[B-Greek] "Sunday School Greek"

Eric Inman eric.inman at wescorpflex.com
Tue Jan 23 12:01:38 EST 2007


I also am a lay person and I would encourage every other lay person to learn
Greek and critically examine anything that clergy or anyone else says. At
the same time, though, I would say that one should not try to get by on just
a little bit of Greek. Most of the value seems to come after you attain a
comfortable reading level and can do a lot of reading in Greek.

 

In addition, I'm not trying to discourage teaching Greek in Sunday school,
provided that the class conveys reasonable expectations about what can be
accomplished for a given level of effort.

 

Eric Inman

 

  _____  

From: David Opderbeck [mailto:dopderbeck at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 10:40 AM
To: Carl W. Conrad
Cc: Eric Inman; B-Greek B-Greek; suzanne mccarthy
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] "Sunday School Greek"

 

Again from my lay person's perspective -- some of what I'm hearing here
sounds elitist.  It kind of sounds like the debates centuries ago about
whether the laity should have access to scripture in the venacular.  

 

On 1/23/07, Carl W. Conrad <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu> wrote:


On Jan 23, 2007, at 10:18 AM, Eric Inman wrote:

> I agree that sustained dedication is what is really required, but 
> perhaps
> there is one thing of great value that can be learned and
> appreciated very
> quickly. When I was growing up I was highly impressed by preachers and
> teachers who referred to the original languages to support their 
> positions,
> and so I started studying Greek and Hebrew on my own even before I
> got to
> college where I could take classes in them. The point where I
> realized that
> those preachers and teachers didn't really know what they were 
> talking about
> for the most part seemed to come very early on in the process,
> although I
> can't pinpoint exactly when. So perhaps it might be possible in a
> Sunday
> School Greek class to get a student to the point where they are not so 
> easily misguided by common mistakes that preachers and teachers
> make when
> referring to the Greek text. It seems like this would have significant
> value.

Yes, I think that would be a significant gain from the effort. On the 
other hand, teachers and preachers of the sort you mention are
precisely the ones that give meaning to the (para)phrase: "A little
Greek is a dangerous thing."

Carl W. Conrad

>
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Carl W. Conrad 
> Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 6:26 AM
> To: B-Greek B-Greek
> Cc: suzanne mccarthy
> Subject: [B-Greek] "Sunday School Greek"
>
> 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>
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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-- 
David W. Opderbeck
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