Comments on Disciple's Diary: Everything I Needed to Know (About Research) I Lea...

Dr. Stacy, I certainly agree that context and how...

2010-02-08T07:47:11.545-05:00

Dr. Stacy,

I certainly agree that context and how a writer uses a word provides reliable evidence of the writer's meaning.

Maybe I gave too much content that obscured my main point which was we all stand on someone else's shoulders. To learn greek as you have, I would guess that you had to rely on the learning and research of others.

I only work in the New Testament in Greek. Consequ...

2010-02-08T05:49:27.660-05:00

I only work in the New Testament in Greek. Consequently, I spend no time either with English translations or Greek lexica; therefore, I'm not familiar with the dilemma you describe.

The only reliable way to determine what a NT writer intends by a word is to see how he uses it elsewhere in his writing(s). New Testament writers didn't look up words in Greek lexica to see what they "meant" before they employed them.

My obersvation in this post is NOT a disagreement ...

2010-02-07T17:46:25.144-05:00

My obersvation in this post is NOT a disagreement with what you wrote. However, I have an observation that demonstrates how hard "evidence based" research can be and how sometimes we must simply "stand on someone else's shoulders".

Most of the details are not relevant and would take way to much time; however, the general circumstance was a question about a particular greek word in the New Testament. One person rightly pointed out that their were "multiple possible" meanings for the word in question and the meaning that he had chosen was cited in a well-recognized lexicon. Another person claimed that the lexicon chosen was not extensive enough and the lexicon he cited gave 30 possible meanings instead of just the ten used by the other person and this person chose a different meaning from among the 30 that was not among the meanings in the lexicon with just 10. Finally, another person claimed that the word certainly had multiple possible meanings, but the word chosen by the second person could not possibly be right because "the meaning chosen had only ONE occurrence in any of the sources and that occurrence was in the fourth century CE.

My problem with judging this claim
was how was I to determine if the meaning had truly occurred in only ONE place. It was going to take a loooooooooong time to read and translate "all" the sources to examine all of the evidence, something beyond my ability. As it turned out, I could verify the fourth century occurrence, but I could not verify the claim that this fourth century occurrence was the ONLY occurrence of this particular meaning.

The point of my story is that we all "stand on the shoulders" of others when it comes to evidence. Much of any translation from greek requires that I rely on some very detailed and time consuming work that entails much expertise and judgement that is contained in the lexicon's themselve.

It makes me thankful for all of us who have "come before".

As an aside and as a question, does anyone know if now in the age of computers is their a resource that would allow a comprehensive search of extant greek literature within a certain time frame for a particular word?

Your blog about research and a teacher of yours ma...

2010-02-06T20:54:45.522-05:00

Your blog about research and a teacher of yours made me think about several important things. In this comment I would like to share about a teacher I had and what he taught me regarding studying the New Testatment Scriptures. The teacher was Dr. Jim Blevins. He was a teacher at Mars Hill College and also at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He taught me regarding the study of the New Testatment:

1. Establish the text using the tools of textual criticism.

2. Translate the text.

3. Read what the Church Fathers had to say about the text.

4. Read what the commentators had to say about the text.

5. Interpret the text from your own theological perspective and from at least one other theological perspective.

6. Tell others what the text means to you, making sure that you interact with and use what you learned in steps 1 - 5.

While I have had many teachers over the years, few have had the impact and influence that Dr. Blevins had. While this blog has made me think about some other things, I will wait to share those at another time.

Being a teacher of seventh graders and a science t...

2010-02-03T13:16:32.988-05:00

Being a teacher of seventh graders and a science teacher too, I rather enjoyed this entry.I use a simple card game to teach my students that the "scientific process" is actually a natural process of thought that all humans use to solve problems. I also ask them to decide which part of the process is the most important. Its interesting the cases they make for the question being the most important part of the process.Its also interesting to me how little questioning is taught or even permitted in our school systems.
Much love to you and Cheryl,
Stephanie

Thanks, Dave! Advent Blessings, wayne

2009-12-10T13:00:20.698-05:00

Thanks, Dave!

Advent Blessings,

wayne

Dr. Stacy, The same could be said to those of us ...

2009-12-10T11:53:57.769-05:00

Dr. Stacy,

The same could be said to those of us who preach. We often go to the sermon with "what it means" already decided without letting the text speak for itself. Others go straight to the commentaries. Fortunately some of us have learned a better way of "doing preaching." I still go take that road every time I preach. Thank you, Dr. Stacy.

Wishing you the hope, peace, love and joy of Advent,

Dave