[B-Greek] In Memoriam: Philip Graber
James Ernest
jdemail at charter.net
Wed Sep 10 09:19:12 EDT 2003
Thank you for this post, Carl.
Begging the indulgence of the list--you can always press the delete
key...
I first met Philip when we were juniors together at Wheaton College in
Illinois. He transferred in as a philosophy major, and intellectually he
was a keen--and, it seemed to me, troubled--seeker. My roommate was a
generous and skilled listener, though I don't think he was any clearer
than I was as to the precise question or the answer. This combination
yielded a number of long evenings by the lava lamp. (The lava lamp was
my roommate's, not mine.)
I was in touch with Philip only infrequently during the subsequent years
as he and Ann served with SIL, then upon returning to the States went to
Brite Divinity School, and afterward to Emory. We reconnected to share a
hotel room at the 1995 SBL annual meeting in Philadelphia. There, as
Philip carefully tended his skin wounds, I learned of his occasional
encounters with melanoma. He also spoke lovingly of his wife Ann, whom I
have met only by phone, and their two sons--evidently very fine young
men. He was clearly devoted to them. We talked about shared concerns
pertaining to scholarship, ministry, and the Presbyterian Church.
After that we kept in touch a bit more often. I remember writing to him
about some of my personal vocational struggles. In his reply he
expressed the wish that he could package and send to me some of the
profound peace that he himself knew. I found nothing condescending or
self-satisfied in his tone. He wrote as one who stood in grateful awe of
a gift he had received and wished to pass it on. And somehow, in the
mysterious economy of grace, he was allowed to do so.
This is a list devoted to the discussion of *signa*, and Philip
certainly dedicated himself for years to the study of *signa*, at both
applied and theoretical levels, and with distinction. Members of this
list have profited from his knowledge. What stands out for me, however,
and the focus of my gratitude even through tears at his passing--the
source, I suspect, of a fruitful ministry in church and family, as well
as his peacefulness and enduring good humor--is that he had also come to
know the *res*.
...
ESTAI WS TO CULON TO PEFUTEUMENON PARA TAS DIECODOUS TWN YDATWN
O TON KARPON AUTOU DWSEI EN KAIRW AUTOU
KAI TO FULLON AUTOU OUK APORRUHSETAI
Thanks be to God.
--------------------------------
James D. Ernest, Ph.D., Editor
Baker Academic
9084 Costner Drive SE
Caledonia, MI 49316 USA
+1 616 891 5625
jernest at bakerbooks.com
--------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Carl W. Conrad
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 6:23 AM
To: Biblical Greek
Subject: [B-Greek] In Memoriam: Philip Graber
BLEPOMEN GAR ARTI DI' ESOPTROU EN AINIGMATI, TOTE DE PROSWPON PROS
PROSWPON.
B-Greek is, at its best, a humane community of authentic human beings
engaged in conersation about the text of the Greek Bible and the
language in which those texts have been written. Although hundreds of
our subscribers who number somewhere in the vicinity of 1200 receive
list correspondence in silence and need never identify themselves, we
have continued to insist, in accordance with demands originally made by
our first chair, Edward Hobbs, that those who post messages to the list
sign them with authentic whole names; we do not wish our correspondence
with each other to be anonymous or pseudonymous. Although very few of us
have ever been in contact with each other apart from this electronic
medium, yet those of us who have participated with any regularity have
some sense of real familiarity with each other, and since that is so, we
feel the loss at the departure of one of us.
Philip L. Graber, a list-member of B-Greek from 1994 until recently,
passed away on the morning of September 6 after a final bout with
Melanoma. He earned a Ph.D. from Emory University in 2001, his
dissertation being entitled, "Context in Text: A Systemic Functional
Analysis of the Parable of the Sower." For the past several years he had
been pastor of the Ronceverte Presbyterian Church in Ronceverte, West
Virginia. Philip was one of the relatively few B-Greekers trained in
Linguistics; I always learned much from his posts and found particularly
enlightening a number of contributions to understanding difficult
passages in the gospel of Matthew. It grieves me to report his passing,
but I thought it should be reported to members of the list who may have
known Philip.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Co-Chair, B-Greek List
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
---
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
B-Greek mailing list
B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list