I can’t remember the last time I won something. Apparently my yin yang, karma, affinity for d20, or some other force in the universe deemed that I deserved a lucky break. I won the raffle over at one of my favorite blogs, Lingamish, and promptly spent it on a book. A fond thank-you to the Ker family for the gift card and I wish you the best. The curious can visit this link to see what I bought with it.
March 20, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Congrats! I would love to win a gift certificate for books!
And the book looks like it should really help you in your studies.
BTW if you don’t already have the Louw and Nida dictionary I highly recommend it.
March 20, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I’ve been struggling with decisions on which lexicons/dictionaries to buy. There are so many available it is hard to decide. This will be my first lexicon and the only Greek dictionary I have right now is this one:
New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology: Abridged
March 20, 2008 at 5:34 pm
If you are really into word studies and such, and if you haven’t already read it you should check out Carson’s “Exegetical Fallacies”. It will keep you from some common mistakes. And when your done with that “Linguistics and Biblical Interpretation” by Cotterel and Turner will also be really helpful (if you haven’t read it either). Even you can check them out from a library that would be great too.
You can also find some of the relevant info in other books like “Linguistics for the Students of New Testament Greek” by D.A. Black and “The Hermeneutical Spiral” by Grant Osborne. The latter is really good.
Blessings,
Bryan L
March 20, 2008 at 11:48 pm
You’re such a fun guy. I hate to see you weighed down by all these boring books… Greek is a language not a washing machine. So ideally you should look for ways to enjoy its linguistic beauty rather than poke at it like a dead frog on a dissection tray.
[OK, I got that off my chest. I promise to shut up now.]
March 22, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Don’t listen to Ling. He probably already knows Greek well and can just enjoy its linguistic beauty unlike us! ; )
Seriously though I think it is like someone picking up a guitar and just messing around strumming the 3 chords they know and a couple of licks, and then taking the time to learn scales and music theory and a lot of chords and riffs and so on.
The first may sound like he’s having fun just enjoying the guitar but he can really only go so far and his interest is going to stop at his playing limits.
However the one who takes time to really learn and practice and get better may sound like crap at first and even find the guitar somewhat boring but eventually he will just absorb the techniques he learned into his playing and then really know how to play for enjoyment and for the love of it’s beauty because he can go so much farther and do so much more.
I posted a clip a while back on my blog of Rikk Watts saying something similar in terms of learning how to do exegesis properly.
The link is here.
Blessings,
Bryan L
March 22, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I think a lot of people would have a hard time actualizing what he’s talking about at the beginning. The point of his analogy was really good though. I also play drums, though I no longer have a reason to, nor a set for that matter.
I’d love to take Lingy at face value, but I find it would be rather hard to enjoy the beauty without understanding it first. Maybe I missed the point. My bachelor’s is in Biology, so dissection is in my blood. Also, I’m still totally open to any method of learning Greek on my own if someone wants to enlighten me.
March 25, 2008 at 1:50 am
I’m a drummer too! Let’s get together and jam!
April 13, 2008 at 7:42 pm
I am a drummer too. Last gig with my band next Friday before I take a hiatus to finish a dissertation.
The only way drummers can really jam is in true African style (or its afro-Cuban derivatives). I have a djembe. The voice choice of the griot.