I was heading into work this morning and wanted to make a quick stop into Starbucks for a medium Americano to help me wake up. (No, I don’t ask for a tall, grande or venti.) The location where I go, inside the lobby of Furnitureland South, sometimes has a small chalkboard next to the register with a Question of the Day written on it. Usually, it has spaces for two winners for a free coffee. This morning none had been entered yet.

The question was, “What language was the Old Testament written in?”

Knowing immediately that the Old Testament was actually written mostly in Hebrew and some in Aramaic, I wondered what answer she was looking for.

“The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew,” I said. “And some parts in Aramaic.”

“Nooo… Answer’s Greek. Sorry,” says the barista.

“Actually the Old Testament, which is Genesis through Malachi was written in Hebrew and Aramaic. The New Testament, which is Matthew through Revelation was written in Greek. Koine Greek, actually.”

“Oh,” she says quizzically. “I’ll have to change that. You know, I just finished a Religion class and we didn’t learn any of that.”

That made perfect sense to me. It was a religion class she took. Not a class on the Bible. Many religious teachings are based, not on the Bible, but on various traditions and philosophies.

“I remember the acronym H-A-G for Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek – the languages of the Bible and their order. I remember 88 keys on a piano and 66 books of the Bible. Things like that help me to remember facts,” I said trying to offset her embarrassment as she edited the question.

I wrote my name down on the winner #1 line of the board and walked away with a free coffee. I felt good that I didn’t have to pay for my coffee, but also had a kinda sad feeling. It made me feel like facts, especially when they are associated with the Bible, are dismissed as either unimportant or entirely debatable. There’s a reason why people have jokes about dusty Bibles.

Everyone has the freedom to believe what they want to about the Bible -the mostly widely produced and distributed and influential book of all time – but don’t try to come to class and do a book report on a book you haven’t even read.

That, my friends, is a fail for any book and for any season.

Title: Learn to Read New Testament Greek (Third Edition)

Author: David Alan Black

Bibliographic info: XIV + 258

Cover: Hard

Publisher: B&H Academic (2009)

ISBN-10: 0805444939

ISBN-13: 9780805444933

Buy it from Amazon

With thanks to B&H Acadamic for the review copy!

David Alan Black is a Professor of NT and Greek at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina.

This introductory New Testament Greek grammar is divided into 26 chapters, each of which is a lesson on a particular aspect of learning to read New Testament Greek. Each chapter includes a list of vocabulary to learn, as well as a section of exercise questions, which thankfully have the answers in the appendices. This New Testament Greek primer is relatively concise compared to other ones out there, like Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek.

The lessons start off with such essentials as learning the Greek alphabet, and then moves onto the present and future active indicative verbs. Next up are nouns of the second and third declensions, followed by adjectives of the first and second declensions. Imperfect, aorist, perfect, and pluperfect indicative verbs are next, as well as a chapter on prepositions. Black then moves onto pronouns, middle and passive indicatives, followed by an overall review of the indicative system. Nouns of the third declension are next, as well as adjectives and pronouns of the first and third declensions. The final chapters cover such topics as contract and liquid verbs, participles, infinitives, the subjunctive, imperative, and optative moods, and finally, the conjugation of –mi verbs.

On the inside back cover of the book, there is a large fold-out Greek verb chart sheet which for the sake of completeness contains some forms that do not even occur in the New Testament. Needless to say it is a quite large chart, though it is very helpful. I remember trying to make a similar chart when I first started learning Greek, though mine was nowhere near as nice and tidy as this one.

There are nine appendices to this book:

1. The Greek Accents
2. The Greek Alphabet Song
3. Key to the Exercises
4. Noun Paradigms
5. Case-Number Suffixes
6. Person-Number Suffixes
7. Summary of Prepositions
8. Words Differing in Accentuation or Breathing
9. Principal Parts of Selected Verbs

This book also arrived in my mailbox with the workbook by Ben Gutierrez and Cara Murphy, Learn to Read New Testament Greek Workbook: Supplemental Exercises for Greek Grammar Students.

This workbook is full of questions that will really help one to put into practice what was learnt from the textbook. I especially like the fact that the questions are not just all about translating from Greek to English, but that it also contains a lot of translating from English to Greek questions. My one gripe with the workbook is that I really think that it should have an answer key provided, because a lot of people teach themselves Greek and so will not have the benefit of a classroom setting where a teacher can provide them with the answers. Although, I recently learned that one can apparently email the publisher and they will provide a pdf copy of an answer key.

