John Manis and Dr. Kristian Heal, Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
My experience with the ORCA mentoring program has been a useful look into scholarship as well as a valuable experience which will aid me in future educational and academic endeavors. Our main project objectives were met with a few adjustments, and I was able to gain the experience of working with a supportive and experienced professor. My growth in the mentoring program can be summarized in three areas: the overall experience of working on an academic paper start to finish, gaining an understanding of the importance scheduling and time management, and the findings of the paper itself.
Though different projects throughout my undergraduate studies involved working in teams or in groups, I found the experience of working with my mentor to be very different. In part, that may be due to the fact that previous group projects had very specific and pre-decided directions and often efforts were exerted to meet the set requirements of a class rather than actively seeking new academic insight. I enjoyed and greatly learned from the experience of working with Kristian Heal. Activities such as brainstorming, deeper research, assignment of tasks, and fulfilling responsibilities all took on a much greater meaning. These meetings and project discussion times were focused in a way I had not previously experienced. However, I was much benefited by Dr. Heal’s willingness to answer questions—even those unrelated to the project. In fact, I perhaps learned more about our field of study in general than about the project at hand. This has given me a greater desire for future academic pursuit and helped me to narrow my interests concerning graduate studies. Looking back on this opportunity for mentorship, it is clear that this has been a meaningful professional relationship that I see as having a life-long influence on my work and studies. A piece from the Maxwell Institute publication, Insights, which cited our project as example of mentorship explains this aspect of my experience:
We have all felt the excitement that comes from seeing a great scholar at work, whether in the classroom or the archives. No less palpable is the thrill of a personal encounter with the past through direct contact with ancient texts or artifacts. Most of us can trace our fascination with the ancient world back to just such a personal encounter. One of our roles at the Maxwell Institute is to help inspire the next generation of young scholars. We do this by providing opportunities for BYU students to work directly with Institute scholars on new research, and thus to help them have their own encounters with the ancient world.1
Obviously, the experience and growth from such professional relationships and encounters is recognized by many to be the strength of the ORCA mentoring program.
Another area of growth during this project was my understanding of what it takes to produce a paper. My preconceived notions of quick research, easy writing, and simple collaboration with another person were quickly changed during my experience. I had not previously recognized the sometimes hectic schedule of a professor. Though admittedly naïve, I had assumed that writing a research paper could easily be bumped to top priority whenever necessary or even desired. However, upon seeing Dr. Heal’s efforts to fulfill his other responsibilities as a teacher, researcher, project manager, and director of CPART it was clear that it would take careful planning and effective use of time—unfortunately this proved to be much easier said than done. Gradually, I feel that we were able to overcome some of the difficulties involved in aligning hectic schedules, but more so, I feel that much of what I learned—though relevant to my growth during this project—will be of much greater importance and benefit in planning and completing future projects. Though we had to extend many of our deadlines, with effort we were able to accomplish our original project objectives.
The work findings of our projects were collected and presented in a research paper. Both the text and translation of the Armenian Commentary on Genesis Attributed to Ephrem the Syrian was published in 1998 by Edward G. Matthews, Jr. as part of the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, allowing greater access to the work by a wider range of scholars. Though his introduction is thorough and well researched, Matthews was unable to show direct connections to earlier Syriac materials. The purpose of our research was to identify the characteristically early Syriac elements of this work in order to establish its Syriac origins and its place in the larger corpus of Syriac literature.
Focusing on the portions of the Genesis Commentary regarding the Old Testament figure Joseph, we were able to identify six never published motifs from the Armenian version that certainly have their origin within the corpus of early Syriac homelitic (or religiously didactic) texts. These six thematic elements had been missed by previous scholars thereby allowing the Armenian version of the commentary on Genesis attributed to Ephrem the Syrian to be misclassified as unrepresentative of authentically translated Syriac material. However, with our findings it is quite clear that the commentary is not only a translation from genuine Syriac material, but also represents a missing piece in the evolution of Syriac biblical commentary. The six thematic elements we were able to identify as evidence of Syriac sources are the recalling of the misdeeds of Joseph’s brothers; the role of the brothers as interpreters; explanations regarding the role of Joseph’s deceased mother in his dreams; Rueben’s scheming to save Joseph from the other brothers; criticism regarding Potiphar’s efforts to examine the garment; and increased emphasis as a type of Christ. Our paper is currently in the final stages of editing and will be submitted for publication to several academic journals.
The experience I have gained from this project and the opportunity for mentoring through the ORCA program has been extremely beneficial. I am grateful for this unique way to gain academic experience and to grow in ways not afforded in an undergraduate program alone.
Reference
- “Mentoring Students at the Maxwell Institute”, Insights, 29.1. 2009. This article is available in full from the Maxwell Institute’s website <http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/insights/>