Enamored of history once more

While I'm posting on the direction my future studies will take (Latin and Greek), I should also mention that I discussed things with people and have redirected my future university study back to the subject of History. Due to a combination of more units in the major already completed, and a lower number of total units in the major required, I can obtain a History degree in a third of the time that it would take to get a Chemistry degree (one year versus three). Since the state of California does not put any requirements on the degree taken for a Bachelor's on its teachers, I could do high school teaching in any subject with the History BA, just by passing an exam (and I excel in examinations). The only thing I would need, along with the Bachelor's, is a year-long credential program at Cal State Fullerton. Or, if I decide to do so instead, I could go full-time with an online business enterprise or two after the BA, or possibly support myself through a Ph.D. program right after (and Claremont has its appeal). We will see.

What Books I'm Studying Next

I have a large, 5-shelf bookcase stuffed with books on all levels, with stacks on top also, most of them about the interpretation of the Bible, the methods of history, and particular New Testament topics. (I also have smaller sections on science and computer programming.) Yet when I thought about which books I should be cracking open next, none of them were quite appropriate, because none of them did a very good job of what should be foundational to a serious study of ancient history.

That foundation is the study of the languages used in the ancient texts.

For this reason, I purchased four books that arrived from Amazon today, which are Teach Yourself Latin, Wheelock's Latin, Teach Yourself Greek, and Oxford Grammar of Classical Greek. With the help of these books and other tools that are online, I will progress beyond the bare basic understanding that comes from familiarity with reading secondary literature based on close reading to the sources and move toward a better understanding that will allow me to make, more rapidly and accurately, my own close reading of those sources.

This is, after all, the same criterion that I have applied to other authors when weighing them as authorities on the interpretation of a text: if they did not have a good grasp of the language, their opinion was of little merit. I should seek the same competencies that I seek in others that I rely upon.