[B-Greek] Interlinear Scripture Analyzer [Should lay-people be given such tools?]

Doug Hoxworth dhoxworth at charter.net
Sun Oct 12 18:20:04 EDT 2003


><Eric>
>Does this mean that we will be flooded with "root fallacy" errors by people who trust this program to teach them "what the Greek REALLY means"? (** ** added by me) :)

<doug>
eric brought up a point that i've been thinking about for 
some time since joining this list and becoming interested 
in translation, exegesis, linguistics, etc. the two 
schools of thought are 1) "a little bit of greek can be a 
dangerous thing" or 2) "a little bit of pride can be a 
dangerous thing." #1 says that we with-hold any tools or 
greek helps that may give the neophyte the impression that 
they know more than they do. this seems to smack a little 
of the practice of the church during the days of the 
midevil church where they would not even let the 
"lay-person" read the Scriptures for fear of what they 
might do with it (this is obviously a bit of an 
exaggeration but bear with me while i try and make my 
point). #2 basically says that you can't make people not 
be stupid. no matter what tools you provide, people will 
botch it up and pervert the truth.

after thinking about eric's post i finally appreciated 
both sides of the fence. years ago when i was first saved, 
i got a hold of a strongs and man was i dangerous. b/c of 
the entries which would say that the word was made up of 
such and such other smaller words, i felt like i had some 
secret key to unlock the "true" meaning of Scripture. i 
really felt like i knew what i was doing and like i "knew" 
some greek. i was quite dangerous. so i can relate to #1 
based on my own experience.

but then i read some of mounce's stuff in what he's been 
doing lately with his english-greek interlinear and "greek 
for the rest of us" as well as some comments on jonathan 
robie's (sp?) site about mistakes that we've all made and 
i understood the other perspective. why not make tools to 
help everyone (even those who don't have the priviledge to 
learn the original languages) to learn a bit more of God's 
word? people will distort the truth no matter what tools 
are available and the alternative (#1) is that we lock up 
any tools and only allow "the initiated" to handle the 
sacred word.

i know this is a very touchy subject but i thought i'd 
just post my thoughts on the matter since it was rattling 
around in my mind. i finally was able to appreciate both 
sides of the issue and to see a certain amount of validity 
in each perspective. i think the solution (if it is really 
a solution) is that we tell everyone about the tools that 
are available to make sure we are careful to stress the 
dangers and the limitations to what the tools can provide 
and that people are taught to make sure to know what they 
can and cannot do with the tools and knowledge they've 
been given.

i'll stop rambling now and get up off of my soap-box ;) 
thanks for listening...



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