I was interested in what you had to say about pastors who have studeid Greek
and who never use it. At least to me the fact of pronunciation has never
caused me to put aside Greek. On the other hand I have never used modern
Greek pronunciation, so I can't properly judge that issue. On the other
hand I have found that what is done when Greek is being taught has a real
infouence on the continuing use of the language. For example I have always
taken the time to highly motivate Greek students and point out to them the
values of knowing and using Greek in pastoral ministry. I have had to tutor
students who have been failures in their Greek and also Hebrew--in fact I have
a student wjo has badly failed and who comes to me every week (I'm not
teaching Greek at college level at present). Not only do I highly motivate
such students but I make Greek interesting to them. I have earlier taught
by the old Latin methodolgy and the students complain and don't want to do
Greek. But when I've used modern language teaching methods--as for French,
etc. they do a lot better and come not only from failure to success in their
examinations but also go on to do further years of Greek and keep on using it.
In fact I've had them come to me and say that Greek was their favorite suject
and that they can't get enough of it! The young guy I'm helping right now
is getting very keen on his Greek and is reading it regularly and well. From
the first lesson I have them read from the NT and that's what gets them ex-
cited. I use some of the biblical dialogues. In fact a mother told me her
10-year-old wanted to learn Hebrew and Greek. I've started this little girl
with the same method--reading the NT first day (her father has worked as a
church pastor in New Zealand so she was already somewhat motivated) but when
we finished the first lesson she told her mother and me that she couldn't
wait for the next lesson. And she said that after the second one and the
third! She will always read Greek, and hopefully even teach it too some day.
So to me it is more the way students are worked with and taught than other
factors as to why they never take up Greek afte college days or why they
always will. And the same not only for Greek but Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin, etc
I hope this makes sense for you--I love your concern.
John Oaklands