From: Ruben Gomez (rubeng@infotelecom.es)
Date: Tue Aug 04 1998 - 05:11:49 EDT
Dear b-greekers,
Allow me to leave my lurking mode for a moment.
Maurice A. O'Sullivan's signature included something that really caught my
eye:
>"With computers we can now misinterpret Scripture at speeds never before
>possible"
I don't know if that's an original quote or someone else's, but at any
rate, it reminded me right away of a thread we had sometime ago, i.e. A
little Greek is a dangerous thing. I have been thinking about this whole
area of computer-assisted Bible study, and am well aware of the potential
dangers and pitfalls associated with it. Well, okay, I must admit it's been
one of my concerns in recent times...
With all our present computer technology and user-friendly Bible software
available in the market, I fear that misinterpretations will not only
become more numerous, but also more frequent. Any comments on how this
trend could be stopped or its effects reduced to a minimum? Who is to be
blamed for it? Bible software companies? Incomplete and misleading manuals?
Users? A school system that definitely does not equip students for
classical studies in general, and linguistic and exegetical studies in
particular? Sometimes I wonder whether we are placing an F-16 (a fighter
plane) into the hands of teenagers? (metaphorically speaking, of course!).
But, on the other hand, do we have any right to withhold knowledge and
technical tools from the public arena and confine them to the academic
establishment?
For those interested in the subject, I think there are a few good links
on-line worth checking out:
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~hahne/scbible1.htm
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~hahne/scbible2.htm
http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/chorus/bible/essays/ntgram.html
On a more general key I warmly recommend Barr's work, The Semantics of
Biblical Language (a classic), and Carson's Exegetical Fallacies, as well
as some of Moises Silva's books on Linguistics and Hermeneutics, to mention
just a handful. I know these titles have been referred to a number of times
before. But wouldn't you agree that their main theses and warnings are even
more sorely needed now than when they were first written?
Now back to lurking mode.
Just my two cents (or should I say euros?),
Ruben Gomez
rubeng@infotelecom.es
--- B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu] To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-329W@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:39:55 EDT