[B-Greek] "Sunday School Greek"
Stephen Baldwin
stbaldwi at hotmail.com
Tue Jan 23 15:18:26 EST 2007
I for one am delighted to read this post since David's situation and his
goals closely resemble my own.
Those on the list who have been able to devote their lives to our subject
need to understand that many of us either cannot or have not (I am a
late-comer). The attitude that it is an all-or-nothing game is simply false
and implies a kind of "gnostic" secrecy and does indeed smack of elitism.
There are many legitimate reasons for learning Koine greek -- it depends on
one's goals. And I would encourage everyone to learn as much as they can
with whatever mental apparatus they've been given. A dose of humility will
keep us learners circumspect about our knowledge -- and this forum is good
for exposing weakenesses. To be honest, some of the attitudes on b-greek
have brought me to the point of quitting in discouragement. (But instead
I've decided to grow thick skin and slog on.) Surely the scholars here want
to encourage people to learn the subject? (The world is hardly in danger of
being flooded with Koine enthusiasts is it?)
A bit of encouragement and constructive advice is much better than negative
pessimism for those who cannot devote 100% of their lives to this pursuit or
who want to give "lay" people a brief overview -- who knows what fires of
interest will be kindled in the day of small things?
So, to David and the rest of us learners, let us all keep going.
To the scholars: thanks for your help and patience and presence here -- it
is what makes this forum impressive. I'm grateful to be here!
Greetings to everyone!
Steve
Stephen Baldwin
stbaldwi at hotmail.com
>From: "David Opderbeck" <dopderbeck at gmail.com>
>To: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
>CC: B-Greek B-Greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>,suzanne mccarthy
><suzmccarth at yahoo.com>
>Subject: Re: [B-Greek] "Sunday School Greek"
>Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 08:52:32 -0500
>
>Let me offer the perspective of one who is just starting to try to learn
>some Greek as a lay person. I have no pretension of being able to do
>serious original translation work based on the study to which I'm able to
>commit (I do, after all, have a family and a day job). What I hope to
>achieve in the near term, however, is enough facility that when I read a
>serious Bible commentary or journal article that deals with the Greek text,
>I at least have some idea what the author is talking about. Already I'm
>delighted that I've learned the alphabet so I can read words written in
>Greek, that I've picked up a bit of vocabulary, and that I've learned
>enough
>about the case endings of nouns to know what a commentary means when it
>mentions that a word is in the genetive, etc. Just this little bit of
>insight gives me a better feel for the primary scholarship that I rely on
>in
>my personal Bible study and lay church work. Some day, perhaps, I'll have
>the opportunity for more intense study in a seminary setting, and then at
>least I'll be able to hit the ground running. But for now, to me, a
>"Sunday
>School" level of language study seems a very reasonable and valuable
>pursuit, which could benefit anyone who is serious about studying and
>applying the Bible but who is not called or situated to pursue full-time
>professional scholarship.
>
>
>On 1/23/07, Carl W. Conrad <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu> wrote:
> >
> > 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/
> >
> >
> > ---
> > B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
> > B-Greek mailing list
> > B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
> >
>
>
>
>--
>David W. Opderbeck
>Web: http://www.davidopderbeck.com
>Blog: http://www.davidopderbeck.com/throughaglass.html
>MySpace (Music): http://www.myspace.com/davidbecke
>---
>B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
>B-Greek mailing list
>B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
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