Greetings and Welcome to Fred Putnam.org!

Greetings!

Welcome to my website, and thanks for visiting. I hope that what you find here proves helpful or [at least] interesting.

I am a member of the faculty of the School of Bible & Ministry at Philadelphia Biblical University (PBU), in Langhorne, Pennsylvania (www.pbu.edu).

I have taught Biblical Hebrew, Old Testament interpretation, Bible translation, linguistics, and various other subjects at the graduate (since 1984), and undergraduate (since 2007) levels; homeschool courses in Hebrew, Greek, Shakespeare, philosophy, poetry, and English literature to high school students; and various courses, workshops, and seminars in reading and understanding the Bible for collegians in the USA and at Institutul Teologica Timotheus (Bucharest, Romania).

This website, which is intended as a resource for my students, includes papers that I have read at various conferences, as well as "personal articles" (studies made out of my own interest without regard for publication), fiction and poetry (for fun), and papers written to encourage and foster conversation.

Why a Website?

• 1. To make my papers and writings easily available to those who would like them. This availability was the original impetus, so that I wouldn't have to send papers as attachments to e-mails in response to individual requests. Some of these are "finished" products, most are drafts at various stages, including those more-or-less as they were originally read or handed out (with lacunae). If you cite or use any of them, please credit the source. Thanks!

Since they are drafts, you will probably find both errors (typo, facts, &c.), and double question marks (??). I'd appreciate learning about any errors that you find! The double question mark is my way to find where I need to fill in information-searching for a single question mark finds every legitimate question; the double mark makes a search much more useful.

• 2. To enable friends et al. to keep up with my life. Again, this is a lot easier-although much less personal-via a website than by answering individual e-mails. There is a blog (complete with random paragraphs and "mini-essays"), as well as a list of planned future events (such as our trip(s) to Romania, preaching, papers, &c.). Please feel to respond, and please do sign the guestbook.
• Hence the eponymous domain. Since my assumption is that people will look for it because they know me, either personally or by hearing me speak or read a paper, it seemed easiest to say "Just look under my name" (thanks to Joshua, who designed it for me).

Mission

Through years of teaching men and women who were preparing for ministry, I have become convinced that few of us actually know how to read, how to think about and understand what we read, and how to assess and discuss its value so that others will want to read it as well. That statement sounds pretty arrogant-it sounds like the next sentence should be "And here I am to show you!"

That is not really my intent. I would rather read, think, and talk with friends about what we are reading and thinking, and then-for my benefit and theirs-write down some of my thoughts.

In much the same way, the process leading from the biblical text to a sermon, study, or some other presentation of its meaning, whether we are reading the Bible in Hebrew or English (or any other language), first entails paying the closest attention to (1) what is said; and (2) how it is said.

Once we feel pretty confident that we are actually reading what is written, then we can begin to interpret it, using whatever tools are available, such as ANE (ancient Near Eastern) geopolitics, culture, &c., our knowledge of human nature (I am working on a study of the human politics of the events in 1 Kgs 1-3).

Then we are in a position to ask what the text means on a larger scale, or on one that is perhaps more weighty-that of the revelation of God in and through this text which we are considering, and how that (what this particular passage says) fits into the rest of the Bible.

It is of course impossible to separate the process so neatly. Our natures are created so that we search out patterns and consistencies (and often overlook clashing inconsistencies), which means that even as we are translating from Hebrew to English (or reading a passage in Ezekiel for the first time), we are already thinking of how it relates to the greater architectonics of biblical teaching.

My goal, quite simply is to get the mental process going, so that pastors, students, missionaries, translators, and "mere" Christians realize that their responsibility toward the Bible is first to read it, and then to try to understand the text (whether or not they ever preach, teach, &c. anyone about that passage). It is the process of teaching ourselves to ask questions of the text, of learning (as one of my students said) to "see with new glasses", adding "And it's really hard!"). Yes, it is.

Thus this website offers thoughts on various biblical ideas and passages, mainly from the Hebrew Bible [Old Testament],[1] in the hope that they will encourage you to read it carefully and thoughtfully, reflecting on this great gift that we have so freely received.[2] This basic idea of reading carefully is well-stated by Czelaw Milosz in a page-length poem called "Readings" (from his book Bells in Winter). It opens with these lines:

You asked me what is the good of reading the Gospels in Greek.
I answer that it is proper that we move our finger
Along lines more enduring than those carved in stone,
And that, slowly pronouncing each syllable,
We discover the true dignity of speech.

Compelled to be attentive we shall think of that epoch
No more distant than yesterday, though the heads of Caesars
On coins are different today. Yet still it is the same eon.
(lines 1-8)

[1]I avoid the term "Old Testament" in class and in preaching, preferring to simply call the whole thing "the Bible", and (when necessary) to refer to the "apostles" or the "prophets" without dividing the testaments. The division is artificial, simply a chronological byproduct of history; the continuities vastly outnumber and outweigh the differences.

[2]There is also a lot of other "stuff" here, but this is how (and why) the site started, thanks to the encouragement and interest of Brent Emery and Joshua Luna (who designed this site).