[B-Greek] You Are Smarter Than a Lexicon (?)

Fortigurn dixit-dominus at thechristadelphians.org
Thu Jun 3 11:34:11 EDT 2010




Looks like the standard sort of post you can read quite frequently on 
B-Trans, namely that if you're not a professional Bible translator you 
shouldn't be using a lexicon, and if you are then you don't need one 
because you're already awesome. I think you also need to emphasis this part:

 >
Second, you need* someone who is experienced in interpretation to guide 
you* in how to process the data in front of you.* *You need training in 
*what questions to ask and why you’d ask them*.
 >

It's saying clearly that if you aren't trained, you need to ask someone 
who is. And you even need training to figure out what the right 
questions are. Stay off the weed, stay away from the lexicons, don't 
think that just because you have 'Bible study tools' you can understand 
the Bible better than professional translators. Again, nothing more than 
what we can see on B-Trans every week. Stay off the weed. And fair 
enough too. With no professional qualifications in Bible translation 
myself, and not even fluent in the source languages why on earth would I 
think that an interlinear and a lexicon will enable me to produce better 
translations than a professional?

Jonathan Burke.

Carl Conrad wrote:
> There's a new blog entry at the Logos software blog this morning that has me a little bit baffled:
>
> http://blog.logos.com/archives/2010/06/you_are_smarter_than_a_lexicon.html
>
> The question-mark appended to the title of the blog entry in the subject-header above is mine.
> If I'm correctly understanding what the blog-entry is saying, it seems intent on saying that all
> you need to carry out a serious study of a Greek or Hebrew passage is a good Bible software
> package -- presumably Logos (!) -- and in particular the celebrated Logos "reverse interlinear."
>
> The blog post is really aimed at people who evidently have some Greek or Hebrew competence
> but not enough to use their own judgment (that's my interpretation). What ticked me off was
> what it says about consulting a lexicon while studying an original-language text:
>
> "Why do we think that the enterprise of looking up a Greek or Hebrew word to get an English 
> equivalent is a useful thing to do? Professors would answer: 'So you can do translation.'
> We now have hundreds of English translations, so why would we need to do our own? 
> The truth is that knowing thousands of English word equivalents for Hebrew and Greek 
> never made anyone a more careful interpreter."
>
> I've never thought that we should consult a Greek lexicon in order to get an English word for 
> translation -- i.e., for a suitable gloss. I consult a lexicon to learn as much as I can about the
> "personality" of a verb or noun: what authors have used it in what senses in which eras of
> ancient Greek, and I expect to spend some time looking at the exemplary citations for the 
> suggested categorizations of sense.
>
> Ultimately the advice offered is:
>
> "So how can you do better in word study if you’re not a specialist in Hebrew or Greek? 
> There are three truly indispensable things you need for developing skill in handling the 
> Word of God.
>
> "First, you need a means to get at all the data of the text. ... Through reverse interlinears, 
> you can begin with English and mine the Bible for all occurrences of a Greek or Hebrew 
> word. Logos 4 then takes that data and renders it in a variety of visual displays and reports 
> so you can begin to look at the material and think about it from different angles—such as
>  the Bible Word Study report, where you see how your word relates grammatically to 
> other words in the sentence. Second, you need someone who is experienced in interpretation
>  to guide you in how to process the data in front of you. You need training in what questions
>  to ask and why you’d ask them. There is simply no substitute in word study for thinking 
> about the occurrences of a word on your own. Lexicons will give you lists of English 
> choices, but cherry-picking a list isn’t the same thing as asking critical, reflective, 
> interpretive questions about the word in its context. Third, you need practice, practice, 
> and more practice."
>
> I agree with: "There is simply no substitute in word study for thinking about the 
> occurrences of a word on your own. Lexicons will give you lists of English choices, 
> but cherry-picking a list isn’t the same thing as asking critical, reflective, interpretive 
> questions about the word in its context." And I agree with: "you need practice, 
> practice, and more practice."
>
> What bothers me is that the industry and practice here are expended upon what is
> essentially predigested analysis done by others. For my part, I question the value
> of learning a little Greek or a little Hebrew if one isn't going to go deep enough
> to digest the original texts on one's own.
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
>
>
>
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