texts

 TEXT:  the word does not mean just written words, or text message.

a TEXT is technically :any message  in any medium, designed to communicate anything"

so obviously the Bible counts as a TEXT message.

But so does everything.

  All you ever do is send and receive and interpret texts:
Every conversation, film,  book is a text.

Students: send me a random text message (see my phone number on syllabus),  It can be anything; you don't even have to identify yourself.  I will read some of these in a video late in class for fun...and to show that texts need context  

Because several of the classes I teach have to do with how to read and interpret texts (particularly biblical texts) , contexts, and intertextuality...I actually encourage students to send me text messages in class.

They often look at me as if I am kidding, even afraid I will confiscate their phone if they do.

...Or worse! Check out this shocking video (HT Michael),  revealing one professor's policy on texting :in class:

 Here's one teacher who welcomes texting in class:


DID YOU TEXT ME YET?  I'M SERIOUS>>DO IT NOW

 One church's policy on cell phones (video below) 



FPU professor  (and Textpert) Greg Camp introduced me to the brilliant idea of having students text me in class. 

I ask them to send me a random text message (anything) or to forward me a text message from their inbox.   These become our curriculum for the next few minutes as we interpret them.


This opens great discussion..

And very often I get a text that says, "The university president just emailed, notifying that all classes get out early today."

(:

Suffice to say the whole idea of texting in class has proven to be a fruitful means of discussing the only thing we ever engage in, and the only job we have:

interpreting text messages.

Huh?

Increasingly, the definition of text is becoming:

"any message, in any medium, intended to communicate anything"



Movies are texts; conversations at St. Arbuck's are texts. etc


So the primary discipline/skill/art we should cultivate is that of sending and interpreting text messages.


All of life is a text message.


Of course, when dealing with The Text (Scripture), how much more...

Text, subtext, and context is everything.


Text me..

Texts need contexts.

Thanks for texting me (cell phone) random text messages this week to illustrate that texts need contexts.

GODISNOWHERE:  is it GOD IS NOWHERE  or GOD IS NOW HERE?

How you read the text changes as much as everything.

Spaces matter.

Like this:

Professor Ernest Brennecke of Columbia is credited with inventing a sentence that can be made to have eight different meanings by placing ONE WORD in all possible positions in the sentence: 

"I hit him in the eye yesterday."

The word is "ONLY".

The Message:

1.ONLY I hit him in the eye yesterday. (No one else did.)

2.I ONLY hit him in the eye yesterday. (Did not slap him.)

3.I hit ONLY him in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit others.)

4.I hit him ONLY in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit outside the eye.)

5.I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other organs.)

6.I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday. (He doesn't have another eye..)

7.I hit him in the eye ONLY yesterday. (Not today.)

8.I hit him in the eye yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for today.)

                              -link 

Like this 'text message' from Jesus:

I SAY TO YOU TODAY, "YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE.'

or is it,

I SAY TO YOU, " TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE."

The original manuscripts of the Bible not only run all letters, all caps, together, but include no punctuation.

Punctuation matter

Everything is  context.

Context is everything.

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When you interpret a text, it can be crucial to discern emotion, volume, atmosphere, tone, "CONTEXTURE".
Watch this