Re: Grammatical errors in Revelation?

From: Edgar Krentz (ekrentz@lstc.edu)
Date: Tue May 18 1999 - 15:28:45 EDT


>At 04:52 PM 5/16/99 -0400, Jim West wrote:
>
>>On the "errors" of Rev - yes, it is terrible greek.
>
>I am uncomfortable with the assumption that we can make this kind of
>judgement. Revelation is certainly effective and breathtaking language
>which has captured the imagination of many people.
>
>It is also unusual Greek, different in style from the rest of the New
>Testament. But most of it is understandable, and gripping, if breathless
>and idiosyncratic. It reminds me of a Van Gogh who piles on paint instead
>of brushing it on.
>
>Remember when people used to say that Hemingway was badly written? Many
>English writers are idiosyncratic - E.E. Cummings, Faulkner, Langston
>Hughes...I suppose we could say each of these wrote 'terrible English', but
>that would be missing the point.

Jonathan,

It aint real good to make the tes 'o outstandin correctness fur sintax a
decision as to whether or not one has communicated. I trust the prior
sentence communicated, even though.

You are applying a modern standard to ancient Greek, which did not know it.
sorry about that, but the Apocalypse simply has some construkctions that a
first year Greek student paper would get a red line through.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Edgar Krentz
Professor of New Testament Emeritus
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
1100 E. 55th Street
Chicago, IL 60615 USA
773-256-0752
e-mail: ekrentz@lstc.edu (Office)
 GHRASKW AEI POLLA DIDASKOMENOS.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

---
B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-329W@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:40:27 EDT