[B-Greek] "Why do we make pastors translate?"
Regan (Lukeion)
regan at lukeion.org
Sat Dec 12 15:46:30 EST 2009
I have a bit of an issue with the statement "the gold standard for seminary Greek is being able to parse." I'm wondering if this statement is based on some sort of survey, or if it's simply the impression that Rich Rhodes has. I'm not sure we should take it as a valid starting point for a discussion on seminary Greek. Admittedly, I've only been to 2 seminaries, but none of my Greek professors would agree with that statement. On the flip side, though, I know many an embittered ministerial student who resented having to take Greek and who never progressed to the point where they could read it. Undoubtedly the one thing they remember about Greek was being forced to parse, and THEY might claim that Greek (and in particular, parsing) was simply a way to torture pastors-to-be, since they really had no idea how rich a reading of the original language could be. They saw it as a time-waster. But I never took a single quiz in Greek (undergraduate or graduate) that didn't require me to translate. Especially at the graduate level, we engaged in some very deep theological discussions based on the nuances of the Greek. My major professor, Lewis Foster, who served on the NIV translation committee and the Study Bible committee, had fascinating stories about the challenges the committee faced, and the impossibility of an interpretation-free translation. No one could leave his class and think that Greek was about parsing.
So, to sum up, I don't know a single professor who believes that parsing should be an end in itself - but there were a lot of students who went around grumbling things like "it does me no good to know what an Aorist passive is. Why do they make me take this stuff?"
Regan Barr
regan at lukeion.org
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