From: Paul Dixon - Ladd Hill Bible Church (pauld@iclnet93.iclnet.org)
Date: Mon Jun 24 1996 - 11:04:40 EDT
Eric et al:
How refreshing to hear of your enthusiasm and plug for learning
Greek. The translations and commentaries are nice, but what a difference
it makes being able to appreciate the beauty of the original language and
not having to be spoon-fed by others.
Dr. Paul S. Dixon, pastor Check out my doctoral product,
Ladd Hill Bible Church "The Evangelism of Christ: a
Wilsonville, OR 97212 Model for Evangelism Today"
http://users.aol.com/dixonps/evangelism.htm
On Mon, 24 Jun 1996, Eric Weiss wrote:
> I'm surprised no one has yet (at least at the time of my reading my b-greek-
> digests) stated the BEST reason for studying Greek, which is:
>
> So that one can enjoy and participate in the discussions and
> fellowship on B-Greek -- one of the delights of my life!
> (I'm sure the same could be said for Hebrew and B-Hebrew -- but since
> I won't have an understanding of Hebrew for another year or two, that
> will have to wait for me.)
>
> My testimony to Tom Launder's friend: One of my greatest regrets is that I
> waited this long to learn Greek (I just finished my second year last month).
> I'm in total agreement with the comments from ministers and scholars that
> have been posted so far about why one should learn Greek (and Hebrew). I'm
> just a "layman" (I hate that term!) and have no aspirations of being a
> minister or pastor. I just wanted to be able to read the Bible and
> intelligently confront the text (and have it confront me). Frustrated with
> English translations and not knowing which one was right (or, perhaps, which
> one was better), I knew that I would have to learn some Greek and Hebrew.
> (Biblical languages at the "Strong's Concordance" level is almost worse than
> knowing no Greek or Hebrew at all -- making decisions about vocabulary
> without knowing grammar and the language is fraught with dangers. Though I'd
> heard this from people who knew Greek and Hebrew, I did not want to believe
> it at the time -- but it's now my opinion, too.) So I "took the plunge"
> after failing at my efforts to teach myself, and enrolled in a local
> seminary. I can now read the Greek New Testament with some facility, make
> decisions about translation, read REAL commentaries with understanding (and
> even "intelligently" disagree with some of the comments made), understand why
> different translations read the way they do -- it's not that one is "right"
> and the other is "wrong" -- there is sometimes no way to translate Greek into
> intelligible or acceptable English without losing a nuance here or a word
> emphasis there, and different translations of the same verse are often the
> result of the translator deciding what aspect(s) of the original to bring
> out. Etc., etc. TELL YOUR FRIEND TO LEARN GREEK -- NOW -- AS MUCH AS SHE
> CAN (one year is not enough -- one doesn't really deal with the language
> until the 2nd year; first year is mostly vocabulary and basic grammar -- but
> it's certainly better than none) -- EVEN GET A NEW "MINISTER." (Hopefully
> there's something you left out of your question, and the minister isn't
> discouraging her because he himself doesn't think knowing Greek is
> worthwhile!) If your friend lives in the Dallas metroplex area, let me know
> and I'll give you my phone # /address if she wants to talk more about this.
>
> XAPIC KAI EIPHNH
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:45 EDT