February Survey/Selfie

What I've been...

Reading: The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country

Watching: The Beginning of Life: The Series (on Netflix)

Learning: Biblical Greek 

Cooking/Eating: Too many baked goods, including these, these, and these.

Listening to: Easter hymns

Striving towards: Going to bed earlier and decluttering my life.


What David is up to: Counting, gummy anacondas, and everything glow-in-the-dark

What Sophia is up to: Army-crawling, opening/closing drawers, trying finger foods, playing peekaboo


-Your turn!

My thirst for knowledge

I have mentioned before how everyone reads in the metro here.

I've run out of thinner books to read, and I can't bring any extra weight with me. And besides, sometimes I prefer taking a snooze (or rather, my body decides for me). But I was desperate for something to read the other day. I dug through my purse and found some Greek flashcards from one of my previous attempts at memorization. They were the usual mix of 1) nouns that I already know, 2) obscure verbs that I'll never memorize, and 3) articles that I can usually figure out from context. Pitiful. I thought wistfully of learning more.

The young man sitting next to me was looking over my shoulder. "Are you studying Greek?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Latin is easier." I agreed.

"But the easiest was Hebrew." That was surprising. I didn't ask for more information because it's too noisy in the metro and it seemed too intimate to be yelling into a stranger's ear. But I was impressed.

As I walked along the platform, the old passion for languages rose up again. I've been reviewing some Russian verbs recently, but it doesn't seem to help my conversational skills. And besides, Russian doesn't hold the same intrigue (sorry, everyone).

Sometimes I find "helpful" sites for studying Greek, but I end up bookmarking them and saving them for later. I spend more time exploring how the tools work than actually using them. The best way is to just sit down and study.

Flashcards are a good way to keep busy in the metro (or anywhere), but of course it takes a little preparation work at home. I don't like ready-made flashcards because they don't offer my brain any exercise. It's better to write them out myself.

I wasn't sure what passage would be good for memorization. But for now I've chose the Beatitudes. It seems fairly easy since there are pairs of phrases, clear content, and a lot of repetition.

¹ιδων δε τους οχλους ανεβη εις το ορος και καθισαντος αυτου προσηλθαν [αυτω] οι μαθηται αυτου

²και ανοιξας το στομα αυτου εδιδασκεν αυτους λεγων

³μακαριοι οι πτωχοι τω πνευματι οτι αυτων εστιν η βασιλεια των ουρανων

⁴μακαριοι οι πενθουντες οτι αυτοι παρακληθησονται

⁵μακαριοι οι πραεις οτι αυτοι κληρονομησουσιν την γην

⁶μακαριοι οι πεινωντες και διψωντες την δικαιοσυνην οτι αυτοι χορτασθησονται

⁷μακαριοι οι ελεημονες οτι αυτοι ελεηθησονται

⁸μακαριοι οι καθαροι τη καρδια οτι αυτοι τον θεον οψονται

⁹μακαριοι οι ειρηνοποιοι οτι [αυτοι] υιοι θεου κληθησονται

¹⁰μακαριοι οι δεδιωγμενοι ενεκεν δικαιοσυνης οτι αυτων εστιν η βασιλεια των ουρανων

¹¹μακαριοι εστε οταν ονειδισωσιν υμας και διωξωσιν και ειπωσιν παν πονηρον καθ υμων ψευδομενοι ενεκεν εμου

¹²χαιρετε και αγαλλιασθε οτι ο μισθος υμων πολυς εν τοις ουρανοις ουτως γαρ εδιωξαν τους προφητας τους προ υμων

(Matthew 5:1-12, Westcott-Hort NT)

Word study

In a recent series on dealing with habitual sin, our pastor mentioned that "to confess," in the original, means "to say the same thing."

Today I was trying to translate a passage from John 1 (with the help of a dictionary), and I ran into a Greek word I did not know. The first part was "homo" (same). The second part contained "logos" (word). Same word? I could not think of a verb that would correspond in meaning.

I resorted to the dictionary. There it was, "to confess." Now that I've run into it twice, maybe I'll remember it...

In order for something to be "the same," it must be compared to something else. To me, confessing is when God first convicts and then you agree with Him. God says "You've sinned," and you say, "Yep, that's true, I've sinned." Sometimes you are just agreeing with something stated in the Bible. That's the way I understand it, anyway.

NT Greek self-study

I've been working through Mounce's "The Basics of Biblical Greek" on my own for the past several years. Hmmm, I think it is only supposed to take one year. I do like the presentation of the book. I think I've mentioned this before, but there are a lot of accompanying study aids, as well as a constantly-developing website.

I registered for the online class at teknia.com, and now I can listen to free lectures with accompanying slides.

The problem with self-study is of course no accountability. The website offers quizzes that I've done a few times and then corrected myself. But in general I don't learn the material well enough and end up having to do the exercises with my book and notes open. And then if I try to translate something, I have to go searching through my book again.

