[B-Greek] FW: Spiros Zodhiates?

Barry H. nebarry at verizon.net
Wed Apr 13 00:29:29 EDT 2011


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Weed, Brian K." <bweed at ccphilly.org>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 12:02 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] FW: Spiros Zodhiates?


>I meant to sign this...
>
> Brian Weed
>
> From: Weed, Brian K.
> Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 11:46 AM
> To: 'b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org'
> Subject: Spiros Zodhiates?
>
> I'm a Greek self learner just finished with Wallace and getting ready to 
> read all the way through the GNT for the first time. Most people in my 
> church don't read Greek, and one of the popular ways to get around that if 
> they're teaching or studying is for them to use the reference works by 
> Spiros Zodhiates.
>
> I don't use any of his works because I've followed the track Mounce 
> started for me... and so I've got the GK stuff and the NIGTC stuff and 
> BDAG, etc...
>
> In fact, I'm not aware that a single commentary or reference work I've 
> read which ever mentions Zodhiates. Does anyone know why? Does anyone know 
> anything about him, specifically, why he's not referenced by the GNT 
> scholarly world?

I occasionally used to listen to his radio program, which started with the 
tag line "A Greek reading his Greek New Testament."  However, I found his 
comments and teaching about ordinary, if I may so characterize them 
subjectively.  That doesn't mean he didn't come up with occasional good 
insights or applications, simply that his use of the Greek did not 
contribute extraordinarily to what he had to say.  In general, he would 
comment about a Greek word or a Greek tense and then make some sort of 
connection to what he wanted to say.  As I recall -- again, subjective, and 
it's been years, he used a typical, kind of fundamentalist/evangelical 
hermeneutic as the real basis for his interpretation, and his Greek was 
about what you would expect for a Bible school graduate or seminary graduate 
from the 50's or 60's.  In other words, he subscribed implicitly to 
linguistic theories which many would now feel outdated.

I suspect that most commentaries don't mention him because he tended more 
toward the devotional, and not really toward scholarly work as NT studies 
tends to define it.

N.E. Barry Hofstetter, semper melius Latine sonat...
Classics and Bible Instructor, TAA
http://www.theamericanacademy.net
(2010 Salvatori Excellence in Education Winner)
V-P of Academic Affairs, TNARS
bhofstetter at tnars.net
http://www.tnars.net

http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry






More information about the B-Greek mailing list