Mark Illustrated with Greek

[Jonathan Robie]

Would you ever consider publishing your "image" ideas?

Micheal Palmer and I are in the process of creating a Greek course that focuses on asking and asking questions about a Greek text in Greek, and uses images extensively, as well as TPR and various other techniques. We will be publishing the first lessons soon, making them available for free on the Internet. In the first iteration, they are designed for a teacher to use, with teachers notes.

[Eeli Kaikkonen]

Here is a good example how more abstract ideas can be expressed in pictures: http://honorshame.com/picture-of-salvation/. I think it also shows why "cartoonish" style may be better at least in one respect. Just try to imagine similar pictures with realistic style. Would they have similar effect?

[Stephen Hughes]

Here is a good example how more abstract ideas can be expressed in pictures: http://honorshame.com/picture-of-salvation/. I think it also shows why "cartoonish" style may be better at least in one respect. Just try to imagine similar pictures with realistic style. Would they have similar effect?

It may be because I'm behind the Great Firewall, but needed to use this address to get the image to load. The visual relationship between elements, rather than the details of the elements seems to be more emphasised in a cartoon.

[Stephen Hughes]

I am planning on working through Mark Illustrated with more of this sort of critical eye, Stephen--I think I can adjust the darkness of that image, perhaps add more people, for subsequent printings. If you are interested in helping me think through this, I would gladly send you a complimentary copy. 

Thank you. It arrived today.

Now that I've seen the whole work, I am better able to understand the purposes behind the illustrations. The majority of them provide a background image of what a person seeing the events that are narrated might have seen. In a smaller number of cases, what ought to have been imagined by somebody listening to the words of the Greek spoken might have imagined. This style of illustration leaves plenty of room for the reader's own imagination.

I'll have a look through it with that understanding of its purppse and style in mind.

[Stephen Hughes]

@Fred
Even in the synagogue scenes, none of the Jewish people in the illustrations don't look very "Jewish", in the sense of beard and hair styles, small caps and prayer shawls. The Romans look like Roman soldiers. Was there a policy decision about that?

@All
When did the dress styles that are evident in some contemporary Jewish sects come about? Had they evolved by New Testament times? Is it likely that their clothing and hair styles should be obvious?

[Stephen Hughes]

I found that the illustrations in the book were very useful to me as a learner. They functioned similarly to section headings, and to the background knowledge that comes from being familiar with the English version. They functioned as 'contextual scaffolding' in the sense they gave me good context clues to puzzle out the meaning of words I did not know. I knew my requisite "words that occur 50+ times", but was just getting my feet under me in terms of recognizing them in context as I read. So less frequent vocabulary (at the rate that occurs in Mark's gospel) would have prevented me from being able to read Mark in any meaningful way. This book allowed me to get there. I haven't ever been a comic reader, but I liked the pictures. Anything that helps me mentally get into a story is usually a good thing.

I have come to share many of the points raised here after looking over this for several weeks. Compartmentalising the text according to whether it is barrative or dialogue reduces the amount of processing I need to do to recognise discourse features.