Biblical studies in the news

On Saturday, there was an article in the New York Times about Elaine Pagels, a biblical scholar whose work I'm familiar with through working for the Biblical Archaeology Society. I have to quote the following paragraph:

From early on, Ms. Pagels wanted to be a dancer. She studied briefly with the Martha Graham Company in New York but realized, she said, that "I was not going to be fabulous." So she enrolled as a Ph.D. student in the religion department at Harvard and learned Coptic.

Indeed. If I dropped out of an internationally renowned dance company, I don't see that I'd have any choice but to enroll in a Ph.D. program at one of the nation's top universities and learn Coptic. It's a natural progression. If you happen to be insanely intelligent and talented. Oh well...



(I actually took a year of hieroglyphic Egyptian at Yale; I don't remember much of it, but I can read the average funerary inscription.)