From: Eric Weiss (eweiss@gte.net)
Date: Thu Dec 10 1998 - 11:56:00 EST
My simple response to those who ask why one should learn Biblical Greek
is:
"Unless you can read Greek, you have decided to let someone else tell
you what the Bible says."
I know this answer is not entirely correct, not entirely complete, and
is even harsh-sounding. (Plus, the "big" Greeks on the list would
undoubtedly add that unless one can read and understand Classical Greek,
one can't properly read the Greek New Testament - and would also
emphasize the need to understand Hebrew, Aramaic (and now German!), the
social and cultural background of the NT, etc., etc.)
But I stand by my response, if only for the fact that it is true and it
sometimes or perhaps eventually gets their attention. That's why I use
it, even if some don't like to hear it. I like to put this "burr" under
the saddle of those who think that just being able to read an English
translation qualifies one to preach and teach the Scriptures. I think
biblical languages should be required courses in Christian schools.
Even taking the time to study and compare various English translations
is only of some help - without knowing Greek, one still would be unable
to intelligently choose among them, and being guided by one's
"preference" is not scholarly.
A corollary response would be that unless you can read Biblical Greek,
you have forever limited yourself to low-level study aids. The inability
to research commentaries and lexicons (lexica?) that deal with the
original language again means that you have decided to let someone else
tell you what the Bible says, and my experience is that commentaries
that are not based on the original languages are extremely inadequate,
at least for my purposes. I'm constantly coming across interesting
things in the Greek text, and it seems that only those commentators who
deal with the Greek even know what I'm trying to find an answer for.
A final answer, which actually may be my personal reason, is that the
"joy of discovery" in reading the New Testament in Greek is
never-ending. There are nuances and things that are just plain lost in
translation, or are obscured by the translator's needs to make a
readable rendering.
Well, enough of my highly-opinionated response!
--- Eric Weiss eweiss@gte.net http://home1.gte.net/eweiss/index.htm--- 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 - 15:40:10 EDT