Sarah Howell

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Sarah Howell
Posts: 8
Joined: June 13th, 2013, 3:56 am

Sarah Howell

Post by Sarah Howell »

Hello everyone,
I am hoping that this forum will answer a few questions that I have which require a working knowledge of Koine Greek.

I was raised in a strongly evangelical home, became a Christian as a child, and as a young person studied for three years at the Bible College of New Zealand. I started at BTh level. Unfortunately ill health prevented me from continuing at degree level after my first year. I continued to attend lectures with the other BTh students but did not sit the external exams. I took NT Greek in my first year only so have a very limited understanding of the language. I am ashamed to say that the declension of verbs got the better of me! My first year at Bible College was 30 years ago so what I learned then is very rusty. I have a copy of Stephens Interlinear and use the online version of Strongs quite a bit. I have looked at Codex Sinaiticus online at times too.

Throughout my childhood years through to early twenties I was a very strong evangelical Christian. From my mid twenties I
began to move away from evangelical belief and over a period of about 20 years finally came to a position of unbelief. Throughout this time I have continued to read the Bible and think about some aspect of Christian belief every day. I am interested in how the history of Palestine and the wider area influenced the biblical writers. I enjoy reading about customs of the period, writing styles, the use of Midrash etc etc

I participate in an online forum which has a mix of believers and unbelievers posting. We have vigorous discussions about the Bible. Whilst posting there I often wish that my knowledge of Greek was more extensive than it is. (None of the other participants appear to have any knowledge of Greek apart from a couple who demonstrate the ability to look up Strongs.)
My reason for wanting to join this forum is to ask a few questions in the Beginners section for clarification of syntax so that I can help others in this online group with the meaning of a few passages that we have been discussing recently.

I want assure you that, although I am no longer a Christian, I have no intention of mocking anyone of the Christian faith.
Thank you for reading this.
Sarah Howell
New Zealand
Jason Hare
Posts: 951
Joined: June 2nd, 2011, 5:28 pm
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
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Re: Sarah Howell

Post by Jason Hare »

Hello, Sarah.

Religious conviction is surely not a requirement for participation on B-Greek.

At the same time, we insist that participants avoid posting their theological opinions of texts and stick to the meaning of the written words, the syntax of the verse in question, etc.

Have you thought of getting involved in an online study of a Greek textbook to augment what you already know and better found you for reading and understanding the Greek New Testament?

Welcome aboard.

Jason
Jason A. Hare
The Hebrew Café
Tel Aviv, Israel
Sarah Howell
Posts: 8
Joined: June 13th, 2013, 3:56 am

Re: Sarah Howell

Post by Sarah Howell »

Hello Jason,
Thanks for your reply and welcome to me to the forum. I have at times looked at websites the purpose of which is to teach Koine Greek, but I'm afraid I just can't get my head around all of the rules eg those relating to tense etc. Maybe if I had a better grasp of English it would help. (As you can probably tell from the little that I have written here, my grammar could easily be improved...)
Sarah
Jesse Goulet
Posts: 87
Joined: October 15th, 2011, 12:48 pm

Re: Sarah Howell

Post by Jesse Goulet »

Sarah Howell wrote:I participate in an online forum which has a mix of believers and unbelievers posting. We have vigorous discussions about the Bible. Whilst posting there I often wish that my knowledge of Greek was more extensive than it is. (None of the other participants appear to have any knowledge of Greek apart from a couple who demonstrate the ability to look up Strongs.)
That sounds like www.theologyweb.com, where I simply sit at the sidelines since I have neither the time or extensive reading knowledge to jump into debate. If this isn't the website, than what is it then? I'm interested.

And welcome.
Sarah Howell
Posts: 8
Joined: June 13th, 2013, 3:56 am

Re: Sarah Howell

Post by Sarah Howell »

Hello Jesse
Here in New Zealand we have an online auction site called "Trade Me" which has message boards. The board which I participate in is called "New Age and Spirituality" which obviously is very broad in its scope. A lot of the discussion there is about Christianity. One does need a Trade Me account to participate and this requires an Australian or New Zealand residential address.

(Just curious - are there any other Kiwis on this forum?)
Sarah
Louis L Sorenson
Posts: 711
Joined: May 5th, 2011, 9:21 pm
Location: Burnsville, MN, USA
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Re: Sarah Howell

Post by Louis L Sorenson »

Sarah,

Welcome to B-Greek!

If you want to learn Greek online, check out the Greekstudy group. http://www.quasillum.com/study/greekstudy.php. There are several beginning groups that are going, and they start new ones regularly.

Louis Sorenson [a B-Greek administrator]
Sarah Howell
Posts: 8
Joined: June 13th, 2013, 3:56 am

Re: Sarah Howell

Post by Sarah Howell »

Thank you for that link Louis.
Sarah Howell
Posts: 8
Joined: June 13th, 2013, 3:56 am

Re: Sarah Howell

Post by Sarah Howell »

I have had a couple of private messages about difficulties that this forum has had in the past with people taking information gleaned here to other forums which has resulted in others coming here to debate theological issues. I am posting this to reassure members that I have no intention of participating in this sort of activity. If I do use anything that I learn here, elsewhere, I will not mention B-Greek as the source. I understand fully the need to keep theological discussion out of B-Greek.
Kind regards to all
Sarah
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