As for reading Greek, I can superficially do it at a good clip w/o helps
(and try to weekly), but I'm aware that 95%+ of what I understand comes from
just knowing the English. I had a couple different Oxford professors who
both told me that it takes about 10 years of Greek study to really grasp it.
I might be half-way there on a good day, and my current level of study has
basically plateaued and won't get me any closer. One great benefit, though,
as others have said, is being able to read commentaries and translations
with discernment.

For Hebrew, although I had a good teacher (who only allowed Hebrew to be
spoken in class), I've slipped and very much need my helps-which lately has
been computer software with interlinear "parsing" and translation/lexicon. I
got a little brush up a few years ago when I went to Israel for 3 weeks, but
I don't practice enough to retain it. My Latin is somewhere in between. I
should add that the one idiom I've kept up fluently is Pig-Latin.

GCM+

----- Original Message -----
From: "William H. Perkins, Jr. +" <wperkin2@...>
To: <faithandlife@...>
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2004 8:21 AM
Subject: Re: [FaithandLife] Re: Survey


> Mike+:
>
> I think it would be good to know who among us can read Greek or Hebrew.  I
> was trained in both but I am so rusty I can only read a little Greek with
> out consulting my interlinear, parsing guide and Greek dictionary.
>