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Jonathan Bailey's Site for Middle Eastern Culture, Religion, and Language |
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About Jon Bailey
Biography
This section used to be a long Christian testimony. Lately my life has taken so many turns that the general theme of my testimony seems to have become altogether spurious. So at this time I will let it suffice to say that I am thirty years old, married, father of two daughters, currently living in the Dallas metroplex, and working as an airport security screener while trying to figure out what to do next. My interests are theology, biblical studies, and classical languages. I am also hoping to take up the bass guitar at some point.
Curriculum Vitae
Linguistic Skills
- Arabic - I completed the Arabic Basic Course at the Defense Language Institute. I won't say I speak this language, but have skills that could be useful in a variety of situations.
- Aramaic - I can read the Aramaic portions of the Old Testament.
- German - My skills are fading, but I am keeping up with what I can in the US. By all counts, this is still my best foreign language.
- Greek - Can read simpler New Testament Koine.
- Hebrew - Can read classical Biblical Hebrew and have experience with epigraphic material. I have college hours in Modern Hebrew, but wouldn't last long in Israel at this point as I have forgotten almost all of it. I have recently started reading bits of the Mishnah. Hopefully this will develope into a high level of skill with that dialect at some point.
Certificates and Diplomas
- Bachelor of Arts, Liberal Arts (Excelsior College; Albany, New York)
- Diploma, Arabic Language (Defense Language Institute; Monterey, California)
- Associate in Arts, General Studies (University of Maryland; Mannheim, Germany)
- Zertifikat, Deutsch als Fremdsprache (ICC and Goethe Institut; Mannheim, Germany)
Links
Biblical and Theological Organizations and Information
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American Bible Society Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Eisenbraun's Resources for Scholars Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden (scholarly publications and resources) United Bible Societies Walter de Gruyter Online (scholarly resources and publications) Wycliffe Bible Translators |
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Christian Apologetics and Information
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Answers in Genesis (creationist apologetics) Christian Apologetic Topics Catholic Answers Home Page Holy Apostolic Catholic Church of the East The Question of Q An Apologist's homepage (actually a homepage, this site has so much interesting info on it that I moved it from my 'friends' section to this one) |
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Israel (and Non-Religious Jewish Subjects)
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Jerusalem Post Internet Edition KOLISRAEL.COM (great starting point into Israeli Internet, including radio links) United States Information Service Israel Virtual Jerusalem Zipple.com |
אחלה Online גל"צ הארץ |  |
Judaism - Religious Subjects)
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Chassidus (a scantily outfitted page) aish.com Hochschule für Jüdische Studien in Heidelberg (I went to school here for a year-and-a-half and have nothing to show for it) Ha-Galil (a site for German and European Jewry) Halacha Online (publication for halacha) Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jewish Reconstructionist Federation Messianic Jewish Alliance of America Netsarim Quarter (fanatical Nazarenes) Outreach Judaism (an anti-Christian Jewish apologetics site) Reform Judaism Website Society for the Advancement of Nazarene Judaism (orthodox Nazarenes) Shamash (discusses more than religion; fantastic info) Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism United Israel (an example of the "Israelite Yahwist" sect) Jews for Allah (a little known group of Jewish Mulsims) Jews for Jesus (the infamous original Messianic Jewish group) |
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Islamic and Arabic Topics
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Islamic apologetics site - anti-Christian polemics) Lots of Arabic Links (just about anything you'd ever want) Mathematics and the Qur'an Arabic News BBC in Arabic Voice of America in Arabic Radio Kuwait Radio Tunisia (French and English site) Eastern Corporation (Arabic online bookstore - English site) Arabic Music |
السفير
(liberal Lebanese newspaper) الشرق الاوسط (London newspaper Saudi financed) القدس (Palestinian newspaper) البيان (newspaper from the UAE) الدستور (Jordanian newspaper) المكتبة (internet bookstore from Beirut) اين (sort of an Arabic version of Yahoo) |
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Assyriology
| Akkadian
Page Sumerian Language Page (and lots of other Mesopotamian stuff) Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature |
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Linguistics
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Itekal Bookstore (Assyrian, Arabic, English, and Turkish
