Question about what is taught to CoC preachers?

[longdistancerunner]

In line with some of the discussions about textual analysis of the Bible, I had this question some of you may be able to give me some insight into. In either the CoC preaching schools or the CoC Colleges that have degree programs to prepare people to be preachers I know Greek is a requirement. However I wonder what they teach about the various Greek Texts of the New Testament and if they teach any differences that exist in them. What do they teach is the oldest text and do they teach anything about which is the "original", truest etc. The CoC has always acknowledge there can be errors in translation, but generally they stick to the correct one being what they believe. Thanks for your insight.

[B.H.]

I never was a preacher but asked one or two about this. They adamantly believed the textual differences were mostly spelling evariants. If there was any admission of anything more than that it was emphasized it was just one or two passages that doctrinally did not make any difference.

I explained to one preacher that there were variants that affect doctrine and listed several examples. He told me not to mention this to any member of his church or I would not be welcome there anymore. Now folks I joke around and play the jerk here sometimes with intent it be taken comically but I was very polite and kind, totally not aggressive with him. He flat out told me I wouldn't be allowed in his church if I told his congregants about this

I suspect they don't cover it much in undergrad. The grad and post grads have to be exposed to the fact there are variants just to keep up with knowledge on a professional level. If they tell you there are no really important variants and they have say a masters or PhD they are lying to you.

[Shane R]

Taking a class or two on Greek and actually having any proficiency are entirely different things. Introductory Greek is fairly comparable to a high school Spanish or French class, with the exception that you have to learn a new written alphabet. Also, some of the preacher training schools do not, in fact, require Greek.

The CoC tends to take an approach to Biblical translation that the Jehovah Witnesses and producers of the NLT, NIV, and HCSB get excoriated for and that is that the best translation is the one that most closely aligns with their doctrine. This is not even totally fair in the case of NIV since the committee that edits that is fairly diverse in training, church affiliation, and approach. Wayne Jackson wrote a little book called The Bible Translation Controversy some years ago that was fairly popular but really not very good, although i will give him credit for not latching onto a favorite and putting in a hard plug -which I suspect is what most of the people who bought it were hoping for.

My grandfather was always a King James Only preacher; though he had a couple of others he seldom looked at them and never used them publicly. As the 90s came to a close and NIV, NASB, and later ESV filtered into the churches among the younger members who actually wanted the Bible to sound something like other books they read, he mumbled and grumbled but never took a public stand against it (hard to do when you seldom sniff 50 on a Sunday and you want to get paid for preaching). Of course, he had absolutely no academic reason for his opinion. He didn't know the first thing about textual criticism, Greek, or translation. Probably some old Virginia windbag had told him KJV was the best when he went to Grundy Bible College.

[zeek]

When I went through a school of preaching in the midsouth in the late 80s early 90s we were required to take the Greek courses they offered. I still have a copy of Thayer's Lexicon and an interlinear text New Testament I had to buy for the classes. At the time and still today it seemed absurd to require people, most of whom, had never mastered their own language and its grammar, to learn another language. Of course, we were also required to take "Spoken English" every semester. It was painful to watch as the teacher tried to gently correct the most grievous verbal errors of men who had grown up immersed in nothing but the local dialect of hillbilly brogue. If you learn to talk among people who say things like "arshtater" and "mater" (Irish potato, tomato) then you are way behind the eight ball when it comes to speaking the English language in any sort of educated manner. Now, please don't interpret my comments as disrespecting my ancestors. There is no disrespect intended, they were fine, honest hardworking people. Sadly, they were also uneducated. My grandparents couldn't read or write; instead of going to school as children they went to work in the fields and woods to try to help scratch a living out of the ground.

[Ivy]

Zeek, we might be related. My ancestors hailed from right around where you are.

[zeek]

Zeek, we might be related. My ancestors hailed from right around where you are.

Ivy, based on what I know of you from this site, I'd be proud to know we were kin.

[Shane R]

way behind the eight ball when it comes to speaking the English language in any sort of educated manner. . . Sadly, they were also uneducated.

Lot's of good points in the whole post. This one particularly resonated with me. My brother and father both mangle the English language like a car that slid off the road into a tree. I was always somewhat confused by how Grandad even managed to get into Grundy Bible College since he never went to high school and never bothered to get a GED either. But he took a semester's worth of classes part-time and passed them.

[Ivy]

Zeek, we might be related. My ancestors hailed from right around where you are.

Ivy, based on what I know of you from this site, I'd be proud to know we were kin.

Thank you zeek!! I would be honored.

[B.H.]

Farrell Till, the author of The Skeptical Review was a Church of Christ preacher. He said preaching and theology classes were not very difficult at all.

[longdistancerunner]

Farrell Till, the author of The Skeptical Review was a Church of Christ preacher. He said preaching and theology classes were not very difficult at all.

I am scientist and read primarily science material with some academic history (just for interest). I find biblical theology and New Testament history relaxing to read in contrast because they are so much simpler.