RE: Kerkut

It is true that knowing idioms and the people who wrote something gives
a better understanding. For instance, in the Armenian language we speak
of breaking my liver rather than my heart. However, modulo those
things, the writing must have some clear message and facts otherwise it
is useless. In the order of things, first comes the notion of a Creator,
which is clearly stated in the OT afterwards comes the statement that
the Creator entered the Creation, which is the subject of the NT. I do
not think formal education gives you an in that makes it easy to believe
such things. In fact, formal education may provide the necessary basis
for pride/self-conceit to deny as foolish such beliefs.

Moorad

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of Jan de Koning
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2004 3:12 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Re: Kerkut

At 02:21 PM 05/02/2004 -0700, gordon brown wrote:
>I have heard that Hugh Ross has studied Hebrew (maybe on his own (?)),
but
>as far as I know, he has not had any formal theological training. I
don't
>believe that a layman should always defer to a trained clergyman. Some
>have been led astray by doing that. The Bereans (Acts 17:11) were
>commended for checking out Paul's statements. I believe that all
believers
>should seek to be educated theologically, but that doesn't necessarily
>mean a formal education with degrees.
>Gordon Brown
>Department of Mathematics
>University of Colorado
>Boulder, CO 80309-0395

My observation:
Knowing some Hebrew and Greek is not enough. It is much more necessary
to
realize the social, geographic etc. circumstances of the writers AND the

first hearers. And also the philosophies and circumstances of the
translators. Besides, did the people immediately after the"flood" speak

Hebrew? If I see how much modern languages have changed since the
Middle
ages ending only 500 years ago, than I realize as well, that many
stories
came down through centuries before written down.
Also, the geographic and philosophical background of bible-translators
has
an enormous influence on the way words are translated. Consequently
words
may be translated differently in chapters every close together, which
could
be (and sometimes are) translated in chapters close together. To think
that just knowing some Hebrew and Greek is enough is fooling yourself.
You
need to know secular history, for example Egyptian history from the old
times to understand Moses's story.
Received on Fri Feb 6 15:25:36 2004