List protocol and judging
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon May 1 10:25:58 EDT 2000
At 9:42 AM -0500 5/1/00, Mr. Gary S. Dykes wrote:
>Having been trained in "modern linguistics" and also knowledgeable in the
>"old fashioned" method of "Biblical" Greek studies, I feel I can give you
>my opinion.
>
>The best Greek scholars perform a word and sentence level analysis because
>they are often cognizant of the discourse. That is, most believing
>scholars, who have spent years walking with the Lord, have a good innate
>grasp of the context already.
Regardless how one feels on a matter such as this, I think it is
inappropriate, in terms of our list-protocol, to offer judgments on faith
as a qualification for understanding Greek; intimate familiarity with the
Greek text of the Bible is something else; cognizance of historical and
cultural background, too, must be very helpful
>Additionally the text itself (O.T. and N.T.) and the nature of its origin
>affords excellent material for a diachronic study as well as a synchronic
>study. Too often I encounter modern linguists -- who having just been
>brainwashed via Yale or Harvard, U of Penn. (et al) language theories --
>then "attacking" the Holy Writ as if it were some kind of common
>human-generated text.
As one who myself was "brainwashed" in graduate school at Harvard (with no
regrets whatsoever), and also, again, in terms of our list Netiquette, I
urge list-members to avoid either attacking or defending attitudes of
others toward the nature of the Biblical text. List-members hold attitudes
ranging across the whole spectrum of perspectives on questions like this,
and so long as they are willing to keep the focus of their messages to the
list upon the Biblical Greek text and the Biblical Greek language, they are
all welcome here.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Co-Chair, B-Greek List
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
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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