[B-Greek] reading for translation or understanding?

Randall Buth randallbuth at gmail.com
Sun Feb 3 09:14:58 EST 2008


requadt egrapse
>though I'm fairly proficient in French, when I was learning to read it
> wasn't using French-English dictionaries just to figure out how to
> translate it into English… I was reading it to UNDERSTAND what it
> meant.
. . .
> So my question is, when did there get to be such an emphasis
> on translation, so that people keep thinking that that's the
> purpose of reading the GNT? When did seminaries get away from
> teaching Greek in order to understand the New Testament/Septuagint
> to teaching Greek in order to translate the New Testament?

I think this gets back to pedagogy and expected levels of learning.
Your question is parallel to another:
Why do some say, 'We're going to translate XYZ in the Spring
semester."?

When a student learns French to a high level they are expected to
be able to paraphrase and discuss material that is read. In French.
(Not that one cannot have a good discussion of a French piece in
Hebrew or Arabic, but students of French lit are expected to
handle a discussion in French, too. It requires and demonstrates
a higher control of the language and works directly with the threads
and texture of the text.)

The focus on translation in Greek is partially motived by pedagogy
that uses translation as a test of understanding, at all levels. This is
not necessary pedagogically, of course, but it is the prevailing
practice. (Has anyone taken a SAT/GRE type exam where
questions on French texts were in French? Or a class-immersion
language course? You will understand this comment.)

Finally, though, the focus on translation seems to me to
be generated by a need to discuss material that is read. Students
(and teachers) never get to a level of being able to discuss the
material read in the language being read. So translation takes over.
Even in 'high level' seminars one hears a translation read out and
discussed. From there it is a 'trickle down' process to all levels.
We all know that reading with understanding is the goal and is
practiced by proficient students, but the body language between
the lines is quite strong in the other direction, even by readers of
understanding.

ERRWSO
IWANHS


-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη πληθυνθείη
שלום לכם וברכות
randallbuth at gmail.com


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