[B-Greek] Using Greek
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Wed Mar 11 08:26:53 EDT 2009
I think it all depends upon what we mean by "using" Greek. If by
"using Greek" we mean looking at a Greek New Testament, critical
apparatus, commentaries, lexica, etc. to translate the Greek text of
the New Testament and perhaps compare our own translation with others'
translations, I would say that the pay-off of such a practice in
actually better understanding the New Testament will be quite limited.
Our own secondary communication context will dictate and limit our
understanding. The bang for our buck will be relatively weak over all.
I remember my reaction after studying Greek for four years in
undergraduate school, the fifth year was a course in classical Greek
readings with selections from Homer, Herodotus, Plato and Xenophon.
That was when "the lights went on" for me I began to have more context
for understanding the New Testament. However, a shorter route to
understanding the culture is to pick up some theoretically astute
author like Bruce Malina, The New Testament World, David daSilva,
Honor, Patronage, Kinship and Purity: Unlocking New Testament.
Culture or the encylopedic Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early
Christianity (or all three), and read primary sources in translation
(say, Epictetus, Lucian, Athanaeus, Plutarch, the Septuagint,
Josephus). That will give you, over all, greater bang for your buck as
far an "understanding" is concerned and may even motivate you to learn
the language than a number of years "using Greek" with the typical
tools to do translation of the New Testametn. I am not knocking
translation, that is what I do for a living. But using Greek to read
the culture in which the New Testament was formed will greatly, if not
quickly, enhance an understanding of the New Testament in ways that
neither translation or history and culture study alone cannot do.
Yancy Smith
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
5636 Wedgworth Rd.
Fort Worth, TX 76133
817-361-7565
I suppose it is impossible to write any 'story' that is not
allegorical in proportion as it 'comes to life'; since each of us is
an allegory, embodying in a particular tale and clothed in the
garments of time and place, universal truth and everlasting life.
J.R.R. Tolkien (7 June 1955)
On Mar 11, 2009, at 6:46 AM, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>
> On Mar 10, 2009, at 10:20 PM, Stephen Lord wrote:
>
>> We've all encountered someone who was dismissive of the utility of
>> knowing or exploring Greek in an effort to better understand and
>> interpret the NT. I'm curious how list members would or have
>> responded to such an attitude.
>
> I suspect you will receive quite a range of responses to your question
> or that whatever responses there are will show many different views.
> For my part, I think (a) that one needs to know Koine Greek pretty
> well if one is really going to better understand and interpret the NT:
> it is much more than a matter of parsing the words and picking out the
> glosses in one's own language that match the context; one needs to
> know the basic syntactic patterns of Koine Greek and the ranges of
> meaning of basic lexicographical items in context. An interlinear may
> let you look at the text and see "men like trees walking" but not a
> clear and distinct perception of what the text is communicating. I
> think also (b) that the attitude and approach that one brings to bear
> on reading the Greek; an open mind to alternative possibilities
> allowed by the grammatical rules/patterns of Koine Greek, that certain
> thoughtfulness (some will want to identify this with guidance of the
> Spirit) which opens eyes and mind to what is being communicated in a
> long-dead dialect of an alien language in a text composed in a
> radically different world ages ago. To rephrase it, I think that
> without some real competence in Koine Greek and an appropriate mind-
> set when approaching the GNT, one might really be better off working
> with good versions (preferably more than one) in one's own native
> language.
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Ret)
>
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