Vasiliki Didaskalou wrote:I notice that this forum lends itself to be slightly on the 'dry" side ...
From 1992 until quite recently, B-Greek was a mailing list, and around 1997 we developed very careful rules about what was permitted on the list and what was not.
These rules are a mixed blessing. We manage to have very good discussions about Greek and about the texts, among a group of people with very different beliefs. If we allowed religious debate, or had a lot of personal sharing about the meaning of these texts, I think it would be very hard to focus on the texts themselves.
But sometimes the rigidity does make things dry. And part of B-Greek, for me, has always been the discussions on the sidelines, in email, about matters of faith that we don't discuss here.
Vasiliki Didaskalou wrote:I find that quite amusing because to properly learn Greek you must get into the mind set and culture of the Greek heart and soul; they are never "dry" people and that is reflected in the rich language they have left behind.
So, for the sake of improving the "learning" of "Greek" it would be nice to inject some life and love and humour in this forum perhaps by starting with understanding the cultural background of people and religion ...
Of course, modern Greek culture has evolved quite a bit since the time of the New Testament, but I do think it's still relevant.
Vasiliki Didaskalou wrote:Myself, I am born in Australia to Greek migrants. I am educated (Bach of Engineering) and I was baptised an Orthodox Christian (as are most Greek people). However, I must say, I have spent most of my adult life pursuing God, human history, language etc and I can say that I have chosen to be Orthodox Christian by choice.
That has led me to pursue and understand my faith in an academic sense (not just in a spiritual sense that is a given since that is a way of life) - a hobby ...
I've really enjoyed Greek Orthodox services in Brisbane twice - including one Easter service after a flight that managed to erase Western Easter entirely, so I was very happy to be able to celebrate Easter on a different date. It's easy to follow the liturgy, which I very much enjoy, but when they switch to modern Greek and tell me there's a car in the parking lot that has the lights on, I get completely lost.
Vasiliki Didaskalou wrote:Now, your turn: what is your reason for pursuing the deciphering of the Greek language?
Does your background inhibit or enhance your experience?
I've been a Mennonite most of my adult life. Not the suspenders-and-buggies kind of Mennonite, the "what Jesus said and did" kind of Mennonite. We don't usually do a whole lot of scholarly anything.
I originally started learning Greek because I wanted to know which doctrines were correct, and which translations were correct. I thought that learning Greek would allow me to parse correct doctrine directly out of the text, and to know which translations were correct. Silly me.
I continue to love Greek because I hear the voices of the original writers come through in a way that they don't in translation, I notice the details, and I just love the language. And there's a simplicity in just reading the text carefully, without imposing theology on it, that I find very compatible with my approach to faith.
I'm self taught, and still very much learning, though, I'm not in the same league as the experts on this forum.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;