value of accents

Eric S. Weiss eweiss at gte.net
Tue Jun 4 17:05:32 EDT 2002


> Eric Weiss wrote:
> 
> And lest Mr. Weiss miss the point of my response, I believe that there
> are reasons why some students remain "little Greeks."
> 
> David H. Warren
> Prof. of NT and Greek
> Freed-Hardeman University
> Henderson, Tenn.

Unfortunately, job, family and other commitments (of my own choosing)
preclude me and probably others from pursuing full professorships in Greek
or even masters degrees in the subject. I will likely always remain a
"little Greek." Hence my question re: the necessity of "little Greeks"
learning the minutia of accenting rules. Is it "nice to know" or "need to
know"? I know that Greek is like lace ... i.e., one should get as much of
it as one can. (I think this was quoted in Goodrick's book on DO IT
YOURSELF HEBREW AND GREEK.) And in my ideal world I would like to get the
minutia as well as the major stuff.

But at the risk of repeating myself, I do not feel that Carson made a
strong case for "need to know" in his book on accents, and I was hoping
that some on this list could give me a thoughtful and well-supported
response justifying learning all these rules, or agreeing that one need
not spend much time learning all these rules, or explaining and justifying
a position in between. I'm sorry if I have rubbed some people the wrong
way by asking if every jot and tittle of Greek knowledge is a necessary
pursuit of all students of Greek.



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