Commentaries: Help or Hindrance?

Jonathan Robie jonathan.robie at datadirect-technologies.com
Fri Oct 11 18:34:10 EDT 2002


At 02:00 PM 10/11/2002 +0100, Gerry wrote:
>Just a few questions concerning the use of Greek Commentaries.
>
>Just how  helpful are greek commentaries in the early stages of learning
>Greek or at any stage for that matter?

I find them useful for checking my work after I've done some intensive work 
in the Greek text, exploring views I had not thought of, etc.

>Are commentaries in some of the "better" quality series eg NIGTC, less
>"Theologically" motivated in interpretation than others of a lesser
>quality? (interpretation driven by Theology).
>
>Are commentaries written by Classical Scholars less likely to mislead
>than those written by NT only "Specialists"because of the broader range
>of language acquisition?

I don't like generalizations. There are good and bad commentaries in both 
of these categories.

>Are commentaries really necessary for sound knowledge of the Greek
>language?

Certainly not. In fact, most of the people who wrote the New Testament 
didn't bother reading the commentaries, but they wrote perfectly good Greek.

Jonathan




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