[B-Greek] Objections to Machen (was "In Defense of Machen, ... ")
James Spinti
JSpinti at Eisenbrauns.com
Tue Feb 1 11:55:20 EST 2011
And, the biggest one of all: TRADITION! If it was good enough for the
previous generations, it is good enough for us.
Sadly,
James
________________________________
James Spinti
Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 35 years
Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
Fax: 574-269-6788
-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Carl Conrad
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 11:50 AM
To: Sarah J. Blake
Cc: B-Greek
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Objections to Machen (was "In Defense of
Machen,... ")
On Feb 1, 2011, at 10:29 AM, Sarah J. Blake wrote:
> Carl, your thoughts here are very helpful. How much do you suppose
Machen's KJV preference was affected by his intended audience or his
theology? I am revealing my bias here--I think that even when we do our
best to avoid it, our own theology lends a slight bit of color to the
way that we do things. I tried to put that KJV preference to advantage
with some students, and it worked well. Most of the students in the
courses I have worked with don't read KJV other than as a comparative
text; but for those who did it was a useful mechanism as far as it went,
and once in a while they found something that wasn't in the KJV later
that piqued their curiosity. Many of our students consult other grammars
(particularly Mounce) and find them preferable. Why are we still using
Machen? It is not up to me. :)
Well, I don't really think it's primarily his KJV preferences that
accounts for Machen's continuing popularity with beginning Greek
students and especally with self-learners. I think it has more to do
with the apparent ease of use for self-learners, and I think much of
that ease of use lies in the Greek-to-English and English-to-Greek
exercises (with readily accessible answer keys) -- sentences largely
made-up and artificially based, in many instances, on English patterns
of usage. I've seen some other Koine Greek primers that have sentence
exercises that are questionable for the same reason: made-up sentences
inadequately grounded in standard Greek but in English patterns. But one
of the biggest things going for Machen is the same as what's going for
Strong's and Thayer and such like antiquated tools: although print
versions can be purchased readily, the copyrights have long since
expired and PDF versions are readily accessible on line. Add to that the
lamentable fact that a
great many would-be learners of Biblical Greek really believe that the
grammar/translation/rote paradigms and vocabulary, decoding methodology
for reading is the only way to acquire the sort of familiarity with the
Greek NT that they want. In other words, although a preference for the
KJV may have a little bit to do with it, I think that pedagogical
preconceptions and supply-and-demand factors loom pretty large in the
continued popularity of Machen's primer.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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