Overall, I thought that Black’s primer on New Testament Greek is a great way to start learning to read New Testament Greek. Though, I would strongly recommend getting the workbook with it as well, as it will really help cement in your mind all of the things you learn from the textbook.

My latest (only?) work of art (okay, “art” is a stretch): An Outline of Basic Biblical Greek Grammar. Something I cooked up this year for my first-year students. To quickly view the entire sheet from (1) Firefox: Move your pointer over the image, right-click, and select “view image” from the menu with a left click. (2) Internet Explorer: Move your pointer over the image, right-click, select “save picture as . . .” from the menu with a left click, hit enter, go to “My Pictures,” scroll to the image of the Cheat Sheet (its title begins with “Outline”), and double-click the image. On second thought, download Firefox, and go to number one.Want a copy? Download one from the “My Shared Files” widget found in the right-hand margin of this website or get one here.

This article was developed and posted on the ScribD website almost a year ago and has been ranked by Google as the fourth most linked and accessed document on the Greek Church Fathers out of 965,000 documents with the same search criteria. I was quite amazed.

Τhe purpose of the document is to help those with skills in New Testament Greek to transfer their expertise into translating Patristic writings.

It has now taken a second step and is being posted in HTML format here in WordPress as an alternative to the pdf at ScribD.

Portions of the text were updated as well which it make it much clearer and more detailed. Unfortunately it was discovered that Perseus has recently updated their software and it has changed its interface. It will take time to look into this and adapt the article to these changes. 

The article can be found by clicking on this link.

William

this is my first day getting ubuntu to run on a 250gig old tower machine with wifi

took me literally 40 hours of experimenting cause documentation is poor and installation programs are not intuitively obvious

5:33am

Nyc
Linux is for Enterprise, not entertainment
more stable than windows
when I worked at FriendFinder it was a 24/7 shop and it took over 3 months before I saw a box crash
at least they finally adopted a GUI for installing programs, not too many years back it was all done via the Command Line

6:19am
William
just now i succeeded in getting into paltalk in ubuntu with foxpro, and it supports mic and headphones
i couldt do that with Wubi Ubuntu intalled on WIndows
but this is a pure Ubuntu system

6:21am
Nyc
wanna field test VivaVox on Ubuntu?

6:25am William
hmmm…. interesting…. i wonder what or IF it will install on my ubuntu
Kamal would know
good questions
try to invite me, and we will see

6:26am William
its installing now
vivox is not compatible with my build of firefox
thats the message i got

6:28am Nyc
bummer, Kamal needs to know that

6:31am William
i just tried to message him and firefox crashed
it restored this session

6:31am Nyc
oops

6:31am William
but you know, i updated TODAY an hour ago
so, i must have the latest firefox ubuntu build

6:31am Nyc
try a complete restart

6:32am William
good idea… i just sent Kamal the message

6:36am William
i just reloaded firefox, but still no install, and this time i got valuable info about the linux build

Linux-x86-gcc3
so i need to tell Kamal

6:37am William
you know, everything is so much faster in this ubuntu
i am amazed
i think windows has too much overhead with antivirus firewalls etc
of course, i never could get one single person to try out vivox with me under windows
so, i dont think I will cry too hard

6:51am Nyc
I’m running Snow Leopard, Ubuntu and xp on this box, with has 2 quad cores running at 2.66 and 16 gigs of DDR3 RAM, so overhead isn’t a problem

6:58am William
I had a LONG talk in that EMPATHY chat client with my long time friend who is a doctor in Tehran
and it is SUPER FAST
cause I was also chatting with a woman in nyc, and a long time friend in Singapore

7:00am Nyc
was in Berlin last week for the Last Hurrah of the West

7:00am William
oh right
pbs is showing some documentary about how the Beatles helped to defeat the Soviet Union

7:01am Nyc
google ‘Plastic People Of the Universe’ + Hungary

7:01am William
this is so fast and it is only WIFI
I couldnt get ethernet to work

7:02am Nyc
The Velvet Underground had more to do with the collapse than the Beatles

7:02am William
but cabled Ethernet is supposed to be faster than wifi

7:02am Nyc
I used to be able to buy Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ in the DDR’s hard currency Intershops as a child
on vinyl. The State allowed it because it was in keeping with their Principles

7:04amWilliam
Socrates and Jesus died over principles. Principles can be rather toxic at times.
Im so clever I scare myself sometimes, ha ha

7:05amNyc
I’ve always believed that both those characters are fictional products of Plato’s Academy
sucker existed for 900 years after Plato’s death

