In this chapter we turn from the Primary and Chronistic Histories to the books that make up roughly the second half of the Old Testament. We will observe a dramatic shift in content from historical narrative to largely poetry. Furthermore, these books are much less linked editorially to one another. Rather, we will discover that superscriptions and content help us to group them literarily and, in most cases, to relate them chronologically to one another and to the Primary History.

Because of the preponderance of poetry, we will spend time in this chapter on the nature and characteristics of ancient Hebrew poetry. There are certain aspects that we do not know, such as original pronunciation or meter. However, we will readily observe one major feature – that of parallelism. This “symmetry of thought” is recognizable in three primary types: synonymous, antithetical, and synthesizing parallelisms. We will explore plenty of examples and discover along the way that ancient Hebrew poetry is rich in content and artistic skill.

Extra Help introduces you to the remaining two variations on the -ω verbs, and the -μι verbs. In the Extra Material you’ll meet the few contexts in which the future tense can be found.

In Extra Help you will see that we can save a lot of effort in understanding the middle and passive voices, because of the way that we have understood the Greek verb so far. In the Extra Material you’ll think further about the middle voice.

This chapter explores quantifying uncertainty through prediction, introducing Tsallis and Rényi entropy alongside Shannon entropy.

The final three chapters of ENTG cover slightly more disjointed topics than previous chapters, filling in various gaps which would have been overwhelming earlier. If you have followed along with me on how to understand and memorise the verb, you will again reap a reward in this chapter.

This chapter focuses on the foundations of study design and statistical analysis in psychological research. It explores strategies for ensuring internal validity, such as randomization, control groups, and large sample sizes. Additionally, it addresses the complexity of human behavior by exploring multivariate experiments and the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in neuroscience. The chapter also discusses the replication crisis and the emergence of open science practices, encouraging students to think critically about isolated scientific findings and offering tools for identifying credible research. Lastly, it critiques null hypothesis significance testing and p-values while providing an overview of key statistical topics like correlation coefficients, standardized mean differences, and regression.

The Old Testament book of Daniel will be the focus of our attention in this chapter, and thus we will consider the literary genre of apocalyptic writing. In general, there are two subcategories of apocalyptic writing: historical and otherworldly. The latter is characterized by the transcendence of space and a celestial setting.

We have many apocalyptic compositions dating from the mid second century bcethrough the second century ce. As we examine the style and characteristics of this unique form of communication, we will observe that the concept of apocalyptic writing manifests a marked distinction between the spiritual and the physical worlds. Reading such literature appropriately, we will observe its primary purpose of encouraging the reader in faithful endurance and patience, assured that God will ultimately triumph and care for his righteous followers. Although monotheism is not explicitly stated in Daniel’s apocalypse, we will note that his God is the sole deity of the universe.

In Extra Help we will see how nouns and adjectives are formed when their stems do not end in α or ο (consonant stems, or 3rd declension). The Extra Material in this chapter is a just a trivial pointer about accents.

In Extra Help we will see how nouns and adjectives are formed when their consonant stems end in a contract vowel. In the Extra Material you will meet the very few contexts for the nominative, and use them to think about when sense overrules strict grammar.

In this final chapter, we will summarize the Old Testament and explore its lasting contributions to world history, society in general, and the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Specifically, we will explore four particular aspects of the Old Testament and examine how each functions to create a cohesive and living whole.

This overview in turn will remind us that the Old Testament’s central message communicates, in a host of ways, what it perceives as Israel’s life in covenant relationship with God, obeying God’s Torah, and living morally and ethically in right relationship with other human beings. Within this overarching concern of the Old Testament, we have already observed the continual thread of a monotheistic worldview in process. The development toward the Old Testament’s conviction of the singularity of God is indeed among the most enduring contributions to human history.

Similarly, the Old Testament’s contribution to civil society cannot be underestimated. Thus, in conclusion, we will explore three core values in particular that are rooted, not in secularization as often is assumed, but in the rich and enduring legacy of the Old Testament.

In Extra Help you will find some optional notes to help you with the final topics of ENTG. As we have reached the end of ENTG, we offer an extended passage from an early Christian text, completely unedited.

In Extra Help, you will meet different Greek verb ‘moods’. In the Extra Material we’ll examine the contexts for the aorist tense.

In the Extra Help, you will see how relative clauses are similar to the ‘branches’ we have met, and find some help with morphology. In the Extra Material you will meet other ways of expressing indirect speech and some patterns that help us to learn a lot of these ‘little words’.

This chapter examines bipartite systems, focusing on residual uncertainty and the role of conditional entropy.