From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Fri Dec 04 1998 - 08:47:00 EST
<x-flowed>At 8:04 AM -0500 12/4/98, Nichael Lynn Cramer wrote:
>
> But again, as I say, the state (and insularity) of American higher
> education is pretty far off topic, I think I'll quit here.
Last night I received a mild protest against our allowance of the
protracted continuation of this thread--and in fact, one list-member
suggested even yesterday afternoon (US time) that it didn't belong on
B-Greek. I thought about it for a while last night before replying to the
off-list protest. It now occurs to me that, at the potential risk of
confounding matters, perhaps even upsetting some, it might be worth sharing
from that response (slightly edited) some of what I think about the
propriety of this thread:
"I realize that it may appear a rather arbitrary judgment to allow
discussion of how important knowing German is for NT studies, but (a) the
question was posed here by a list-member for whom this question was clearly
not a casual one, (b) as I indicated in my post to which you replied
directly to me, those who have shown the most interest in this matter are
people who don't have access to the Graphai list which is open only to
professionals, and (c) while it is clear that respondents have some strong
opinions on this matter, the issue is eliciting responses that are not
simply casual or sarcastic, and moreover, apart from some testiness about
the insularity of Germanophile academics on the one hand and the insularity
of Anglophile anti-academics on the other, the discussion seems to be going
on at a leisurely and unheated pace. Perhaps we're even all learning
something from it.
"Yes, our central focus is and remains the Greek text of the Bible
and the Greek language in which that text is written. What we want to avoid
discussing is theological ramifications of the Greek text and hermeneutic
approaches to the Bible because these are matters that depend on our very
different faith-commitments. Nevertheless we do occasionally consider
pedagogical matters: what are the best textbooks and methods of teaching
Greek grammar? what's the most useful bibliography on this or that
particular topic related to the Greek Bible? and occasionally, as in this
instance, what ancillary tools are deemed useful or even essential to
"serious" study of the Greek Biblical text?
"Why allow discussion to branch off into these areas, particularly
when we endeavor to control rather rigidly the intrusion of personal or
sectarian faith-perspectives into list discussion? One fundamental reason
is that, when we did a survey of the list membership about a year and a
half ago, we found our members fell into several basic groups, including:
(a) professional teachers of
Biblical Greek; (b) undergraduate and graduate or divinity students of
Biblical Greek; (c) pastors interested in sustaining or extending and using
their skills in Biblical Greek in their ministry, and (d) laypersons who
have learned or are in the process of learning and using Greek for their
own study of the Bible. You must realize that this includes quite a variety
of persons interested in reading and studying the Greek text of the Bible:
I would personally say that anyone who makes the effort to learn Greek in
order to read the Greek Bible is a SERIOUS student of the Greek Bible, even
if that person is not an academician or even tends to be rather
contemptuous of academicians. And yet our list-members have divergent
interests as well as those interests that they share with other
list-members: clearly the most widely divergent are the academics like
myself (although my professional area is classical rather than Koine Greek)
and laypersons who are beginning or trying to expand their skills in Greek.
We not infrequently do get questions of relative simplicity from some
persons who aren't even quite sure what it is about a Biblical Greek
passage that is puzzling to them-my own observation is that academics take
their turn in trying to respond to such questions patiently. Occasionally
someone will start up anew the whole question of verbal aspect, at which
point the "aspect geeks" (as Jonathan is wont to call them) go wild for
several days, while those who are interested in grammar ONLY when it can
solve an immediate problem they are confronting are bored to death. Or
someone may want to know what are the more useful textbooks for a
particular type of beginning student of Greek, at which point anyone with
strong opinions will insist on venting them.
"In sum, B-Greek, which five years ago was a purely academic list,
has in the last two or three years become a much broader group catering to
diverse categories of Greek-Bible readers with different concerns. We think
it's good to have it that way. Some of us old-timers may occasionally feel
nostalgia for the days when the more abstruse theological implications of
some NT texts might be discussed in so disinterested a manner that it would
appear nobody really cares what the truth is--but I think those of us who
ever feel such nostalgia are well aware how much more useful this list is
today to a wider range of students of the Greek Bible. We aim, therefore,
to be as permissive as we can so long as posters are civil and courteous in
the expression of opinions and so long as they are not attacking each
other's most cherished faith-convictions. We think that even an occasional
injection of humor is healthy. We think that our list is an extraordinary
sort of community that respects diversity and is tolerant of
differences--and we see the role of administrators first and foremost as
being intolerant of intolerance, attempting to hold arrogance and animosity
(including their own!) in check, and promoting, as far as possible, a
healthy interaction on matters that focus most particularly upon the Greek
text and the Greek language of the Bible, but also upon those ancillary
issues and tools that are of concern to those who are serious enough about
Biblical study to make the effort to learn Greek and read the Biblical text
in Greek."
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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