[B-Greek] Very interesting GNT, A Readers Greek New Testament

Steve Westfall steve.westfall at comcast.net
Sun May 2 16:18:45 EDT 2004


I suspect that many, like me, are approaching the limit of their pain
threshold on this thread, but I have an urge to say "Get a grip!".  Can't we
evaluate this edition in terms of its stated purpose of helping relatively
new students of Greek become more proficient in their reading ability, and
only that?  I think one of the earlier postings touched on this when the
writer referred to the desire to follow along in his Greek NT while
listening to his pastor read from an English translation.  He was unable to
do that if he had to flip to the back of the volume and look up a word in a
dictionary.  He needs a quick way to get the meaning for words he doesn't
yet know.  Arguably, RGNT is better for this than using an interlinear.
It's also better than the UBS parallel Greek/RSV edition, which I have.
(With the latter, to get the meaning assigned by the RSV to a Greek word, it
still takes some time to find the exact part of the RSV text that
corresponds with the Greek in question.  And even then, there's the further
issue of whether the RSV might have used a different reading than that
printed in UBS4/NA27, in which case its gloss might be inappropriate!)
Beginners will be able to read more Greek with RGNT.  It doesn't replace
anything else, and like most things, it can be misused.  But it sounds great
for learning vocabulary.  In some ways, it's like having one's vocabulary
flash cards at the bottom of the page.

Here is another benefit to RGNT not mentioned (I think) so far.  The RGNT
offers the benefit to the NT Greek student of seeing how the translation
team of a major English version made translation decisions.  How did they
deal with the syntax of moods, tenses, etc.?

Steve Westfall
Naperville, Illinois

-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Dr. Don Wilkins
Sent: Thu, April 29, 2004 3:58 PM
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Very interesting GNT, _A Readers Greek New
Testamen t_


. . . In the second place, if RGNT users now find
definition footnotes too convenient to bother with looking up meanings
in a lexicon, or even in the short dictionary at the end of certain UBS
editions, what are the odds that they are ever going to bother looking
up the textual notes in UBS or NA? Won't they simply stick with what
they find in RGNT, especially if they are told that they can accept it
as an "equivalent text"?

Enough for now, and my thanks to Carl for tolerating this discussion.

Don Wilkins





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