.

Use Of Rhetoric

In October 7, 2008, there was a Presidential Debate, let's see how both of the candidates use rhetoric.

Senator Obama

Present- "I think everybody knows now we are in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."

Past- "And I believe this is a final verdict on the failed economic policies of the last eight years, strongly promoted by President Bush and supported by Senator McCain"

Future- "The Treasury should demand that money back and those executives should be fired."

Senator Mc Cain

Present- "Americans are angry, they're upset, and they're a little fearful. It's our job to fix the problem."

Future- "Now, I have a plan to fix this problem and it has got to do with energy independence."

"I would order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes -- at the diminished value of those homes and let people be able to make those -- be able to make those payments and stay in their homes. "

Past-"Do you know that we've laid a $10 trillion debt on these young Americans who are here with us tonight, $500 billion of it we owe to China?"

Racism Changes Culture

In Egypt, there were two main races, the Egyptians, and the children of Israel. They were very selfish, especially the Egyptians against the Israelites, this included the children too. "And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live."(ch1 line16) you can see that the Egyptians didn't want male Israelites to be in their lands because they thought they might fight them back in revenge for their slavery. Moses wanted to help the people, but he didn´t actually know how to it, but with the help of the LORD he was able to have more confidence to stand up to the Pharaoh. Having more confidence on his actions being backed up by the Lord "And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:" (Ch 4 line 22) you can notice that the LORD was always on Moses side helping and supporting him.

This may also be seen as the guerrilla in Colombia, many people are against it and the hostages will almost never lose their courage and their will to have freedom. Many people have tried different ways to let some people free, but there are still many people as captives, but hopefully they'll be free in a near future. There is always a person that wants freedom, in Colombia many people want it, but mainly the ones that have passed through similar situations. These people are the most encouraged one to keep on searching for freedom, and they never lose faith that they will accomplish their goal. In Exodus, Moses is one of the persons that wants freedom to the Israelites, he had also been in a similar situation, therefore he wanted the others to be free as he was. He had the LORDs support to do what he wanted, and even if he was afraid of the Pharaoh's attitude towards him, the LORD always pushed him to keep on doing it. "Go in, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land."(Ch 6 line 11) even if he didn´t want to do it, he never lost his faith that he was going to be able to have the Israelites out of Egypt, and that was one of the reasons he kept on doing what the LORD told him to.

Following is Always Better

Orders are most of the time given to have a positive impact on something if they are followed correctly, if they aren't they will have a negative effect. In Genesis you see this frequently, Abram or later Abraham is a great follower of the Lord's orders and therefore he gets what he usually wants. "And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things."(Ch 24 line 1) here it states that Abraham had received everything he pleased, but it wasn't as simple as just wishing it, he had to obey the LORD's orders. Many people think that by doing something similar to what they were told to, everything is alright, but if they miss something what had to be done was never completed well. And if they do something prohibited like Eve eating the prohibited fruit, everything could change. Disobeying orders can change drastically the future of a place, community, person, etc, in chapter nineteen, line 26 it says "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." For disobeying her husband's order of not turning back, her future was turned as no one expected: a pillar of salt.

Respect is a great quality people should always have towards others, as it is very important that people accept others and differences. Abraham had a lot of respect to the Lord and respect leads to more confidence with the other person. "And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD."(Ch18 line22) With the confidence Lord had on Abraham he ordered him to do many things he couldn't trust on anyone else, and as Abraham respected the Lord so much, he never failed on any instruction the Lord gave him.

A Perfect Jigsaw

At the beginning of chapter ten, appears the Lord. As we said in class today, the Lord is a different person than God, and Lord God. And as my group said, we believe that Lord is the ruler of man after they have disobeyed Lord God´s orders. You can notice this and that gods have their preferences with some people that they know will be good followers. "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar" (ch.13 line 10) you can notice the preference the Lord has for Abram, and the hate he had for Lot. It could be that he thought Abram would obey evrything, and might be great following hat is correct.

Many people believe that Lord, Lord God, and God are the same character and they don't actually care taking the time to think about it. Abram also believed this, "And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,"(ch14 line22). Here he mentions that Lord is the most important God, seeming as if he had no idea that God had created Earth, and Lord God had ruled over Eden. And most of all, they didn´t even bothered about doing the right or wrong things according to the gods, as we saw in the story of Adam and Eve eating the prohibited fruit.

In chapter sixteen, Hagar runs away, the Lord tells her many things of how her future will be. One of the things he told her was, "And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction."(ch16 line11) One of the things that caught my attention was that it mentioned the name Ishmael, and I was wondering if Quinn based the title of his book through this particular name. I think this might be possible as Ishmael is trying to help his pupil understand the world better.

Transcending Art

Michael Angelo cried in desperation,

What shall I paint in this beautiful ceiling?

He cried, "The Creation."

He told the Medicis this was a wonderful feeling.

This will be a great work of art,

And it will remain after I depart.