books) Languages-on-the-Web (great place to hunt info on languages) Biblical Greek Mailing List Biblical Hebrew Mailing List Learn Modern Assyrian Noohra Foundation (Aramaic society) Northwest Semitic Links SIL International (resources for linguistics research) |
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Near Eastern Studies
Oriental Institute of the University of ChicagoAncient Near East Mailing List
Akhet Internet (egyptology)
Bibliography for Egyptologists
Biblical Archaology Society
Altertumswissenschaft im Internet: Zeitschriften
The Hittite Homepage
Software
Davka Inc. (judaica)World Language Resources
Arabic Software
Dagesh Web Site
Dvir Software Products (makers of the QText word processor)
Syriac Software Digest
Churches
Lighthouse Baptist Church (Dr. Jim Wilson's "Fresh Ministry" - We are members here)Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin (before that, we were members here)
Fellowship Baptist Church (before that, we were members here)
Miscellaneous
Amazon.deFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Online
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (scholarships for Germans and those studying in Germany)
Jerusalem Fellowships (academic opportunities in Jerusalem)
US Department of Education (recourse for eternal students)
US Department of Veterans Affairs Education Service (The G.I. Bill website)
Home Pages of Scholars
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Barré (an "all religions are one" guy) Marc Cooper (an ANE historian) Jack Kilman (great fonts) Reinhard Lehman (a German hebraist and aramaist) David Palmer (a God-fearing New Testament scholar) Jonathan Robie (a self-taught Greek master with a VERY informative page) Dave Washburn (a very knowledgeable hebraist who won't kill your faith) Jim West (more great fonts and links) Kevin Woodruff (A Greek teacher) |
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Friends/People I Know
Thomas Castellaw (a missionary to Germany)Enoch (a very zealous Christian apologist)
Ian Hutchesson (a liberal bible enthusiast)
Perky Chthuloid Entity (a character from the Internet)
Rabbiddanngell (a really nice person)
Taural Rhoden (a friend of mine from Germany)
Tahirih (a Bahai that I met on the internet)
Dimitri Topaj (a friend of mine and a physicist)
Extras
I think I have developed a revolutionary linguistic principle which can be formulated into a single approach to learning which forms the centerpiece of a new Grammar of Biblical Hebrew that I have developed. I am displaying a preliminary edition of this grammar here for peer review by Hebrew scholars and enthusiasts of the language. Any comments pertaining to the grammar will be welcomed.
Jon's Duden is a page for Germans and enthusiasts of the German language who are lamenting the effect that English is having on this wonderful tongue. It is mostly just for fun and to inspire a few laughs. In essence, Jon's Duden is a list of loan words that I have chosen to spell according to the German system of spelling rather than spell them according to how they should be spelled in their source language. For instance, the now commonly used word "slang" will be spelled by me (and whoever would like to join in this little bit of mania) as "Släng". Also, brand new German words will be created replacing the unwanted loan words. Take for example "Bergrad" (mountain bike). I say again, this is just a bit of fun, but I am interested in seeing how much of a response I can get, both from people who seriously like the idea and from those who would just like to make up funny words and crazy spellings. All ideas are welcome! Send in your ideas for words and spellings and we will see how big this list can get!
I also have a printing of the Preface to the King James Version of the bible that I got from elsewhere on the internet. I am not sure of the source of it, and I see that the spellings have been modernized, so I am not sure how reliable it is, or exactly where it stood in the early editions, if at all. It is fairly safe to say, however, that it reflects the attitudes of the KJV translators and their advice for their readers, and is therefore useful to those who are interested in translations and textual criticism.
I also feel I need to add this paragraph thanking those creative, talented, and generous individuals who provide us inartistic masses with free web graphics, midi files, etc. Because of them I, along with millions of others, have been able to make an attractive website. Windy's Design Studio was particularly helpful in providing me with border backgrounds as well as telling me how to write the code to include them in my HTML. The bulk of the Jewish graphics on this site come from Uncle Debi's Holidays. Though not exactly Christian, Max's Fantasy Art Studio did have some stuff that worked with my pages. The Religious Icon and Image Archive at Aphid's also had quite a bit of good graphics. Lastly I have to say that the Christian Graphics Gallery is the best place that I have found to start looking for religious graphics. In terms of quality of art, Nancy Kuehl, of NK Designs has to be one of the best designers of web pages and producers of graphics that I have run across. The recent Islamic additions are from Islamic Calligraphy. Thanks for all the help.
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