[B-Greek] Webb & Kysar's Greek for Preachers
Scott Stocking
scottsox at conxxus.com
Sun Apr 23 00:08:04 EDT 2006
I appreciate the concern of the previous two posts about teaching a
watered-down version of Greek. I have the same concerns myself, and I try to
compensate by adding additional material to the class, especially things
like Carsons Fallacies. And as Im sure many of you have, I regularly
encounter popularized Greek, and Im not shy about showing the students a
more excellent way. The students I teach are nontraditional students who
usually have young families (but occasionally I get some empty-nesters or
bachelors) and who work full-time jobs. Some are even transitioning to
ministry while working and going to school, so life is hectic for them.
Bombarding them with a full-fledged Greek course 3 to 3½ hours one night a
week for twelve weeks can be just a bit much for some. I encourage those who
have the means to put more time into it to do so, and I have an extensive
bibliography (key resources are annotated) in my syllabus to help them
access additional resources.
I think most of us have encountered those who think that because theyve got
a Strongs or a Vines, theyre Greek scholars. I continually emphasize to
my students that we are only skimming the surface, but going deeper than
Strongs or Vines alone or even together could ever take them. A little
knowledge is a dangerous thing, but I think Im giving them enough to keep
them out of too much trouble. I have always striven to make this more than
just a tools class (I have the students do a guided then an independent
word study/passage analysis from the Greek). In fact, some of the students
from my first attempt at this three years ago (when we actually did try to
get through Mounce in 12 weeks) still tell me today that they read their
Greek NT regularly, so it would seem Im doing something right, or at least
I had fertile ground in which to plant the Greek seed.
Scott Stocking
Adjunct Professor, Lincoln Christian College
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