Re: Learning/Teaching Greek at Different Levels
Randall McRoberts (rcm@bioanalytical.com)
Tue, 27 Aug 1996 10:22:50 -0500
At 11:32 PM 8/26/96 -0500, you wrote:
>At 12:01 PM 8/20/96 -0700, Don Wilkins wrote:
>>I once attempted to teach a class in Greek basics for using interlinears,
>>lexicons etc. and had a bad experience with it. To put it briefly, the out-
>>come appeared to be that knowing a little Greek is more dangerous than knowing
>>none at all.
>
>I am sure you have some stories of misused Greek that you could share.
>What areas did the problems fall into primarily? Verb tenses, for example?
>
>> On the other hand, one cannot adequately know what is going on
>>in the text just by reading translations.
>
>I would agree with that. It does seem, however, that a "little" knowledge of
>the meaning of words could be helpful - granted that students do not
>take etymology too far in establishing a definition of a word.
>
>> For that reason I'm forced to believe
>>that those who regularly preach from the pulpit need to know the original lan-
>>guages, whatever the sacrifice in time and money necessary.
>
>You speak (type) with conviction.
>
>> I also believe it
>>is the responsibility of teachers like myself to make the languages as
accessi-
>>ble as possible, without sacrificing quality (now, if I could only convince
>>college/university/seminary administrators of that!).
>
>Do you have any great ideas along these lines?
>
>John Lochridge
>Dallas, Texas
>
>
ALL truth is dangerous. That is no reason to avoid the truth. It is only a
caution to use it properly, truly. I suspect that all but a few of us
lurking and posting here know but a little Greek. I shall not quit for my
lack of learning; I shall learn a little more and a little more. I will make
errors in judgement, but my intent shall be to do it right. I will grow
intellectually, and at the same time spiritually. I will not give up.
Randall C. McRoberts <><
BioAnalytical Systems, Inc.
BAS Analytics
West Lafayette, IN
v 317-463-4527 x341
f 317 463-1402
rcm@bioanalytical.com
Apply thyself wholly to the text; apply the text wholly to thyself.