But I do like Mounce's grammar explanations. I don't like the way that a lot of books for "laymen" or whomever tend to oversimplify the grammar. Yes, it can be easier to remember if you have lot of little "tricks," but the tricks don't always work!

Meanwhile, my mom was helping with a project to redo the church library, and gleaned for me "Teach Yourself New Testament Greek" by Ian McNair. I decided to give it a try.

This book claims to apply "contemporary language learning theory." The promotions all describe it as "new as exciting," not "dry like most grammar books," etc. Sometimes "not dry" means that they skip important concepts (see above), so I was skeptical.

I find "Teach Yourself New Testament Greek" challenging in a refreshing way. I opened up the middle of the book and found it confusing, so I started at the beginning, expecting to be put to sleep by reviewing the basics yet again. But I found that it drew me in.

As far as I can see, the book uses more of an inductive approach. That's how it differs from the other textbooks. Instead of dictating the rules and then assigning appropriate exercises which encourage regurgitation, you aren't given all of the information right away. You use a few knowns (such as cognates) to figure out the rules yourself. This is what they taught us to do in the ESL classroom, although I still have my reserves that it is always the best way.

While I was doing some exercises, I realized that the book was actually making me THINK. And I even felt myself retaining some of the information! It's similar to the way I learned Latin. We started from Day 1 with a text. There was an accompanying photo, which helps fill in the gaps (with NT Greek, you have your background knowledge of the Scriptures to help). There was a list of vocabulary words, and the rest we just figured out from the context.

Our first Latin teacher told us that we would always remember the first words of Ecce Romani, and I do! Ecce! In pictura est puella, nomine Cornelia. Cornelia est puella Romana quae in Italia habitat...

Time to get back to the books.

Ancient texts

This is an interesting website: http://www.lib.umich.edu/pap/exhibits/reading/

You can look at old Latin and Greek papyri. The University of Michigan has set up a nice site with some background information and tips for deciphering the handwriting.

One of the current texts featured is the Pauline Epistles.

Back to the books

I have a new NT Greek textbook! Hooray! So far it has only covered the basics, but I'm remembering the words better.

Rom. 8:37 is translated in the NIV like this: "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

The Greek verb that is translated "to be more than a conqueror" is formed by combining "to conquer" and the prefix "over." (as in "overcook") Considering that the idea of conquering is already a rather mighty concept, adding the prefix to make it "overconquer" or "more than conquerors" sends it over the edge into the realm of amazing Biblical truths that we just can't get our minds around. How can you "more than conquer" something? Someday we will see this all clearly.

Spiritual Tenacity

The reading from “My Utmost for His Highest” (Chambers) today is…

THE DISCIPLINE OF SPIRITUAL TENACITY

"Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered. The greatest fear a man has is not that he will be damned, but that Jesus Christ will be worsted, that the things He stood for - love and justice and forgiveness and kindness among men - will not win out in the end; the things He stands for look like will-o'-the-wisps. Then comes the call to spiritual tenacity, not to hang ton and do nothing, but to work deliberately on the certainty that God is not going to be worsted.

If our hopes are being disappointed just now, it means that they are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience."

Remain spiritually tenacious.

(emphasis added)

The scripture reference at the end of the reading is from Rev.3:10. The Greek word for patience used in this context is “hupomone,” which according to Bauer’s Greek-English Lexicon has two possible meanings: 1) “the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty.” 2) “the act or state of patient waiting for someone or something.”

I noticed that the patience listed as one of the fruits of the Spirit is a different Greek word, namely, “makrothymia.” I wondered what the difference was. I found a commentary that deals with this...but I didn't quite find what I was looking for.

There are four Greek terms for patience: anechomai, kartereo, makrothymia, and
hypomone. These are strictly military terms and are used as metaphors referring
to the battles of life. (“Militant Patience” by Elsa Tamez in The Scandalous
Message of James: Faith Without Works is Dead. (NY: Crossroad Publishing
Company, 2002).)

And this:

The author of the epistle uses two of these four Greek terms to refer to
patience: hypomone and makrothymia. Although these can be used synonymously,
they have significant differences. (Tamez)

She then goes on to explain what she thinks the difference is, but I didn’t really get it. They seem to be quite similar. Anyone else have any thoughts?

Here is an example of hypomone: Knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh patience. (James 1:3)

And here is makrothymia: With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; (Eph.4:2)

But the meanings are not exclusive to those contexts. If Tamez is right about patience having a militant connotation, then it confirms what Chambers says, that the patience of the Bible is something to “work on” actively, not a tranquil or passive state in which we are simply “hanging on.”

P.S. Speaking of Greek, I’m using “The Basics of Biblical Greek” by William D. Mounce. There is an accompanying website (teknia.com) with handouts, grammar charts, audio files, downloadable tools, etc. I can’t say that I’ve made a huge amount of progress with my irregular study habits, but I find the textbook enjoyable.