From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Jun 29 1998 - 06:06:38 EDT
At 12:00 AM -0400 6/29/98, Larry Swain wrote:
>Here is where I think this discussion is as relates to this list:
>
>But with that teaser, let me first issue a caveat. This is a HOT issue and
>passage and many of our traditions hold different views on how this is to
>be interpreted. So please, please, please be sensitive to your fellow
>Christian as you make your points, and please please please on this list
>stick to dealing with GREEK-hard to do, I realize, but nevertheless it is
>Greek we are here for.
> . . .
>I'm certain I've missed a few facets of the discussion. But hopefully you
>get the idea. Only the first two really deal with B-Greek.
I haven't repeated all of Larry's message, but I'd like to underscore what
I think is at least ONE of his major points in the entirety of it and
qualify another at the outset. Moreover, like Larry, I'm commenting on this
entire thread and what has been put into it most recently as well as
earlier.
(1) The issue being discussed is indeed a hot one among Christian
believers, and perhaps it is only Christian believers of various stripes
that have been discussing this issue on this list. But this list is open to
believers of all stripes and to non-believers as well.
(2) Moreover, this is NOT the place to sort out THE Biblical doctrine of
the role of women in the church or THE Biblical doctrine of the role of
women in a marriage or the family. Nor is it the place to tackle the
interpretation of large chunks of scripture and interpret them. Our focus
here is fundamentally the Greek Biblical text and how the Greek text as
such is to be understood; in my own judgment, discussion is much more
fruitful in this forum when the Greek text being questioned is strictly
delimited to a small chunk of text: the verse or connected passage.
Let me try to state the same points in a different way: when you compose
your message to B-Greek, (1)are you trying to understand (a) the Greek text
of the Bible as a Greek text, or are you trying to understand (b) the Bible
as such? (2) Are you trying to understand (a) what a particular text in its
Greek formulation really means or may legitimately imply within its own
context, or (b) what the Biblical text, rightly understood as a whole,
asserts/states about any particular topic, doctrine, etc. in general?
Discussion in this forum tends to be most FRUITFUL, so far as my
observations have extended, when we keep the focus sharply on the two (a)s
above: the Greek text of the Bible as a Greek text, and what a particular
text in its Greek formulation really means or may legitimately imply within
its own context. On the other hand, discussion in this forum tends to bog
down in sectarian squabbles or at least into agenda-driven (driven by
doctrinal assumptions and objectives) questions, answers and procedures
when the focus expands into the two (b)s above: the Biblical text as such
(not as a text originally composed in Greek),or what the Biblical text,
rightly understood as a whole, asserts/states about any particular topic,
doctrine, etc. in general.
The thing that has disturbed me most about this discussion is that,
starting at one particular point, it has moved very far afield from
discussion of theone verse 1 Tim 2:12 and its immediate context into larger
issues of doctrine and questions of the place of women in the home and the
church. Could we please keep the focus sharply on the Greek and on the
particular text?
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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