From: Edgar M. Krentz (emkrentz@mcs.com)
Date: Wed Jul 31 1996 - 23:21:24 EDT
David L. Moore wrote:
> An effort to reconstruct 1st Century pronunciation does have some
>advantages, however. Some text-critical problems can only be understood,
>and hopefully solved, by reconstructing the writers' and early copyists'
>way of orally expressing and understanding the sounds represented by the
>Greek alphabet. Additionally, learning to pronounce that way would
>certainly help one to think along these lines.
>
> Romans 5:1 provides a case in point where some scholars have
>suggested that Tertius (16:22) may have understood and written EXWMEN for
>Paul's dictated EXOMEN (Aland and Aland, _Text of the NT_ [Grand Rapids:
>Eerdmans, 1987] p. 281).
>
David, I wrote what I did as part of the process of teaching beginners
ancient Greek. The NT student should certainly be acquainted with the
pronunciation that seemed to be in vogue in the Early Roman Empire. For
that reason the reading of some non-literary papyri from Egypt is very
helpful.
And I agree 100% that errors of audition that creep into MSS are often
explicated by a knowledge of that pronunciation.
In short, pedagogically I teach the pronunciation I mentioned to beginners.
Text critically one needs to know the later pronunciation. In short I agree
with you--want to have my cake and eat it too!
Edgar Krentz
Prof. of New Testament, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
1100 East 55th Street, Chicago, IL 60615
TEl.: Office: 312-256-0752; Home: 312-947-8105
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