Verses which need to be read in the Grk
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Dec 31 15:11:32 EST 1998
At 9:41 AM +0000 12/31/98, Jim West wrote:
>But I would still maintain that every verse is enlivened by a knowledge of
>Greek. I had a chap tell me last week that he knows as much about the Bible
>by reading the King James as I will ever know reading the original
>languages. I suggested to him that our knowledge is greatly enhanced when
>we read Greek. In fact, I suggested to him, if we use all the tools at our
>disposal then we, with the use of each one, open the window a little more on
>the world of the Bible. He protested that we did not gain anything at all
>by using such tools and again reiterated his previous suggestion that he
>knew everything because the King James made it clear to him. How can one
>overcome such invincible ignorance? How can one open the eyes of one so
>amazingly inattentive to the facts?
Jim: what would you say about the particularly edifying nature of reading
the following sentence in Greek--rather than in the KJV?
John 11:35 EDAKRUSEN hO IHSOUS.
I'll admit that I don't really disagree with your basic proposition; it's
just that one of my pet bug-a-boos is the unqualified generalization. While
I would say that a good deal of narration is made very lively by a
particular author's use of tenses and participles and various sorts of
subordination, I think that quite a bit of narrative that is
straightforward and simple doesn't do much to exploit any distinctive
tendencies in the original language and that straightforward translation of
such narrative into simple English narrative brings over just about all
there is to take note of.
Of course, real story-telling is far-removed from straightforward
narrative. I rather think, however, that the center of Johannine
proclamation is in the discourses rather than the narration, and that is
why, I think, Johannine narrative--as opposed to Johannine discourses--(at
least in chapters 1-12) is about as easy Greek prose as one is likely to
encounter, which is why it's a good text to start new Greek students on.
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 at artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad at yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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