My first year was all about trying to find my way, taking general education classes, and working on the school newspaper. Having failed to win a role on the stage, I also helped in the theatre box office and built sets. Greek began my sophomore year. Although five women were in the class, our professor invariably addressed us as “Young men . . . ” I loved him anyway. He had studied with the author of our textbook, J. Gresham Machen, a name to inspire awe. He occasionally doled out little bits of advice. “Expect the Lord’s return at any moment, but have your life planned out five years in advance,” he challenged us. And one day, “Do it and don’t play at it.” I don’t recall what it was—the Christian life? our academic work? He had a habit of striking the desktop with the side of his right hand, then shooting it toward us out in three short bursts for emphasis. Like every other student in the class, I had a stash of vocabulary cards on a small metal ring, with new words being added each lesson. “Say it five times and it’s yours,” Dr. L. promised, exhorting us to always carry the cards and flip through them as we walked from class to class. “The other students will think you are weird, but they think that anyway, because you are taking Greek.” Every now and again, he would say, “Let me give you a little nugget from the Greek,” and go on to explain some tricky point. I kept a card file of these nuggets. Here’s one: John 3:16, one of the most quoted verses of the Bible, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life. I had been given to understand that so loved was to be read as sooooo much, but no. The adverb in Greek is better translated in this manner. So was not a matter of the quantity but of the quality of God’s love—that is, sacrificially generous. On the first day of class Dr. L. directed our attention to a chart in the back for conjugating regular verbs. Five tenses, thirteen principal parts, so that one could identify, for instance, the aoristic active imperfect tense—or any other combination. The font was smaller than in the rest of the book, the margins tighter. “Memorize it,” he commanded. “It will be on the final exam in the spring.” I struggled with Greek, all three quarters, barely keeping my head above water, even though taking the class was my choice. I wanted to be able to read the New Testament in Greek, and I could, with occasional help from a lexicon. The night before our final the following May, I stared at the luo chart. I knew it wasn’t possible to memorize it; I didn’t even try. I was going to fail my final. Some of my classmates did pull all-nighters, still trying to memorize the chart. That morning Dr. L. placed our exams face down on our desks. When everyone had received a copy, he allowed us to turn the test over. Seeing that the luo chart was not there, I burst into tears of relief. The second year of Greek my grade dropped to a C for my final two quarters—too many extracurriculars. If I had remained for one more quarter, I’d have earned a minor in Greek, but I had student teaching to fit in, and fall seemed the best quarter to do that. I let my Greek slip away. On the rare occasions when it comes up, I tell people I know just enough Greek to be dangerous. If a word in a Gospel reading intrigues me, I can come home and look it up in my Greek New Testament and puzzle it out with a concordance and dictionary. I haven’t spoken the words of the New Testament in a long time, but sometimes I could toss out for my Sunday School class a little nugget from the Greek.
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Baptist GirlI was a conservative Baptist girl who grew up to become a career Christian, working first in a Baptist school and then in a Baptist college. For about three decades, it was very good until it wasn’t, and I had to leave. But the Baptists formed me. This is my homage to the good times and good people of the world I left, finally, at forty-three, when I became an Episcopalian. These are my memories; others might disagree with my recollections. So be it. Archives
January 2024
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