7:06amWilliam
I spend a lot of time in Paltalk Catholic chat, because the average age is 50, so it is some companionship
but some of the people really irritate me
but its better than the other chat rooms

7:07amNyc
no doubt

7:07amWilliam
but this one guy gives everyone a hard time if they do not capitalize the g in God
so I lectured him that he will go to hell for missing the message of the Gospel
I said that in ancient hebrew and greek there was NO LOWER CASE
lower case was a recent innovation

7:08amNyc
logic doesn’t enter into it with the indoctrinated

7:08amWilliam
so i said he would be in the crowd who says “Lord Lord I worked miracles in your name
and Jesus said “go away I never knew you
I told him that he misses the entire point of the Gospels which is HUMILITY
i said that’s why Jesus washed everyone’s feet
he said he just wants to show God respect
I said that he is a control freak who judges others
ha ha, he had a hard time dealing with what i had to say

7:10amNyc
Have you read ‘Jesus Is A Jerk’ ?

7:10amWilliam
then this other goody two shoes preacher type started to say to me “… my friend”
so i told him that i NEVER trust anyone who uses that phrase “…my friend”
and i don’t
i said that in life friends are few and far between, and don’t need to be told “my friend”

all the Paki Muslims that argue with me always, without fail, say “my friend” and “my dear”

I told the preacher guy why i despise all the radio and tv ministers
the fact is that all this “personal relationship with Jesus” is an innovation of the 20th century

7:12amNyc
all the hot dog vendors in NYC say ‘my friend’

7:12amWilliam
because in the 19th century in America, in the 1st and 2nd GREAT AWAKENINGS of the revivalists
the most famous sermon was ‘in the hands of an angry God‘
and it was all Calvinism
Jesus wasnt your “buddy pal”

7:13amNyc
found it: http://godisimaginary.com/i39.htm
have you seen ‘Dogma’ ?

7:13amWilliam
even Jesus said “you are my friends IF you do as I say”

7:14amNyc
The ‘Buddy Jesus’ plays a role in that movie

7:14amWilliam
there is no place really in the bible which says “yes, Jesus loves me”
like that old song “the bible tells me so”

I searched long and hard, and there is only ONE passage in one gospel that vaguely substantiates Jesus loving someone

and i know a protestant would rebuttal with “greater love hath no man than to give his live”

well, stop and think about heros like Patrick Henry

7:15amNyc
The Buddy Jesus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BEZaPN8gUY

7:15amWilliam
or posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor winners

7:16amNyc
I met a direct descendant of Nathan Hale in DC

7:16amWilliam
yes, they have great love, to give their life for their country, but they do not have a PERSONAL relationship with those for whom they sacrifice

If I gave up my life tomorrow to help the suffering people in some African nation… it is an IMPERSONAL act

7:17amNyc
hmm

7:17amWilliam
and the whole Protestant reformation twists the rhetoric to argue that we are SAVED from our just punishment by our lipservice faith
yet, the epistle of James (which Luther HATED) says, “the devils believe, and tremble”

So, obviously demons had faith and knew who and what Christ was, but that didnt save them

7:19amNyc
The Koine New Testament was the Fox News of its day

7:19amWilliam
and the most christian person of the 20th century was Gandhi, who rejected Christianity as his personal religion

an Athenian in highschool today has an easier time understanding Xenophons greek than Koine greek

and in the gospels where is says jesus took the bread and broke it…

the word is “artos EKLASE”

Which was the koine for break KLASO

but in modern Greek it means HE FARTED

LIKE broke wind

same root

and britches is related to BREECH of a gun, and the root means NOISE

i.e. fart

so, the peasants in church when the gospel is read in koine greek, they cant understand it

7:21amNyc
huh

7:21amWilliam
so, the priest in the sermon usually gives an elaborate explanation
well, a greek priest came to our monastery, and gave a sermon like that, and afterwards, apologized
because he forgot that we all knew koine greek
he was used to the villagers who needed a synopsis recap

7:22amNyc
whoa
what are the odds of a congregation being fluent in koine in the 20th century?

7:23amWilliam
well, unless they studied like we did, they wont know
when i recite church slavonic to russian speakers, they cant understand a word
only people who STUDY church slavonic understand it, even if the speak a modern slavic language

i mean, if you read the entire Philokalia, which was written by 70 authors between 300 ad and 1100ad
you will not see a single HINT of protestant piety

7:25amNyc
kalia?

7:25amWilliam
Philokalia

7:25amNyc
Kalia means?

