Explaining the Greek Verb System
schulc at cuaa.edu
schulc at cuaa.edu
Tue Jun 4 04:18:04 EDT 2002
Friends,
Perhaps I should rename this thread. I think the topic has shifted to "where to
begin teaching Greek." I arrived at a university where I had started 14 years
ago by learning classical Greek and I found that they had reverted to beginning
with Koine. I'm switching it back this year. I have found the recent arguments
in this thread for and against this decision very interesting.
One additional point: one becomes more sensitive to the range of meaning of
vocabulary words through exposure to additional texts. Too many students of the
Bible study the Bible and the Bible alone as though it is a set of isolated
texts and not part of a historical context. Beginning the student with non-
Biblical texts will thus have the advantage of exposing them to the world in
which the Scriptures were written. The example I've been using lately to defend
this shift: When we translate 'oikos' we shouldn't think of a suburban ranch
home. I've also found support for my shift back to classical from a survey
among recent graduates who said that our school had done an excellent job in
teaching them Greek grammar but a poor job in teaching them the cultures of the
ancient world.
Rev. Charles R. Schulz
Assistant Professor of Religion
Concordia University, Ann Arbor
(734) 995-7384
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