Old bluster and bluff

Reading Greek.

I ran across these comments that I had saved from a Facebook group. Several years ago, a preacher named Jonathan Burris – who had “disembarked” from the use of only the King James Bible and had been “dislodged” from his church – joined the Facebook group and hit the ground running. He “knew all” and “told all.” Burris usually wrote in superlatives. He claimed to meet all comers and answer all questions, but I found “a few” he would not answer. Here is one. After touting his Greek skills, he would not answer whether he could actually read Greek with comprehension. He snuggled back in a safe position of “if someone will debate me I will prove that I can.” A simple answer was not simple enough, because the answer was probably simply, “no.” Here was our conversation.

Robert Lee Vaughn: “Btw, Jonathan Burris, you may have missed my earlier question. When you were suggesting doing live videos, I asked if would you do a live video in which you read and then giving the meaning of a reading from the Greek, that you would not know what it is until handed to you live. What do you think? Thanks.”

Jonathan Burris: “Robert Lee Vaughn, if you are curious if I can truly read Biblical Greek or not, I would love to have a KJVO debate me and during cross-examination, my opponent could ask me to read and parse a random portion of text from either the Greek NT or the Septuagint. Someone should debate me if they think I am bluffing.”

Robert Lee Vaughn: “Jonathan Burris, so that is a ‘no’ to my question? I am curious whether you read Greek or ‘read’ Greek. Thanks. https://danielstreett.com/2011/09/08/what-does-it-mean-to-read-greek/”

Jonathan Burris: “Robert Lee Vaughn, would you like to do a live, in-person, moderated debate with me and find out? During cross-examination, you can ask me to read and parse a random portion of the Greek NT or the Septuagint. If you don’t think I can read and understand Koine Greek, call my bluff.

“Else, let’s put this to bed and present a coherent argument for us to discuss. Or, just move on and have a good weekend.”

Robert Lee Vaughn: “I do my ‘debating’ on paper and electronic media. I am old and a slow plodder, and never was a quick thinker anyway. Plus I don’t have the face for visual media! Additionally, I don’t really see why you can’t answer the question without having a debate. Do you read it with comprehension like you do your native language, or you ‘slosh through it’ like Bart Ehrman said in an address he made at Loyola Marymount University in 2013? ‘Today when somebody is highly skilled in Greek, like Jeff Siker and me, we’re considered highly skilled – that means we can kind of slosh our way through a Greek text if we have a good dictionary sitting next to us.’

“By the way, I have ‘called your bluff.’ I have asked for a straight answer and so far you won’t give it, for some reason.

Since I saved these remarks for some reason, I decided to go ahead and post them here and get them out of the queue. I found many interlocutors on the non-KJV side to be open, honest, and sincere. Jonathan B. was not one of them. If you run across him, keep one eye and both ears open.