7:25amWilliam
is a collection of writings for monastic life on Mt. Athos

Kalia means wholesomeness

7:26amNyc
got it

7:26amWilliam
in modern greek “kalos kagathos” means a fine gentleman
fine and dandy
but, it is honorific, not pejorative

7:26amNyc
great song

7:26amWilliam
kalos kai agathos
a contraction to ka’gathos
so philo-sophia is contrasted with philo-kalia

like Paul, on that hill of mars…
the greeks seek after some new idea

7:27amNyc

7:27amWilliam
that sort of thing

7:37amWilliam
hope i didnt gross you out with all the theology
but, that is my lifelong thing, comparative religions
so, when you look at someone like Hans Kung
his mental feat was like climbing mt everest
so, after years of study, he is at the top, and he gets this panoramic view

So, he shouts down to everyone on the ground what he sees
EXCEPT, they cant understand, unless and until THEY climb a mt everest

7:39amNyc
right you’ve mentioned that before

7:39amWilliam
and they cant really hear what he is really saying up there,k because of the distnace,

7:39amNyc
i deal with that everyday

7:40amWilliam
so they dont even know WHAT he is saying, much less WHY

William
same with Kurt Godel’s indefiniteness proof
very few know OF it and its import
but only a handful are cabaple of FOLLOWING IT
and they say that IF You can follow it, it is like an ecstatic revelation
king of like mastering Euclids final theorem where he inscribes all the perfect solids in a sphere
except 1000 times more difficult
which MEANS that most of us take such things on FAITH
LIKE relativity quantum heisenbergs uncertaintity, schroedingers cat
or dna, quarks muons, even atoms

7:52amNyc
65% of all humans alive lack the ability for abstract thought

7:52amWilliam
just like Karl Popper says… we CANNOT Know that every atom of copper in the universe conducts electricity, because we cannot TEST every atom of copper

7:53amNyc
that’s been true for our entire history that we’ve skittered about on the face of the Earth

7:53amWilliam

and much to the chagrin of Noam Chomsky, there is a tribe of 500 in the Brazilian rain forest who speak a language that has no RECURSION

and Chomsky’s big theory is that every language is recursive

So when I say, “yesterday, I saw a man walking down the road wearing a red hat” that is a recursive linguistic structure

The Pidaha tribe (pronounced Piranha) would say “last day. man walking. walking road. has hat. hat like blood
and they dont have words for colors like red
or numbers the way we understand number

William
Cool stuff
but only cool to the really cool few, sadly

I wish I could die on a cross so that all future generations would enjoy such realizations, and i would do it out of LOVE, but not personal individual love, as in a “personal relationship”, but an abstract kind of love.

William

Would you be offended if i posted an edited version of this chat in my facebook notes.. just curious to see what some of the catholics say.

its cools stuff
that only comes out during discourse

8:05amNyc
sure, i was thinking the same thing

8:05amWilliam
great, and i am editing out the parts where you admit to masturbating and picking your nose
ha ha , just kidding

8:06amNyc
leave those in, they’re key

8:06amWilliam
imagine having lunch with ratzinger and kung, and your first question is “have you ever masturbated or picked your nose”
i know everone picks their nose
i am not certain about the universality of masturbation

8:08amWilliam
and Sartre points out that it is utterly impossible to pick your nose AND masturbate simultaneously with the same hand, UNLESS your dick fits in your nostril, in which case it is so small as to be a mere pecadillo

8:09amNyc
i had an encounter at the EPA Building in DC where a guard pointed out the cameras in an attempt to intimidate me, so I faced the cam picked my nose and ate the booger

8:09amWilliam
you do realize that just now i reached a height which surpasses even Seinfeld and Family guy. This may be my apotheosis

8:13amNyc

thanks for the reminder
downloading the Seinfeld reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm right now

8:17amWilliam

I figure mortality and discord are two survival traits of our species
in theory an individual could be immoratl,… but then the species would not be flexible, to adapt to changing circumstances
and, if we all saw things the same way and agreed, then, there would be no diversity,
you would not have some desert dwellers, some mount dwellers, some sea-farers, some rain forest people
we would not have spread out to occupy diverse ecological niches
our survival trait means we will always be divided on key issues
so, if we used weapons of mass destruction to eleminate all our ideological enemies… why in a few generations,
more sectarian and partisan divisions would arrise

8:22amNyc
there have already been 5 extinctions in Earth’s history. I fail to see what makes humans more specialer than any other species

Watch this:

:|

Another email from Luke appeared in my inbox this morning. Yet another set of photographs (to be found here) and a poem entitled Absolution. The photos are from our sessions back in July when we were experimenting with the box of wigs and assorted paraphernalia that Leonard had retrieved from the loft. There are very few mirrors in the workroom so this is the first time that I have seen myself wearing the hairpieces. I feel odd when looking at the pictures because I barely recognise myself in them!

