The object of CARIS

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu May 25 08:02:32 EDT 2000


At 1:07 PM -0400 5/24/00, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>At 9:04 AM -0700 5/24/00, clayton stirling bartholomew wrote:
>>on 05/23/00 11:00 PM, Rob Haskell wrote:
>>
>>> Greek words usually mean less than we think
>>
>>I think we ought to frame this statement in gold leaf and "hang" it on the
>>b-greek web page, or perhaps put it in FAQ.
>
>except that on some occasions, Greek words may mean more than we think.
>
>(he says, as he shields himself from the explosive Molotov cocktail).

As this thread seems to have generated a coda of humorous ripostes, I
thought it only fair to share with you a couple of the quips that have come
to me personally in response to the above missive. I hope that their
original senders will not think me overly audacious to cite them to the
list:

At 1:01 PM -0500 5/24/00, A K M Adam wrote:
>
>What if we combined these MARGARITAI SOFIAS:
>
>"Greek words usually mean less than we think, except when they mean
>more than we think."
>
>Sounds right to me....
>
>AKMA
>--
>Seabury-Western Theological Seminary
>akm-adam at nwu.edu

and

At 12:11 PM -0700 5/24/00, George Goolde wrote:
>
>And if we hold our tongue just right and squint with our left eye
>Greek words might mean exactly what we think!
>
>George
>
>George A. Goolde
>Professor, Bible and Theology
>Southern California Bible College & Seminary
>El Cajon, California
>goolde at mtnempire.net

to which I felt obliged to respond: "Ahhhhh! But that takes long practice,
doesn't it?"

Actually, that version by AKM Adam,

"Greek words usually mean less than we think, except when they mean more
than we think,"

reminds me of my favorite of all student exam replies to a question calling
for assessment of a long sentence expressing a position on some major
issue. Quoth the student,

"This statement is good as far as it goes, but it goes too far!"

And with that perhaps we can bring a "graceful" closure to this thread.


-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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