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jfschultz · #2 (**permalink**) 02-19-2004, 06:54 PM

[quote:33f9135eb5][i:33f9135eb5]Originally posted by alwaysreforming[/i:33f9135eb5]
I posted this question before but got no responses to it, so I'd like to try again and hopefully get some valuable input.

The original question read:

I have a friend who is becoming a "pastor" through some "apprenticeship" not-quite-seminary path, I can't remember the program's name, but anyway...
I was asking him about learning Greek and how it was going, and he said, and I paraphrase, "Well, we're not really learning any Greek. You really don't need it. There are so many books out there that have already done the Greek learning, and all you need to do is consult those when you are studying a passage to exegete. Besides, with all the commentaries and other study helps, who am I to come up with some different interpretation of the text than is already done for us by the greats like Calvin, etc.?"

I can see how this might be flawed in thinking, although I can kind of see a point, that all that time used to learn those languages could be spent reading good commentaries, etc.
How should I be thinking about this subject, as I hope to possibly go to seminary one day?
Also, what is the best "starter" book for learning Greek as a "pre-seminary" reader?
Thanks for your thoughts. [/quote:33f9135eb5]

This is not a direct answer... Years ago a minister friend told me that I should seriously consider going to seminary. I mentioned my lack of ability with languages (I was born and lived 7 years in Peru and learned very little Spanish).

His response was to recommend Union where Greek and Hebrew are not required. Even as a relatively new Christian at the time, I realized that a seminary that did not require any level of competence in the original languages was not worth considering.

If I were a minister and expected to expound on the scriptures to my flock. I'm not sure that I would want to just depend on what someone else said about how a word should be translated where there is a question.