[B-Greek] Silva on the purpose of Greek

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Apr 8 14:00:44 EDT 2011


I've just noticed in Rod Decker's NT Resources Blog a very nice citation from Moisés Silva from his introduction to the revised version of Machen's textbook.

http://ntresources.com/blog/?p=864

I am somewhat astounded. The part that Rod cites strikes me as profoundly true. What astounds me is the collocation of this statement with this text. To be honest, I have not seen and do not really know much about the revision; I know, alas, all too much about the original edition of Machen's primer.

Here's the citation:

"Indeed, it makes little sense to pretend that one can make a scholarly contribution to the understanding of a piece of ancient literature apart from a close familiarity with ancient literature as a whole in its original linguistic form. How seriously would we take an analysis of say, Milton’s Paradise Lost, if it were offered by a non-English speaker who had not read—and in fact could not read—widely in English literature?

"The kind of competence in view here does not necessarily lead to a display of linguistic fireworks. In fact, such knowledge often does not even rise to the surface, but that does not mean it has been unproductive. Language students, to be sure, typically feel cheated if as a result of their hard work they cannot come up with exegetical razzle-dazzle. Teachers, therefore, afraid that their students will lose motivation, try hard to find interpretive “golden nuggets” that prove there is a rich payoff to language study. If used with much care, this approach can be helpful. But there is always the danger of feeding the common mind-set that says, “Something is valuable only if I can see its immediate relevance.”

"It is not the primary purpose of language study to provide the means for reaching astounding exegetical conclusions, although sound linguistic training can at least prevent  students from adopting inadmissible interpretations. The true goal of learning New testament Greek is rather to build a much broader base of knowledge and understanding than the student would otherwise have. Occasionally, this knowledge may indeed supply fairly direct answers to exegetical questions. But what matters most is the newly acquired ability to interpret texts responsibly on the basis of comprehensive rather than fragmented (and therefore distorted) information.

"Of course, most people who take up the study of New Testament Greek do not intend to write technical and original works of scholarship. They want skills that will allow them to use commentaries and other reference works effectively. They also hope to do serious exegetical work on their own. But the principles and benefits of language learning remain fundamentally the same. An effective, reliable biblical exposition need not rely on complex discussions of meanings of Greek words or on the supposed subtleties of the aorist tense, but it certainly should arise out of genuine firsthand familiarity with the original text."

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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