[B-Greek] "Sunday School Greek"
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Jan 23 07:26:22 EST 2007
Suzanne McCarthy, some of whose previous posts in the blogosphere I
have noted in this forum, has a piece that she posted Sunday on the
Better Bibles Blog with the rubric I have indicated in my subject-
header above
(http://englishbibles.blogspot.com/2007/01/sunday-school-greek.html)
I am reluctant to stir the pot again regarding the whole pedagogical
quick-fix methodologies for acquiring enough Greek to confront the
Biblical Greek text in a meaningful and fruitful way, but it's not as
if the topic is going to go away, while human nature remains what it
is. The comment I appended to Suzanne's blog-post follows:
----
I shake my head, old curmudgeon that I am and a retired
professor of Greek whose last classroom experience was a January 20-
session crash course in Biblical Greek for seminary students. Of my
13 students two did quite well, considering the nature and
limitations of the course. But these were seminary students who had
to have this course to get into the school's first exegesis class. I
agree with Peter [Peter Kirk, who posted a previous comment] that the
dedicated student with application and industry can make a very
significant start within a short time, but very few are likely to
succeed -- precisely because the application and industry required
are just not there. Aside from that, whatever is accomplished, be it
in three successive days, once a week, or in the course of one month,
is only a beginning and the beginner needs to be aware that the
beginning demands an ongoing commitment. Anything less really
deserves -- I think -- disparagment. What Euclid (I think) said of
geometry is certainly as true for Biblical Greek: "There is no royal
road ... "
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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