[B-Greek] Very interesting GNT, _A Readers Greek New Testament_

Dr. Don Wilkins drdwilkins at sbcglobal.net
Wed Apr 28 20:22:11 EDT 2004


On Tuesday, April 27, 2004, at 08:04 PM, Eric Weiss wrote:

> I appreciate and understand your comments, but I failed to explain 
> something about
> myself that others on B-Greek probably already know from my earlier 
> posts, which is:
>  
> I do not teach at a seminary. I am just a "lay person" who took 2 years 
> of Greek at The
> Criswell College, and loved it so much that I offer to teach it for 
> free to people at church who want to learn. I taught one class at our 
> old church, and I'm teaching my second
> group of first-year students at our present church. These are NOT 
> "seminary bound"
> people, nor likely future Greek grammarians or textual critics, but 
> people who want to be
> able to read the GNT with some facility. Up to now I've been having 
> them buy UBS4, and
> we've been using it, but I can see the *possible* benefits of the RGNT, 
> ESPECIALLY for
> people like those I teach who will likely want/need all the reading 
> aids they can get. An
> on-the-page definition of every word that occurs < 30x would be quite 
> helpful, since with
> our textbook (GREEK TO ME, by Story and Story) they're learning every 
> word that
> occurs 25x or thereabouts. Hence, they'll be somewhat ready for the 
> RGNT (though if
> they haven't learned their paradigms, or kept up their vocabulary 
> acquisition, it will still be
> a struggle for them -- and books like Luke, Hebrews and Acts will still 
> be tough, because
> the grammatical and sentence structure is not nearly as easy as the 
> other Gospels or
> Paul's writings). A good alternative (NOT an "interlinear") would be 
> the Greek-English
> New Testament (NA-27 on one page, RSV on the other) or the one that has 
> the Greek
> text and the NKJV, I think, in the margins, or that Parallel 
> 8-translation NT with the
> Greek text, plus KJV, NASB, NIV, Rheims, Amplified, New American, and 
> NRSV. But ...
> all these cost AT LEAST TWICE the price of a discounted RGNT and/or are 
> hardly
> portable/lightweight/convenient in comparison. Thus, the RGNT looks 
> like it might be a
> useful text for the type of people I teach. Naturally, I would explain 
> to them why, if they
> pursue Greek, they'll want/need UBS4 and NA-27. But even I, who have 
> these, too, can
> probably find a happy and profitable use for the RGNT, esp, as a 
> briefcase/commuter
> NT - lightweight, inexpensive, thin, etc.

I commend you, Eric, for what you are doing. I've done it occasionally 
myself, as I'm sure others on the list have. Your situation is actually 
a little scarier in some ways than Rod Decker's, because it seems more 
likely that those who study under you will keep the RGNT as their only 
GNT. I think it's great that you tell your students about UBS and NA, 
but aside from cost and the minimal benefit of definitions for the 30X 
or less words, there is no way that RGNT can compare favorably to 
UBS/NA. And I'm sure that I've also said in the past, "if you want to 
pursue Greek...," but you as a teacher are not spending your valuable 
time for your students to throw it all away later. If anything, you want 
to convey the attitude that you expect them to continue studying and 
reading Greek. Somewhere down the line, then, they or others they care 
about are going to want to know why translations differ, not only KJV 
vs. Alexandrian types but even NIV, NASB, NRSV, ESV etc. differing among 
each other. And if they can't tell anything from their Greek text 
(assuming it is RGNT) except where the NIV differs from UBS/NA, they'll 
be frustrated and wonder why they didn't just get UBS or NA in the first 
place. The only significant drawback to those texts is the cost, 
certainly not portability. And if minimal word definitions is a factor, 
then one can buy the UBS with dictionary that is still entirely portable 
and convenient (containing all the vocabulary, not just the least used). 
Thus again it boils down to cost. I always hated requiring students to 
buy expensive books, whether in college/seminary or church; but the cost 
of books was seldom a factor in a student's successful completion of a 
course. Plus, I've seen people spend considerably more money on personal 
enrichment seminars and other such things which are arguably of less 
value than learning to read the GNT. For those who are truly unable to 
purchase UBS or NA, there is usually financial help available at school 
or within the church. And in your own case, why carry the RGNT when you 
can just as well carry UBS or NA? Even from the standpoint of cosmetic 
differences, I always thought it was special to see someone carrying a 
UBS or NA because of what it represented. I know RGNT has a more 
dramatic cover, but all that does for me is to underscore the fact that 
the person carrying it either doesn't miss the valuable (dare I say 
indispensable?) information on textual readings, or doesn't know about 
it.

Now I am aware that my position may be perceived as one of sour grapes, 
since I am an NASB advocate, but for what it's worth, I almost never 
carry an NASB to church (or any other translation), because I know the 
translation can't reveal to me exactly what is in the Greek (or Hebrew). 
Most likely Rod and the other scholars on the list feel about the same 
way, whatever their preferred translations may be. I'm sorry if that 
sounds elitist, and it's certainly not intended to be. I'm just grateful 
for the privilege of learning the languages, and since we are talking 
about languages that were once alive and well, I believe any person can 
learn them given adequate resources and time. Again, I commend you, and 
I beg you to consider these suggestions. Keep up the good work.

Don Wilkins




More information about the B-Greek mailing list