Re: An ancient conversation

Jim writes:
<< That's something that I've noticed in the graduate school areas at my
university
that study religion -- knowing German is about as important as knowing
Greek,
just so that the scholarship is accessible. If you haven't tried to crack
that
nut yet, good luck :). I could almost pity you :).

<< Thank God my field is English literature... >>

Most Ph.D. programs in classics or the closely related disciplines ask for
Greek, Latin, German, and French. If the discipline is Semitics or some
branch thereof, it is often the case that none of these languages is
eliminated though they might be less heavily emphasized, and one or two or
five Semitic languages are added. Needless to say, people who have much
difficulty with languages usually go elsewhere.

Much of the literature, even when it is in English (and especially when it's
more than a few decades old), freely quotes Latin, Greek, French, and German
without bothering to translate.

A fellow called Toomer, who published the most current translation of
Ptolemy's Almagest (a Greek geometer and his mathematical and philosophical
system of astronomy), in his introduction bemoans the state of a world where
one can no longer assume that historians can read German.

Thanks for the info. I am familiar with the Word Biblical Commentaries, and
with their bibliographries. My question stemmed from a desire to know
exactly what entires in these bibliographies, if any, referred to sources
who claim some degree of Greek-illiteracy in the author of John, since there
exists so much literature, so much of it is difficult to find, and I have
never yet encountered such claims.

Again, thank you.

-Robbie

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Received on Thu Oct 16 14:46:59 2003