>Rod's proposal makes sense in itself, but personally, I find disturbing the
>NATURE of the attack on Wallace's "Grammer." I have some objections of my
>own to some things in the grammar, particularly the multiplication of
>explanatory categories and questionable terminology for some of the new
>categories. Nevertheless, it appears to me that the "debate" suggested here
>has as its purpose the exposure of deliberate distortion of grammatical
>facts in order to promote a particular docrine or reject another. And it
>appears to be also a reason for reviving the thread on John 8:58 to which
>Rod refers, the demise of which appears to me to be not much lamented. My
>recollection of that thread is that it became a repetitive and interminable
>duologue over doctrine more than over text. I would not like to see this
>"debate" here; I think that there's far too much substance in Wallace's
>grammar to make it the subject of group evaluation here. My question about
>such a discussion is: CUI BONO? Who would really benefit from it?
I stopped reading the John 8:58 thread for precisely the reasons Carl
mentions above (a innocent bystander might suggest that some of the
participants and the most recent attacker of Dan Wallace display the
emotional and psychological maturity of a six year old; but that of course
would be said by an innocent bystander, never by me or anyone else on this
list !! :-) ).
Since however I didn't read it, I don't know if anyone actually dealt with
the only [!] reasonable issue raised in the rambling tirade, namely do
John 14:9; Gen 31:38, 41 constitute uses of EIMI as historical presents,
and thus invalidate Wallace's claim that EIMI is never used as an
historical present ?? I have my own view, but I'm just wondering if anyone
dealt with that in the thread ? If it was never discussed, I could
forward the question to Dan and see what he says (if anyone is interested,
that is ?!).
Please excuse me a brief moment of levity, but I'm still trying to
visualize Dan Wallace, with whom I've discussed things (okay, okay, we
argue !!) for the past 20 years "running with his tail between his legs."
I didn't even know he had a tail...I guess it just goes to show that
you think you know someone, and then you find out that they are actually
an alien from outer space with a tail !!
And by the way, I agree with Rod that I'm chagrinned to find out that
its Grammer, not Grammar I've been teaching all these years...
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Dale M. Wheeler, Th.D.
Research Professor in Biblical Languages Multnomah Bible College
8435 NE Glisan Street Portland, OR 97220
Voice: 503-251-6416 FAX:503-254-1268 E-Mail: dalemw@teleport.com
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