[B-Greek] Thomas Paine and Dead Languages: Paine vs. Jefferson, et al.

Dewayne Dulaney dewayne.dulaney at gmail.com
Fri Mar 11 22:55:07 EST 2011


Lest anyone think that Paine's disdain (a bad pun, I know, but my
weakness) for "dead languages" was representative of the Founding
Fathers of the U.S., you may find the following helpful, and
interesting, as I did.

The first item concerns a recent find of some of Jefferson's books in
the collections of Washington University at St. Louis:

"74 of Thomas Jefferson's books identified at Washington University
library", Feb. 21, 2011, Newsroom, Washington University in St. Louis
website, http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/21917.aspx

The article notes that the books, originally part of Thomas
Jefferson's personal library, included works in classical Greek and
Latin, French, Italian, and English.
Among the Greek books were a Greek-Latin edition of the historian
Dionysius of Halicarnassus and a Greek text of Plutarch's Lives.
Especially interesting is the fact that the Plutarch volume was found
to contain a note in Greek in Jefferson's handwriting. (Photo of the
Plutarch book and Jefferson's Greek note included with the article.)

Another source about the classical reading habits of the Founders is
the website of Memoria Press. It  contains some interesting articles
from The Classical Teacher. The article "The Classical Education of
the Founding Fathers", by Martin Cothran, (online at
http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/founding-fathers.html)
mentions that not only did America's Founding Fathers often learn
Greek, Latin, classical literature in the original, and classical
history before entering college, but continued these studies, often
for pleasure as adults, as well. Jefferson, for example, even started
his language studies of Greek and Latin, as well as French, before he
was fourteen years old! Frequently the Fathers quoted from the
classical authors in the original Greek and Latin in their letters.
Jefferson and John Adams were among them. The Greek studies of these
men included both the classics and the Greek Gospels.

In fact it was a requirement of most universities of the time that
students learn Greek and Latin, and read selected classical authors in
the original, before they entered college. Harvard also expected
entering students to be able to translate the Old Testament in Hebrew
and the New Testament in Greek into Latin. The university even forbade
the students to use English in the classroom or in assigments, with
limited exceptions.

While some Founders did come to disdain the classical languages (the
article notes Benjamin Franklin was one of these), those who held to
Christian beliefs did not. And despite the politically correct views
of today, there is abundant evidence from their writings that most
Founders did hold orthodox Christian views. Thus most willingly
learned from, and used in their lives and writings, treasures from the
languages of Plato and Cicero, the Hebrew Bible, and the New
Testament. And even those like Jefferson, who weren't so orthodox,
usually valued the ancient wisdom expressed in Greek and Latin.

Paine's sour grapes, then, were the exception, not the rule.

In Graece, Latine, et Hebraice veritas!/ Ἐν Ἑλληνιστὶ καὶ ͑Ρωμαιστὶ
καὶ ͑Εβραιστὶ ἀληθεία· EN hELLHNISTI KAI hRWMAISTI KAI hEBRAISTI
ALHQEIA!

Δεβένιος Δουλένιος (Dewayne Dulaney)

-- 
"In the world you will have trouble. But, be brave! I have defeated the world!"
—John 16:33, DDV (Dewayne Dulaney Version)

My Bible blogs: http://my.opera.com/Loquor/blog/ and
http://hasopher.preachersfiles.com/



More information about the B-Greek mailing list