[B-Greek] why make pastors translate, : Greek at the minimum

Leonard Isaksson leonardo1orchardcity at mac.com
Mon Dec 14 17:25:47 EST 2009



Begin forwarded message:

> From: Leonard Isaksson <leonardo1orchardcity at mac.com>
> Date: December 13, 2009 6:30:44 AM CST
> To: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
> Subject: Re: Greek at the minimum
>
>>>
>>> I was looking at the mail I sent to you.

>>> I would think the aim for a pastor, or anyone, is to be able to read 
>>> the NT and OT in Greek, and to understand.  Well, one needs to be 
>>> able to ponder what the writer is saying, to better understand the 
>>> evangelic message.

>>> This would enable one to also read commentaries, and take in that 
>>> other soul's views and thoughts, and then, as you  proceed along in 
>>> experience in reading Greek, and taking it in, be able to dialogue 
>>> with said commentators, at least to understand them, wherever you 
>>> find them.
>>>
>>> The companion goal for a pastor would be to become able to tell 
>>> people in the target language what is God's Word to us(given that we 
>>> each have our own understanding of that Word).  Hmm, that sounds 
>>> like translating, but exegeting should be the goal, or exegeting and 
>>> then moving to applying the text in preaching, teaching, or counsel. 
>>>  This must be a part of what the pastor does, or it is a very 
>>> different church than what I perceive Jesus sought.  Like what 
>>> Joachim Jeremias did in one of his NT studies in Colossians 2.12-15, 
>>> on Christ's redemptive work.  I reckon he let his theology get in 
>>> there, when he spoke  of Christ on the cross, after presenting the 
>>> passage, bringing it to the reader, he says "You must look very 
>>> closely (at the titulus that Pilate put on the cross of Jesus, which 
>>> he brings into the discussion) for what is written there is your 
>>> sins and mine."  to that effect he wrote.
>>>
>>> Most pastors will be communicating with a people in their own 
>>> language other than Greek, except for Greeks.  I don't see how you 
>>> get around using translations, or doing your own.
>>>
>>> I do know that one thing I put in the other letter to you works, 
>>> about 'a little exercise for young seminarians', and that is for 
>>> me(who need to much better learn Greek) to just take a text that I 
>>> have never seen before, a play of Euripides,  or Herodotus, or for 
>>> that matter some of Paul's writing in Greek, and see how much I 
>>> grope about, or don't know.


>>> I loved elementary Greek when I had it at seminary, and I used to go 
>>> and just open the NT and start trying to read.   I found toward the 
>>> end of the sequence that I could bear, while staggering and halting 
>>> now and then, with John or Mark(electrifying to read ch. 2!)  or 
>>> some of Matthew, or I Thessalonians(while still wanting for more 
>>> vocabulary, and wondering at the structure of the Greek text), but 
>>> when I went to some of Acts or Paul's other letters, I would 
>>> struggle all over and fumble, wandering about, and then when I would 
>>> open a Greek play or history or a letter of Basil of Caesarea, or a 
>>> sermon of Gregory of Nazianzus, or say the martyrdom of Polycarp, I 
>>> was in a land I had not seen before.   The forest is not familiar, 
>>> where am I?  Lost, I have not the English to fall upon.


>>> That is why I think it would be good to have seminarians to come to 
>>> a sight reading test, I would say two or three times, before you are 
>>> done with seminary, and just give them some of the NT, some LXX,  
>>> some of the church fathers, not having prepared for it ahead, and 
>>> require them to read it.  It is mandatory for the seminarian to have 
>>> this sight test, regardless of  how well  you do.  After 50 to 60 
>>> minutes of working at it, then you are able to go home.  If you are 
>>> not able to read it, then you will get an idea of what you do not 
>>> know, and this should help to cure the smart pants attitude.  I 
>>> don't think it would be cruel to do this.  One could bring lexicon 
>>> and for that matter, after a while, if the seminarians are  having 
>>> difficulty, then the seminary's supply of Loeb texts can come out, 
>>> and one may take a page, cover the translation, and see how you do, 
>>> and then uncover it, and proceed.  The exercise of doing this would 
>>> help one to see where you are at in terms of knowing Greek, or if 
>>> you are relying upon your knowledge of the surrounding country.

>>> P. S.  I found A. T. Robertson's little book "The Minister and his 
>>> Greek Testament to be a wonderful encouragement and inspiration.

>>> Leonard Isaksson
>>>
>>>
>>>
>




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