[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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