The poem in the main body of the message is quite unlike the others that I have read. No aggression, no malice or self pity as is so commonplace in Luke’s poetry. It’s apologetic and – dare I say – almost cheery!

Absolution

When the pump and the swell of my body is done
And I’m called to your side when the battle is won
See me not as accuser, nor bearer of pride,
But a friend and an equal who stands at your side.
For we need one another more than darkness needs light
And without an aggressor there is no need to fight.

The intended recipient of Luke’s words is unclear in most of his writings. Although his/her identity is never made explicit, it is clear that his sentiments are directed at someone in particular. Is it selfish to secretly wish that his next poem will begin with ‘my dearest Helen’ or ‘to the one I love’? But it is precisely this air of ambiguity and mystery that draws me to him. Plus he is such an amazing teacher. Leonard is an excellent teacher too – that goes without saying – but there is a point that Leonard will take a conversation to and then stop and change the subject as though he has been warned not to cross a line and reveal too much information. But where Leonard finishes, Luke takes over. Luke makes little comments, teaches me new words and shows me simple techniques that open up entirely new lines of thought and pathways of research. Whereas Leonard is guarded and obsessed with the importance of secrecy, Luke is much more forthcoming and eager to share his knowledge with me. But Luke never discusses a subject that Leonard has not already raised; it is as though Leonard is setting the pace for my learning.

When I expressed my concerns about dabbling with the dead and, more recently, with the demonic, Luke was very reassuring but suggested that I did not tell Leonard about my experimentations. He told me that Leonard would be hugely encouraging of these activities and reminded me that Leonard himself had provided me with the raw materials for these experimentations in the form of The Omega Course, however he added that since Leonard is aware of the ‘dangers’ and he is so protective of me, there is no need to worry him unnecessarily.

Speaking of teaching, Leonard is in the process of writing a beginner’s guide to Biblical Greek and he has asked me to read through the drafts. I find it very amusing that he manages to ’shoehorn’ his painting into almost every subject and the introduction to the book is no exception:

On another note; Luke and I found a wonderful piano piece in a dusty pile of cassettes in the workroom a few weeks ago. It is Chopin’s Nocturne Op.72 in E Minor. I’ve bought a copy of the piano sheet music and I have been playing it constantly during Luke’s sittings. We both love it so much that it has become ‘our song’ (wow things must be getting serious!)…

They say that the human brain is like a sponge at a young age.  And of course, this is the age that children begin to first learn language.  So I figured, what better time than now to begin teaching my daughter ancient Greek!

Here is my daughter Nev, at age 2 years and 3 months, reciting the Greek alphabet:

The girl is a genius!

“Plures linguas scire gloriosum esset, patet exemplo Catonis, Mithridates, Apostolorum.”
Comenius, Linguarum methodus novissima, XXI

Plaça del Mercat d’Osca

Esbrinar l’abast dels parlars èuscars -enllà del seu actual domini, durant el període de fraccionament de la romania i encara després- és una qüestió que ha interessat els filòlegs, com ho ha fet la de l’extensió i supervivència dels parlars àrabs en els territoris conquerits i reocupats per cristians. Composar-se una idea mínimament acurada d’aquestes coses no només interessa a la història de les respectives llengües, ans també ajuda a conèixer com i per quins mitjans i motius es va consolidar i va assolir la hegemonia una koiné basco-romanç, empesa primerament pel seu valor com a llengua d’intercanvi comercial, que per raons geogràfiques i de conjuntura política acabà per assimilar-se al castellà primer i a l’espanyol més tard.

I si us sembla un altre dia ja parlem del procés, més aviat banal i previsible, que dissortadament transforma una lingua franca que no implicava cap adscripció nacional en el tòtem de les essències pàtries en què tants han fet tant per a convertir-la.

We’ve all heard preachers and teachers wax eloquent over this one (and most of us have no doubt done it ourselves!), but Dr. Mounce bursts all our bubbles today on the words agape and phileo. He writes

αγαπαω (αγαπη) [agape] was a colorless word without any great depth of meaning.

Perhaps it is because the word was so colorless that the New Testament writers chose it to express a specifically Christian kind of love, most importantly God’s love for his unlovely creation. All those great talks you have heard about αγαπη love being an undeserved love for the unlovely really has nothing to do with what the Greek word meant in the Koine. Rather, the word was infused with God’s love and so after the first century carried the biblical nuances of God’s love.

