[B-Greek] "Sunday School Greek"
Bert de Haan
b_dehaan at sympatico.ca
Tue Jan 23 19:04:42 EST 2007
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David Opderbeck dopderbeck at gmail.com
Tue Jan 23 17:20:01 EST 2007
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*As
for the challenges of being proficient, we don't really have to
resort to brain surgery as an analogy; simple G.P. medicine will do.
It's not an issue of elitism, but of practicality. We non-MD's like
to read what we can of medical sources and do our own diagnoses, and
it's fun when we guess right.*
Just when things seemed to be getting reasonable... IMHO, this is a
nonsense analogy, really an arrogant and infuriating analogy, and the
comment earlier that it smacks of Gnosticism is dead on. The Bible is not a
codebook that only the elite can decipher, and the Church is not supposed to
be a community in which only the elite can impart insights to the (us) poor
unwashed ignoramouses in the pews. Yes, of course, the Church is greatly
served by the very, very few who can devote a lifetime to language study,
and yes, of course, the vast majority of the rest of us who can't do that
have to be humble and realistic about what our efforts at language study can
achieve. In the body of Christ, we are ALL called to study, understand and
apply the scriptures as best we can.
================
(BdH)
First an apology: My last post did not add anything to the discussion
because I wrote it without checking in the archives how far the discussion
had gone since the end of the last digest. It won't happen again. (At
least the thread had not closed yet. That's what had happened the last time
I promised that it wouldn't happen again :))
Now a reply to the last post. Nobody has said that only the elite can
study, understand and apply scripture. The point is, am I able to use my
"knowledge" of Greek to make an interpretation of scripture. I may have to
use the English translations that are available to me. Doing so does not
make me a more lowlier member of the Church than someone who can read the
GNT fluently.
Some one who can just barely read simple English may not be able to benefit
from reading Calvin's Commentary. If he thinks he can, he is likely going
to misunderstand it.
Does he belong to the lowiest members of Christ's body? OF course not.
Bert de Haan.
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