Re: reason for b-greek/ATT: Eric Weiss

From: Eric Weiss (eweiss@gte.net)
Date: Sun Dec 13 1998 - 00:42:29 EST


Jim West's and Edgar Krentz's responses to Ted Mann's comments and
questions about my posting respond more adequately than I could. How
flattering to be made the Subject Line of a B-Greek discussion!

I will personally respond to Ted's last comments, i.e.:

> What can be said, I think, is that the odds of coming up with an
> accurate translation of given passages in the NT are better if I
> allow language scholars to tell me what the Bible says, than if I
> rely on those who are deficient in biblical languages. And to do
> that I'm not certain I need to know much about NT Greek.
> Or could I be mistaken?

I would say this last statement is slightly mistaken as I read it. The
more one knows about NT Greek, the more one can "join in the discussion"
with the language scholars, agreeing and even disagreeing with them at
times. Even language scholars have their theological biases.

And for me, it's sometimes not so much being able to come up with an
"accurate translation" as being able to get a better feel or
understanding for what is written. In a recent study of Romans, I toyed
with the three or four possible meanings of "the righteousness of God,"
and kept each one in mind as I speed-read through the book several
times, testing (in my mind) the suitability of each of the
possibilities. I came to Romans 10:4 and saw the linguistic parallel
with Romans 1:16 (which affects one's translation and understanding of
1:17), and was able to play 10:4 and 1:16 off against each other in an
effort to better understand both 1:17 and what Paul might mean by "the
righteousness of God." The flexibility Paul is afforded by the semantic
range of EN in Romans 10:5-9 is often lost in translation, and was not
even really commented on by the commentaries I consulted, so just
relying on language scholars without being able to read the text well
myself would in my opinion be woefully inadequate for interacting with
the text.

Again, just my opinion!

--
"Eric S. Weiss"
http://home1.gte.net/eweiss/index.htm
eweiss@gte.net
S.D.G.

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