[b-greek] Reasons Not To Study Greek

From: Barbara Haney (mlm@mosquitonet.com)
Date: Fri Jun 30 2000 - 16:48:27 EDT


From: "Mark Wilson" wrote <emory2002@hotmail.com>

<snip>
If you do not know the Greek, to a large extent you are dependent on others.
If you do not know Greek, and a "scholar" says a particular word or phrase
"actually" means this, what can you do?<snip>

Mark, this is exactly why my homeschool children do learn Koine. They need
to be able to evaluate arguments of scripture for themselves. I made the
mistake of waiting until my older children were teens to start, and they
have always struggled, or never really grasped the language. My younger ones
learned much younger, and while they don't know as much, they are more
fluent in what they know. (As a younger child says to the older child, "It
must be called a Strong's Concordance because you have to be VERY strong to
open it and use it. It is too heavy. I'd rather learn the word that pick up
the book).

When one of my older sons (now 18) made it through the first part of the
Gospel of John, he ran out and was very excited. The first part of John was
always troublesome for him in the English. He had a better understanding in
the Greek. He has also said that he understands the differences between the
writers of the Gospel tiny bit.

I think it also helps with Logic. I can't quite defend the proposition.
Knowing Koine, or perhaps any inflected language,( or as my youngest says an
infected language, it is infected with all these endings) helps further
refine their thinking skills. A person doesn't necessarily lack thinking
skills if they do NOT study Greek, but I think it does better refine
whatever thinking skills (logical processing of information) they possess.
It teaches them to look at English more critically and helps with their
overall writing skills. Perhaps Latin does the same thing, perhaps Hebrew
does too. Science doesn't seem to be as difficult after a couple years of
Greek... and the terminology of advanced mathematics (like topology theory)
is less daunting.

Grace and Peace

Barbara Haney
Fairbanks, Alaska
mlm@mosquitonet.com


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