Proper pronunciation

How important to biblical scholarship is the proper pronunciation of Greek words?

In the linked video, Mark Ward, John Meade, and Will Ross give a “response” to the sessions of the first meeting Reformation Bible Society. In a complaint about the scholarship, Will Ross (starting at about 13:51) says there were problems with “even basic things like mispronounced words that would be common to people who work in more detail with Septuagint scholarship.” Is this a legitimate complaint, or more a closing of ranks, “You’re not a scholar if you don’t pronounce Greek words like I do”? How well do we really know that everyone across the Roman empire pronounced Koine Greek the same way? I notice that Englishmen, even those in the same country, have a wide range of pronunciations which does not amount to ignorance, but may properly be ascribed to accent. I notice even Mark, John, and Will do not have the same accent. Starting about 47:01 Mark and Will refer to Peter Van Kleeck’s paper on Augustine. Mark calls him “uh-guhs-tin” which I perceive to be popular in academic circles. Will calls him “aw-guh-steen” (for which he gets high points for speaking a little drawl-like, as we talk here in East Texas!). Maybe one or both of them are not well-schooled in their historical scholarship. Or, more likely, they just speak differently. But is not this the pots calling kettles black? Physicians, heal yourselves before you scold others.

I hear and read in the Bible version debates a lot of things from both sides that I believe are petty and lacking in substance. They distract from the substance of the arguments. I see such pettiness in their pronunciation complaint. The more I hear British English on TV, in lectures, videos, and such like, the less I believe there is one proper pronunciation of most English words. Even the Brits do not have one pronunciation shared among themselves. And neither do we.

Mark likes to say that others in the Bible version debates are offensive, but I find their raising themselves up on the backs of others to be offensive.

• Also interesting, the rejoinder by Jeff Riddle to Meade, Ross, and Ward.

Linking about evolution and other things

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

* A Mathematician's View of Evolution -- "I know a good many mathematicians, physicists and computer scientists who, like me, are appalled that Darwin's explanation for the development of life is so widely accepted in the life sciences."
* Institute for Creation Research -- A website devoted to creation research
* Listening to Young Atheists: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity -- "Christianity, when it is taken seriously, compels its adherents to engage the world, not retreat from it. "
* Mathematicians and Evolution -- "It seems to require many thousands, perhaps millions, of successive mutations to produce even the easiest complexity we see in life now. It appears, naively at least, that no matter how large the probability of a single mutation is, should it be even as great as one-half, you would get this probability raised to a millionth power, which is so very close to zero that the chances of such a chain seem to be practically non-existent."
* The Green Heron and Evolution -- "When the green heron catches the fish, it flips it to swallow the fish head first. This protects the heron's throat from the fish's fins and scales."
* The Mathematical Impossibility Of Evolution -- "...consider a very simple putative organism composed of only 200 integrated and functioning parts, and the problem of deriving that organism by this type of process."

On campus
* California College Forbids Passing Out Constitutions...On Constitution Day -- "In a stunning illustration of the attitude taken towards free speech by too many colleges across the United States, Modesto Junior College in California told a student that he could not pass out copies of the United States Constitution outside the student center on September 17, 2013—Constitution Day."
* DePaul University: Student Punished For Exposing Vandals of Pro-Life Display -- "Several students vandalized the display, removing flags and throwing them in the trash."
* Speech Code of the Month: Salem State University -- "While the intentions behind this policy are good, its overly broad language subjects large amounts of constitutionally protected speech and expression—including core political speech—to punishment."

Figures of Speech Series

Links to a series on figures of speech:

• Figures of Speech 1
• Figures of Speech 2
• Figures of Speech 3
• Figures of Speech 4
• Figures of Speech 5