φιλεω [phileo] overlaps in meaning with αγαπη so care needs to be exercised in assuming there are always specific differences in meaning between these two words.

Read it here.

Propuesta a mou de koiné

Hemos de buscar rasgos generales y escoger entre los no comunes entre el occidental y el oriental, buscando plasmar en lo posible los rasgos que caracterizan nuestra lengua.

Además, debemos buscar un equilibrio entre variantes, facilitar la riqueza expresiva y léxica, la unidad de estilo y evitar caer en la artificialidad por buscar más de lo debido las diferencias con el castellano. Así, seleccionaríamos:

-El plural masculino en “–o”: Los Tejos (oci.)

-Los verbos del modelo occidental,  con terminaciones en “–o” en el gerundio y los distintos tiempos verbales, y en ”–u” en los participios: tengo vistu.

-Las terminaciones apocopadas de 3ª persona del singular en presente: “él tien, paez, suel, conoz, jaz…”

-Las aspiraciones léxicas: “jacer, jacha, jusil, jumera, mujotrus, Jebreru…” (oci.)

-El sistema pronominal del extremo occidental: la, lo, lu, le, li.

-Terminaciones en “–i” en sustantivos (ori.)

-Terminaciones en “–u” en nombres de persona, numerales y otros. (ori.)

- Cambios vocálicos según la vocal acentuada: vicinu, mintira, churizu.

Al hablar de unidad de estilo se quiere evitar el hecho de que en una misma frase se empleen fenómenos de forma contradictoria, se mezclen cosas de dentro y fuera de Cantabria y se varíe de registro a lo largo de dicha frase.

Es importante aprender a pensar en cántabru, o cuando menos no traducir palabra por palabra, esto es, literalmente, las expresiones castellanas. Todas las lenguas tienen un estilo expresivo propio y no basta con que lo dicho no se ajuste a lo castellano, sino que coincidiendo más o menos, mucho o nada, con él, se ha de ajustar plenamente al sentido cántabro.

Castellano: Al llegar al alero,  el gato no se atrevía a dar un brinco.

“Raru”:      *Al  yegar al aliru, el gatu non atrevíasi a dar un brincu.

Cántabru:  En allegando al alar, el gatu no usaba pegar un blincu.

Castellano: Hace mucho que tus hijos vienen por casa.

“Raru”:      *Jaci munchu qui tus jíus viein pola mi ca.

Cántabru:   Jaz muchu que los tus hijos vienin por casa.

Castellano: Mientras iba viniendo, recogía avellanas.

“Raru”:      *Mientis iba en viniendo, recuejía avellanas.

Cántabru:   De la que vinía, diba atropando avillanas.

Castellano: El pan empezó a enmohecerse.

“Raru”:       *El pan escumincipió a enmojecesi.

Cántabru:   El pan dió en ponese canu.

(La lista de opciones para escribir una frase en cántabru-marcianu sería inacabable).

Toda lengua normalizada trata de disponer del mayor número posible de vocablos, tomados de los distintos lugares donde se habla, independientemente de que sean propios de toda el área o de una pequeña parte. En consecuencia, nuestro  vocabulario habrá de recoger palabras de toda la zona cantabroparlante, teniendo en cuenta que hay variantes locales que no se ajustan a esta norma espontánea que vamos haciendo poco a poco. Por ejemplo, el término “idea” es “ideya” en pasiegu, pero si no estamos expresándonos en pasiegu no tiene sentido hacer uso de él.

Hay que dejar claro que la norma al ser algo elaborado de forma voluntaria no es lengua “natural”, al contrario que las hablas locales, que lo son por ser fruto de la espontaneidad de los hablantes. Sin embargo, es más importante aún dejar claro que la norma no existe “contra” las hablas populares y dialectos que conforman el cántabru:

En ocasiones oímos que la norma va a decir que los que hablan distinto a ella hablan mal, o que ya no es cántabru correcto. Esto es lo contrario de lo que se pretende. La norma tiene el objetivo, entre otros, de acercar a quien no sabe a la lengua, de acercar entre sí a gentes que saben sus hablas respectivas formándose una idea de conjunto, de acercar entre sí a los hablantes patrimoniales y a los que aprenden voluntariamente, de darle un aspecto socialmente serio a la lengua, en definitiva, de ser un instrumento útil, con presencia manifiesta en la vida del pueblo que la hereda.

En este curso debemos proponernos saber -y saber valorar- cuanto podamos, la lengua cántabra en general y sus variantes en particular, siendo capaces de reconocer y adaptarnos al estilo propio de quien nos hable en cada caso.