Since Our Childhood

Since I was small, my family always told me stories of the creation of man and the stories I've just read. It is fascinating all the details I had missed, and the different ideas I have from my childhood and now. Concepts are understood differently according if you are listening or reading them, and that was one of the things that impacted me more, I got a totally different idea of what I had a few years ago. Even though I recognize the same points of the stories, I now have a completely different interpretation. When I was younger, I just believed everything told was wonderful and that Adam and Eve had done a mistake, but nothing else. And with Noah, I thought it was a fantastic idea to have all the animals in the ark.

From the story of Adam and Eve in Eden, I think people are usually too intrigued with what is prohibited. You might recall this to Pandora's Box, when people are interested in something forbidden, and the do it, many bad things can occur. With one simple situation, the rest might change in a significant manner, in this case negative. "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."(ch3. Line 16) This was one of the consequences that had to be faced upon others and not only to Eve, but the serpent and Adam also had consequences that civilization has had to face. After facing the consequences, God still had hope, as in Pandora's Box, he had hope with Noah.

This story was a very important one, as this one describes the hope that God had on Noah. He was sure that Noah would give him a great satisfaction with his request. Noah was a god follower and obeyed everything that he was asked to do. He was the only hope that God had to try to make Earth a better place to live. Without so many people that want to be equal with the gods, and want to know everything. It's very important that humans didn't have the opportunity of achieving this, because if they knew everything, life would have no purpose, it would be perfect. Many people would argue that a perfect civilization would be great, but I consider that you should always try to improve and mistakes are great part of our lives.

The Creation as Told by Genesis

This is my interpretation of the first two sections of Genesis.

No One Gets Credits

King James didn´t have good experiences with the translators of the Bible, he wasn´t able to pay them their salaries as he was supposed to. He spent much of the money Cecil got on the Translators, but he got the rest for him. There were many problems between King James and the translators, and the translators had trouble surviving with this small salary that was given to them after a long time without any salary. They had to do other things to carry on, and weren't able to keep up with the translation on time. "But money was tight. By the end of the decade, royal finances were nowhere near capable of paying for the project."(pg199)

One of the translators, Bois was a very intelligent person and since small had a great influence of his family for the Bible and for Latin and Greek. From these likes he had acquired, he became a very important part of the community, and especially for the translator. His likes for the languages, gave him a great facility for the translation, and from the time given, he finished very early. He was always willing to keep learning, and he helped everyone finish their translations on time, and that they were easier for everyone to understand. "It took up its life in a new and distinct dimension of linguistic space, somewhere between English and Greek."(pg.211) there were many discussions between other translators and they all thought they were right, but they ended up finding the easiest word or phrases that fit the text accordingly. When Bios was sick, he had finished translating some work. One of the other translators, Savile was working with him and he received all the credit for something he didn't do for himself. "He was never famous, even at the time, because as Walker said, Savile took all the credit for the Chrysostom and the five years Bois had spent on the translation "makes no noyse, because it carries no name."(pg215) Many people are jealous of others work, and they take advantage of the situations and try to get credit of other people works.

Beliefs Change the Culture

Today societies are accepting much more people's differences and beliefs, but in the XVII century, people just accepted the one "right" way to live according to the church and political opinion. People weren't free to take their own decision that might influence the society in any matter. King James was intrigued with correct language usage, and gave very strict orders of how to translate the Bible. "The words of the Bible should compe." (pg. 183) This was something that wasn't done frequently because people just did it one way that wasn't as complicated and as unambiguously as King James wanted the translation to be done. You could see that period of time as a communist country today, people are just accepted if they live accordingly to the president's actions and wills. People are just able to follow one regiment, and if they don't follow it, they will get in serious trouble. And if people want to leave, they have to pass by many problems before being able to leave. This is very similar to what happened in England, they wanted to leave in search of religious freedom. And in that, they were able to leave and met their wish, after confronting many problems with the society.

Many translations of the Bible have been made, and they have contradictions of what other translators have said (pg.195). This demonstrates that every translator has a different style of expressing the same text in different languages. "This atmosphere of holiness is made to reside in the strange, formal, ritualistic language of the seventeenth-century Bible."(pg.196) you can see that even though the translations use different language and writing styles they all try to keep the same basic idea of the text and somehow try to involve some historical context within the translation. I find this very important because what matters in this sort of text, is the significance, and not the style, and it's also very important to be able to keep some details to add a more thorough idea.

Spelling Excersises

Adolescent Student One
In dealing with students on the high-school level - that is, the second, third, and fourth year of high school - we must bear in mind that to some degree they are at a difficult psychological stage, generally called adolescence. Students at this level are likely to be confused mentally, to be subject to involuntary distractions and romantic dreaminess. They are basically timid or self-conscious, they lack frankness and are usually very sensitive but hate to admit it. They are motivated either by great ambition, probably out of all proportion to their capabilities, or by extreme laziness caused by the fear of not succeeding or attaining their objectives. Fundamentally they want to be kept busy but they refuse to admit it. They are frequently the victims of earlier poor training, and this makes every effort doubly hard. They are usually willing to work, but they hate to work without obtaining the results they think they should obtain. Their critical faculties are beginning to develop and they are critical of their instructors and of the materials they are given to learn. They are beginning to feel the pressure of time; and although they seldom say so, they really want to be consulted and given an opportunity to direct their own affairs, but they need considerable guidance.