[B-Greek] You Are Smarter Than a Lexicon (?) The beat goes on...
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Jun 4 19:59:31 EDT 2010
On Jun 4, 2010, at 6:31 PM, Larry Heflin wrote:
> I think the chorus is singing a rather cynical tune regarding the motive of the people who offer such tools and also of those who may use them. I just can't bring myself to share the indignation. It's a struggle enough to get people to read the Scriptures in their native language, so if someone has enough interest to dabble in the originals I will not discourage it. It's more likely to lead to something good than bad. Most of the people I know that are motivated enough to take an interest in such tools would not operate under the delusion that they are language experts, nor would they represent themselves as such simply because they do word studies, etc. They tend to recognize and give due respect to what is genuine based on more than the ability to sprinkle a message with a Greek word or two, or the pounding of an interlinear on a pulpit. There always has been and there always will be the dupees and the dupers. Historically, those who present
> the greatest threat have always been those with genuine skills who harm other experts as well as the sheep. If I may express my own cynicism, I am more cynical of those who walk the hallowed halls of acedemia than of those who built them. And if I might trespass into theology, hell no doubt is full of people fluent in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, etc, and has no shortage of experts (1 Cor. 1:26-29). Or, maybe this is all just academic.
I grant that the tone has been cynical: the product promises so much and looks too good to be true -- nothing raises suspicions more quickly than that.
I grant too that charlatans are to be found in academia as elsewhere. I myself am dismayed when I see opinions being offered by self-proclaimed Ph.D's without cogent arguments and convincing evidence. And I acknowledge that most congregations know better than to be impressed by Greek-word-dropping in sermons. Dupers and dupees are indeed, as Barnum acknowledged, "born every minute."
My own sour note in this thread has not been triggered so much by this particular piece of software being offered for pre-sale as by the trend it represents -- the seemingly relentless diminution of expectation and desire on the part of seminarians and lay students to acquire solid competence in Biblical Greek.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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