Muchas lenguas minorizadas han pasado por un periodo de recuperación y dignificación, y de sus experiencias siempre se deduce la conclusión de que es necesario normativizar para evitar su extinción. Es decir, que si la norma no nace, las variantes locales mueren. Muchos hablantes de estas variantes ignoran esto, porque tampoco se han puesto en la tesitura de salvarlas y por lo tanto desconocen lo que ha sucedido en casos similares cuando otra gente en otros lugares se ha puesto manos a la obra. Pero está científica y comunmente aceptado, que las lenguas que no desarrollen a corto plazo una norma o koiné, se verán irremisiblemente abocadas a la desaparición.

This is a segment in my review of the book “Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament,” by Peter Enns.  You may also return to the table of contents, to navigate other parts of the book.

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In the world of biblical scholarship (“who wrote the book? when?” etc.), you have the critical scholars on the one hand, and the evangelical scholars on the other.  The critical scholars frequently are atheists, and evangelical scholars are the theists.  Critical scholars challenge traditional views of the Bible (“did Moses really write the Pentateuch?”), while evangelical scholars tend to be more conservative, with such doctrines as Biblical Inerrancy.

Enns’s goal in I&I is to bridge this gap, and offer a way for Christians to hold an evangelical view of scripture (as the divinely-inspired word of God), and simultaneously appropriate the critical scholarship in helping us better understand what kind of text the Bible is, and how to interpret it.

“What I Hope to Accomplish”

Enns begins his book with the section, “What I Hope to Accomplish.”  He writes,

The purpose of this book is to bring an evangelical doctrine of Scripture into conversation with the implications generated by some important themes in modern biblical scholarship—particularly Old Testament scholarship—over the past 150 years.

Enns highlights the difference between God’s special revelation (scripture) and God’s general revelation (how he reveals himself in creation).  We must constantly evaluate how we interpret God’s special revelation in light of new discoveries in God’s general revelation.  The classic example that Enns invokes (and that I have invoked here in the past) is that of Galileo, discovering a heliocentric universe rather than geocentric.  The Bible doesn’t teach that the earth is the center of the universe, but it is written from a terrestrial vantage-point.  Therefore, we have to take the worldviews of the biblical authors into account during interpretation.

Enns highlights a crucial point— “the problems many of us feel regarding the Bible [reconciling modern data with the authority of scripture] have less to do with the Bible itself and more to do with our own preconceptions.”

Enns wants to engage in three issues that he feels evangelicals have dealt with inadequately in the past, with three big implications.

(1) The Old Testament and other literature from the ancient world.  Why is the Bible so much like contemporary literature of the time?
(2) Theological diversity in the Old Testament.  Why do different parts of the Old Testament say different things about the same things?
(3) New Testament authors’ use of the Old Testament.  Why do the authors take passages completely out of context?

The implications:
(1) The uniqueness of the Bible.  It’s a common expectation that for the Bible to be God’s word, it should be unique, not bearing striking similarities to the literature of other ancient peoples.
(2) The integrity and trustworthiness of the Bible.  It is a common expectation that the Bible be unified in its outlook, free of diverse views.  Shouldn’t God have just one opinion on things?
(3) How one should interpret the Bible.  The NT authors seem to interpret the OT quite fancifully. What about us?

“A Way Toward Addressing the Problem: The Incarnational Analogy”

The solution: Just as Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man (not half of each), so we too can understand the Bible as both fully God and fully man.  Jesus was fully enculturated in his social context, and so is the Bible.  Enns writes:

“[The Bible] belonged in the ancient worlds that produced it. It was not an abstract, otherworldly book, dropped out of heaven. It was connected to and therefore spoke to those ancient cultures. The encultured qualities of the Bible, therefore, are not extra elements that we can discard to get to the real point, the ‘timeless truths.’ Rather, precisely because Christianity is a historical religion, God’s word reflects the various historical moments in which Scripture was written. God acted and spoke in history. As we learn more and more about that history, we must gladly address the implications of that history for how we view the Bible; that is, what we should expect from it.”

He asks, “How does Scripture’s full humanity and full divinity affect what we should expect from Scripture?”  Enns proposes that it is the very human dimension of scripture that in fact makes it scripture—a proposition that, while arguable, I find quite fascinating.

He lists some fundamental human elements of scripture:

—Language: Koine Greek.  This isn’t divine, it is rudimentary.  It demonstrates God becoming “one of us”!
—The Old Testament matches its contemporary Ancient Near Eastern setting of temples, priests, and sacrifices.
—Israel was no different from surrounding nations who had prophets that mediated divine will to the people.
—Israel’s legal system has similarities with contemporary cultures, including Mosaic law.

