>What's objectionable about Machen is the made-up Greek
>sentences and the concentration of reading on sentence units rather than
>upon the connected sentences and paragraphs of real Greek.
Carl,
Having taught from Machen, I agree with your objection to Machen's "made-up
Greek sentences." The second part of your sentence raises a couple of
questions for me: At what point does the instructor of first-year Greek
introduce to students connected sentences and paragraphs for translation as
opposed to sentence units? From my own experience of teaching in seminary,
I found that most of my students were not ready to tackle paragraphs until
late first/early second semester. (That is when I began to have them read
sections of the NT concurrently with translating Machen's sentences). And
also, couldn't your second objection to Machen be leveled at many
first-year textbooks?
Regards,
Jim Oxford
Ph D Candidate in New Testament
Baylor University