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Xenophon's escape from Artaxerxes' army. Safety was reached at Trapezus on the Black Sea. |
I was never more than a mediocre student of Greek,
but I was fated to sit at the feet of one of the greatest New Testament
Greek scholars of the twentieth century, Felix W. Gingrich, who, along
with W. F. Arndt, a Missouri Synod Lutheran scholar, edited a
translation of Bauer's Greek-English lexicon that became the standard reference for decades.
A small but animated man, with a dry but wicked sense of humor, his round face and horn-rimmed glasses gave him an owl-like look. His joy was to set generations of ministerial students on fire with a love for the ancient language, a form of which was used to compose the New Testament.
However, we started not with the Bible, but with Xenophon, whose Anabasis recounts his service as general of "The Ten Thousand" Greek mercenaries who fought for Cyrus in his failed attempt to unseat his brother Artaxerxes.
The Anabasis recounts the Greeks' escape from Artaxerxes and many adventures in fighting their way from the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys over the mountains to the Black Sea.
Though the story was exciting, getting the translation right was not easy for our class of English-speakers who had trouble grasping the subtleties of Greek syntax and grammar.
My particular downfall was a phrase occurring near the end of the book, when the troops in the front had finally reached a vantage point on a mountain about 35 miles from the Black Sea from which they could glimpse it -- and safety.
The phrase was: ...those who are constantly going forward... ran towards the front and kept on shouting.
Patiently, Dr. Gingrich led me through the phrase until I got it to his satisfaction. The trick is that English does not have a construction like "constantly going forward". We tend to collapse the action to simply "going forward".
He patiently explained that the construction underscored patience , planning and continuing effort on the part of Xenophon, being carried out by his troops on a continual basis, despite difficulties.
Responding to the noise, Xenophon mounted his horse and rode to the front to see what the commotion was. As he approached, he could hear the men shouting "Thalassa! Thalassa!", or "The sea! The sea!" indicating they had sighted the Black Sea and knew their journey to safety was nearly over.
Thinking about the election victory of the Mapp team on Tuesday night, I remembered the phrase -- and how glad we students were to finally have gotten to the end of the Anabasis.
With a twinkle in his eye, Dr. Gingrich led us in an impromptu staging of the scene, with the whole class shouting "Thalassa! Thalassa!"
So. after nearly twenty years of struggle to move Plainfield forward, Mapp's supporters can also rejoice at the sighting of the journey's end.
Thalassa! Thalassa!
A small but animated man, with a dry but wicked sense of humor, his round face and horn-rimmed glasses gave him an owl-like look. His joy was to set generations of ministerial students on fire with a love for the ancient language, a form of which was used to compose the New Testament.
However, we started not with the Bible, but with Xenophon, whose Anabasis recounts his service as general of "The Ten Thousand" Greek mercenaries who fought for Cyrus in his failed attempt to unseat his brother Artaxerxes.
The Anabasis recounts the Greeks' escape from Artaxerxes and many adventures in fighting their way from the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys over the mountains to the Black Sea.
Though the story was exciting, getting the translation right was not easy for our class of English-speakers who had trouble grasping the subtleties of Greek syntax and grammar.
My particular downfall was a phrase occurring near the end of the book, when the troops in the front had finally reached a vantage point on a mountain about 35 miles from the Black Sea from which they could glimpse it -- and safety.
The phrase was: ...those who are constantly going forward... ran towards the front and kept on shouting.
Patiently, Dr. Gingrich led me through the phrase until I got it to his satisfaction. The trick is that English does not have a construction like "constantly going forward". We tend to collapse the action to simply "going forward".
He patiently explained that the construction underscored patience , planning and continuing effort on the part of Xenophon, being carried out by his troops on a continual basis, despite difficulties.
Responding to the noise, Xenophon mounted his horse and rode to the front to see what the commotion was. As he approached, he could hear the men shouting "Thalassa! Thalassa!", or "The sea! The sea!" indicating they had sighted the Black Sea and knew their journey to safety was nearly over.
Thinking about the election victory of the Mapp team on Tuesday night, I remembered the phrase -- and how glad we students were to finally have gotten to the end of the Anabasis.
With a twinkle in his eye, Dr. Gingrich led us in an impromptu staging of the scene, with the whole class shouting "Thalassa! Thalassa!"
So. after nearly twenty years of struggle to move Plainfield forward, Mapp's supporters can also rejoice at the sighting of the journey's end.
Thalassa! Thalassa!
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