To me the real hurdle in using etymology in interpretation is that most of
the people who use a language know very little of the etymology of the
language they are using. When I read commentaries that major on etymology,
I find myself wondering if the first readers of the document would have
understood such intricate meanings woven into the text. Zeroing in on one
aspect of the early Christian culture, i.e., the Hebrew background, seems
to me also to be very limiting. A large part of the NT was written by a
gentile who probably had read Thucydides and other Greek works. Even Paul,
if you trust Luke, quoted from Greek philosophers. What we are stabbing at
in our interpretations of these texts is a moving target, moving from
eastern to western even as being written and asking constantly a new set of
questions that have to be answered.
I bid you "goodbye," a word that most people use but don't know that it
came from "God be with you."
grace & peace,
Carlton L. Winbery
Fogleman Professor of Religion
Louisiana College
winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net
winbery@andria.lacollege.edu
Fax (318) 442-4996
Phone (318) 487-7241