[B-Greek] B-Greek Year End Awards
Mark Lightman
lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Tue Dec 14 08:44:20 EST 2010
B-Greek Year End Awards:
MOST DISCUSSED TOPIC: Pedagogy.
BEST SUBJECT LINE: Blue Harris, “Here we go again.” (Luke 22:70)
MORE HEAT THAN FWS AWARD: Interlinears.
BEST NICK NAME FOR BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT: “The co-Hort.”
BEST GREEK AUDIO: Vasile Stancu, LXX Jonah.
http://www.vasile-stancu.ro/greaca_audio-en.htm
Jonah is a particularly good text to listen to because the Hebrew-based syntax
is simple and easy to internalize. Vasile’s reading is dramatic and includes a
special sound effect for God’s voice, which really helps in the comprehension.
BEST B-GREEK SPIN-OFF: Louis Sorenson, Schole.
http://schole.ning.com/
BEST WRITER OF CONVERSATIONAL ANCIENT GREEK ON SCHOLE NOT NAMED CARL CONRAD:
Donald Cobb.
GREEK VOWEL THAT IS PRONOUNCED IN THE MOST DIFFERENT WAYS: Eta (η) Six. 1. a
as in bad (Restored Attic.) 2. ay as in bay (North American Erasmian. 3. e as
in pet (British Erasmian.) 4. ay as in bay in open syllables, but e as in pet in
closed syllables (French and Romanian Erasmian.) 5. ee as in feet (Modern
Greek.) 6. n as in not (People who are still learning the alphabet.)
2010 CURRENT EVENT MOST OFTEN MENTIONED ON LIST: The B.P. oil spill.
BEST ORIGINAL QUOTE: Barry Hofstetter, “Become your own lexion.”
BEST ADAPTED QUOTE: George Somsel. “Context is King,” adapted from the 1858
speech of Senator James Hammond of South Carolina. “No, you dare not make war
on cotton…Cotton is king.”
George’s dictum should be shouted EPI TWN DWMATWN. Context is not only King, it
is an absolute sovereign, limited by no Parliament, checked by no constitution
or grammar or lexicon. When he was told that the House of Representatives was
preparing to impeach him for bombing Cambodia, Richard Nixon said “They can’t
impeach me for that. The President can bomb anyone he wants.” When it comes to
Greek, King Context can do anything it wants. If you forget everything you have
ever read on B-Greek, remember this one thing and you will be fine: “You dare
not make war on King Context.”
BEST CAMPAIGN SLOGAN IF YOU ARE RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT (OF THE AMERICAN
PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY): “Read my lips. No new grammatical categories!”
MOST READER’S GREEK NEW TESTAMENTS PUBLISHED DURING ONE CALENDAR YEAR: 2010,
with three: Zondervan’s combined Greek and Hebrew, VTR’s, based on the Byzantine
Text, and UBS’ new one with textual notes. The ratio of Reader’s Greek New
Testaments to people who actually READ the Greek New Testament now stands at 10
to 9.
BEST EXPLANATION FOR WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON WITH GREEK VOICE: Michel de
Montaigne, “When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing
herself with me more than I with her.”
HIGHEST RECORDED GRONT SCORE: 2 Clement, Close to the Greek of the NT 9, Easy
Greek 8, Good Greek 6, Total 23.
LOWEST RECORDED GRONT SCORE: Linear B Pylos Tablet Ae134, Close to the Greek of
the NT 1, Easy Greek 2, Good Greek 0, Total 3.
BEST GREEK NEW TESTAMENT PUBLISHED OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE DURING CALENDAR
2010: The Vest Pocket Greek New Testament, published in Greece by Apostoliki
Diakonia, but made available in the States by Rob Leedy of Bob Jones University
Book Store:
http://www.bjucampusstore.com/ePOS?this_category=136&store=468&item_number=2800840058821&form=shared3%2fgm%2fdetail.html&design=468
Even the maps are in Greek! Honorable mention goes to the terrific new SBL GNT
by Michael Holmes and Rick Brannan.
B-GREEK PERSON OF THE YEAR. BEING THE AWARD GIVEN TO THE PERSON WHOSE POSTS WERE
OVERALL THE MOST HELPFUL DURING CALENDAR 2010: Yancy Smith. His posts are
always informative and interesting. Check out his argument that DIKAIOSUNH in 2
Peter 1:1 means not righteousness but love.
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2010-April/053295.html
Yancy also had the best joke of 2010: “I am not a linguist, nor a son of a
linguist.”
MOST CONSECUTIVE WORDS IN THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT THAT START WITH THE SAME
LETTER: Romans 13:7b, seven straight tau’s. ἀπόδοτε πᾶσιν τὰς ὀφειλάς, τῷ τὸν
φόρον τὸν φόρον, τῷ τὸ τέλος τὸ τέλος, τῷ τὸν φόβον τὸν φόβον, τῷ τὴν τιμὴν τὴν
τιμήν. …TWi TO TELOS TO TELOS TWi TON…
THE YOGI BERRA HE’S 100% HALF-RIGHT AWARD: Carl Conrad, That when learning
Greek, grammar is a necessary evil. Carl is 100% half right.
Mark L
Φωσφορος
FWSFOROS MARKOS
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