[B-Greek] What are some other languages that would be useful toknow alongside Koine Greek?
Jia Jun
nuovocp2 at singnet.com.sg
Sun Apr 11 10:56:43 EDT 2004
> Greetings,
> While I was in highschool, I had a German class, two years of
spanish, and a short French class. German and French I enjoyed and did very
well at, Spanish, I just wanted to pass. The reason I took so many
different language classes was due to switching schools (the Christian
school I switched to didn't have German, so I had to take spanish).
>
> I thoroughly enjoy German and French is rather close to it as well,
so I was wondering, what language should I pursue other than Greek (and
Hebrew in seminary)? I've read that Latin is supposed to be a good language
to learn with Greek, but I'd rather learn that later. What would ya'll
suggest?
>
> As I've mentioned in another message, my goal is to one day teach in
a seminary, and so I'd want to have a good grip on Koine.
>
> in Christ,
> Jonathan Ferguson
> Bob Jones University sophemore-ish,
> Psalm 27:14
>
I would say that Latin and Classical Greek promise much for a person who
wants to approach the New Testament in its Koine Greek better. After about 2
to 3 semesters of Hellenistic-Koine Greek, in the Bible college run by my
church, I am also enrolling in Ohio State University under the Classics
program to study more of Latin and Classical Greek under my current MA in
English soon. Being able to read Classical Greek definitely allows a person
to read the writings of the Greek Church Fathers and their commentaries on
the Bible, as well as later Byzantine prose.
If there are other languages to be learnt for the purpose of teaching in a
seminary, these two languages would probably be it--other than some French
or German for the sake of reading exegetical scholars in these languages.
That is, unless a person decides to learn other languages like
Syriac(Syrian-Aramaic), Coptic, Old Armenian or Old Georgian, etcetera.
which are less relevant to the purpose of teaching Biblical studies in a
seminary.
Kevin Zhang
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