From: Stephen Long (steve@allegrographics.com)
Date: Wed Dec 02 1998 - 11:54:29 EST
Dr. Krentz,
Let me just share a little story about the value of a good modern translation. Last night my 15 year-old daughter was enthusiastically telling about how much she was enjoying reading the Bible! She was reading it at school and chuckled out loud, her friend asked her what was so funny, "Nothing," she said, "just reading the Bible". The translation was "The Message" by Eugene Peterson. Now I don't know anything about his scholarship credentials etc., but he made my daughter enjoy reading the Bible, he made it come alive for her, and for that he
has this parent's gratitude.
One of the major problems I see developing in translation is that a great deal of the youthful vitality in Christianity is happening in non-mainline denominations. As a charismatic-pentecostal I sincerely regret the lack of scholarship amongst our ranks. Many of us come to Christ late in life, and while we can pick up a little Greek to protect ourselves, we can in no way match the scholarship of someone who has learned the Latin, Greek and Hebrew from an early age. We are dependent upon the work of our mainline brethern. Maybe
second-generation charismatics will have something to contribute, my 12 year-old son has started poking around in my Greek books, and I have a copy of Xenophon's Anabasis around somewhere. If there were some materials geared toward teaching teenagers the classics in a fun way, we semi-literate parents could encourage and help their interest.
Going to a public school in America, there isn't much hope of gaining a classical education for today's youth. The very idea of a classical language being taught in a public school setting strikes me as a vain hope. Any hope for future generations of translators must rest on the current generation of parents.
-- Steve Long ----------------------------------- President Allegro Graphics, Inc. Allegro Digital Media, Inc. Saint Peters, Missouri ------------------------------------ www.allegrographics.com www.websrv.com--- 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
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