Enns underscores a crucial point:

What is so helpful about the ‘incarnational analogy’ is that it reorients us to see that the Bible’s ’situatedness’ is not a lamentable or embarrassing situation, but a positive one.

That the Bible, at every turn, shows how ‘connected’ it is to its own world is a necessary consequence of God incarnating himself.

Defensive evangelicals that want the “uniqueness” of the Bible do not want it to be just like any other ancient book.  Liberals say that because it is “like any other book,” it is not the word of God.

To those who fear the human stamp as somehow dirtying the Bible, marring its perfect divine quality, I say, “If you wouldn’t say that about Jesus (and you shouldn’t), don’t think that way about the Bible. Both Christ and his word are human through and through.”  In fact, it is precisely by having the Son become human that God demonstrates his great love. Is it so much of a stretch, then, to say that the human nature of Scripture is likewise a gift rather than a problem?

It is somewhat ironic, it seems, that both liberals and conservatives make the same error. They both assume that something worthy of the title “word of God” would look different from what we actually have.  The one accents the human marks and makes them absolute. The other wishes the human marks were not as pronounced as they were. They share a similar opinion that nothing worthy of being called God’s word would look so common, so human, so recognizable.  But, when God speaks, he speaks in ways we would understand.

This concludes the introduction to the book.  I am quite favorably inclined toward Enns’s position, and he makes a good case so far.  I’ll return with the next segment exploring “The Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Literature.”

You may also return to the table of contents of this review.

I am not real big on resolutions and such.  I do have two things I want to dedicate regular time to in this coming year and both begin with the letter “G.”

Guitar–I am progressing slowly.  I am mainly working on chord progressions and still just trying to get comfortable with it.  Soon, I plan to start learning to play the melody and I want to get sheet music for a song and start trying to learn it.  By the way, I never answered but I think “G” is my favorite chord.

Greek–I bought a couple of Greek tools and really want to work more at it.  I did well in class and feel that God has blessed me with language skills that I should be using more.  Plus I love to study.

If you even know a little about Greek, you will crack up at this video/song about Koine Greek.

An exciting side note, I cleaned up a room at the church building to use as a study.  I have already moved most of my Greek stuff there.  I don’t need an office because there is one in the building which is a community office and fine for doing secretarial stuff and even pastoral things like phone calls; plus my comp at the house is downstairs surrounded by my books, but is also in the same room as my kids’ play area.  I didn’t need another office, but I did need a study–a place without a phone, with a locked door, with a desk and no computer to pray and read and study.  I may call it my Sabbath-Room.

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Here’s the first link of the year.

It is about spiders and their mating habits.  So, if you are squeamish about spiders or sex organs, don’t read it.  If you are squeamish about both (which I imagine a large number of us are), sorry for even bringing it up.  But God did create/design this so it is interesting.

Spiders have some seriously creepy sex habits

After learning that there is such a thing as a “blood-drinking jumping spider” I may never sleep again, and will certainly never visit East Africa.

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Carb Fast Continues

I have decided to not only continue my French Fry Fast another month but to also exclude all potatos!  So, for the month of January, I will not enjoy fries, chips, potato soup, mashed potatoes, tater tots, fried potato thingies from the Italian deli, etc. and etc.   Pray for me and my wife for those days I am grumpy and craving spuds.

(sigh)

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I am pretty much down to 3 TV shows that I am interested in.

The “Life” cliffhanger finale was fantastic.  Almost on par with a good Lost episode.  Lost begins in a few weeks (20 days, 8 hours, 11 minutes) and I am pumped.

Here is someone who has seen the first two episodes of the new season.

I still occasionally watch House online but am at least a month behind.

TV's coolest cop

Dani Reese

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I am working on a big list of my favorite songs from the 80s.  That should be a blog post this first week of the year.  Be looking for it.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!  May we all grow closer to our Father and His Son, Jesus in 2009!

You celebrated with the 30th Anniversary NIV Study mid spring; you upgraded your NLT Life Application to a NLT Study at the end of the summer; and in October, like everyone else, you got the “everything in it but the kitchen sink” ESV Study Bible.  (Kitchen sink available as an optional extra on some models.)

So why do you still feel like something’s missing?

Maybe the Bible buying market is right for the study Bible, the only study Bible anyone would ever need; maybe All Things Are Better In Koine.

HT: BW3 (Dec 24)  video runs 4:06  (It’s all Greek to me…)