Re: Greek or Aramaic

To: nt-greek@virginia.edu
Subject: Re: Greek or Aramaic
From: "Sterling G. Bjorndahl" <bjorndahl@augustana.ab.ca>
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 13:04:54 -0700

> Would it not be somewhat odd for a charismatic prophet who saw
> his role as being sent only to the lost sheep of the house of 
> Israel to have offered extensive teaching in the language of
> the dogs who eat the crumbs from under the table?
> 
> David M.

Lots of assumptions there, David.  You have to (1) defend the assertion
that this is an authentic saying of Jesus (the Jesus Seminar sees it as
a community invention); (2) demonstrate that "charismatic prophet" is
the best model to use for understanding Jesus' agenda (I lean towards a
more Cynic-like model, myself); and (3) demonstrate that in the 350
years since Alexander passed through, Greek was still seen as the dogs'
language, even way up there in "Galilee of the Gentiles."  If you can
adequately defend those points, then you have a pretty good argument.

Yours,
Sterling

--
Sterling G. Bjorndahl, bjorndahl@Augustana.AB.CA or bjorndahl@camrose.uucp
Augustana University College, Camrose, Alberta, Canada      (403) 679-1516
  When dealing with computers, a little paranoia is usually appropriate.