[B-Greek] Wallace or Porter?

Barry nebarry at verizon.net
Sat Aug 27 07:27:09 EDT 2005


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ben & Mandy Pehrson" <ben-mandy_pehrson at sil.org>
To: "'Michael Ledford'" <mrl9403 at yahoo.com>; <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 2:53 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Wallace or Porter?


Comment below:

> There is no comparison.  Wallace is very useful and user friendly in many
> ways that Porter is not.  Porter also seems a bit scant in places.  Wallace
> is rightly considered an intermediate level grammar, but his approach and
> interaction with recent research means that his grammar sometimes contains
> insights not covered in the older advanced grammars.

> Some people critique Wallace for his 7th distinctive above, saying he is a
> "splitter" of semantic categories.  But overall, I think this is very
> helpful for the student to learn to analyze the sense of the category under
> question in relation to the multitude of specific contexts it may occur in.

I agree with everything you've said, Benjamin, with the one proviso that you 
list (I've never actually seen anybody else make this criticism, nice to know 
I'm not the only one).  I particularly noted this with his discussion on the 
various uses of the genitive: one sometimes gets the impression that his 
descriptions are due to an especially fertile grammatical imagination.  It has 
sometimes been amusing to see students pick a category and try to make a 
genitive in a particular text fit that category, particularly as that usage can 
be used toward supporting a particular theological point.  However, as the 
student becomes better at Greek in general, this becomes less of a problem.

This is really a minor criticism, and I also endorse Wallace for the serious 
student.

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Adjunct Faculty, The Center for Urban Theological Studies
         Philadelphia, PA
http://www.cuts.edu
Visiting Faculty, Reformed Theological Seminary
         Washington, D.C.
http://www.rts.edu/campuses/washington_dc/index.cfm

And me:
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry/

Opinions expressed by author of this message do not necessarily reflect the 
opinions of the institutions listed above... 




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