Dr. Ralph Winter, Libronix Series X Beta, and Good Friends

Dr. Ralph Winter. Last night I went to Springfield, MO for the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement lesson taught by Dr. Ralph Winter. It was a real treat!

I have know of Ralph Winter for many years. He is the founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission, has a PhD in linguistics, and worked as a missionary to Guatemala for ten years, before joining the newly formed School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary. His area of expertise, at that time, according to a biographical sketch about him on his website, was Theological Education by Extension, an area in which I worked extensively on the mission field. After that time, he founded the U.S. Center for World Mission, with a host of other activities. He is the granddaddy of the Perspectives course.

Dr. Winter is 81 years old, and is battling cancer for at least the second time. This may have been my only chance to meet him. During the intermission period, I spoke to him for 5-7 minutes. He is spoft spoken, but brings a refreshing, and sometimes challenging perspective. We talked a little about his emphasis on missionary agencies (re: his treatment of structures of modality and sodality). Last night he made a statement during the first half of his presentation about how Campbellites are not really big on missionary agencies. I give him credit for knowing his audience, though many from the Springfield course are from other area churches. I told him about how the Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ has changed regarding missionary agencies over the past 20-25 years. It was a delightful evening for me.

Bob Nunnally from Good News Productions International videotaped Dr. Winter for us. We encouraged as many Joplin students as possible to make the trip to Springfield. I will show the videotape in Joplin tonight, for those who could not make the trip last night.

Libronix Series X Beta. There are some neat things planned in the future for the Logos Bible Software. A student asked me about the plural form of the Greek word τέκτων (carpenter). At first I failed to understand what he was asking, as Erasmian pronunciation of NT Greek words varies widely, and he pronounced the above word differently than I would have. I told him that I thought the word ended in ων rather than ον, as I might have thought from his pronunciation. That would make it 3rd declension, which would mean that the plural form of the word would end in ες. At any rate, I checked my seldom-used office computer (that has the Logos beta version on it--you see, when you run a beta version, it is by nature unstable, so they recommend you do not run it on a computer upon which you depend heavily). Ι opened up the Libronix software, and in the Bible Word Study Tools section, and let it go to work. I found some interesting things:

• It occurs only two times in the NT
  
• Both times it is singular
• Once it refers to Jesus as "the carpenter", the other time it refers to Jesus as "the son of the carpenter".
• The ESV Reverse Interlinear is a cool way to compare English and Greek.
• It occurs numerous times in the Septuagint, both in the singular and the plural.
  

One of the graphic displays shows the Greek next to the ESV Reverse Interlinear. I thought the display was particularly neat:

Matt 13:55		οὐχ οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ τέκτονος υἱός οὐχ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ λέγεται Μαριὰμ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ Ἰάκωβος καὶ Ἰωσὴφ καὶ Σίμων καὶ Ἰούδας		Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
Mark 6:3		οὐχ οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τέκτων ὁ υἱὸς τῆς Μαρίας καὶ ἀδελφὸς Ἰακώβου καὶ Ἰωσῆτος καὶ Ἰούδα καὶ Σίμωνος καὶ οὐκ εἰσὶν αἱ ἀδελφαὶ αὐτοῦ ὧδε πρὸς ἡμᾶς καὶ ἐσκανδαλίζοντο ἐν αὐτῷ		Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

The new Bible Word Study section breaks it down further, showing each instance in which the word appears in the different substantival cases. It is used in the nombinative plural 3 times in the Septuagint (1 Chronicles 4:14, 1 Chronicles 22:15 and Proverbs 14:22. The form that it takes in the nominative plural is τέκτονες, because according to William D. Mounce, this particular brand of 3rd declension nouns "have a strong grade in the nominative singular (ω, η) and a weak grade (ο, ε) elsewhere." (MBG, 208). Aren't you amazed about the things I can get excited about?

If K.P., who was born on April 1, 1985 happens to read this blog, I want her to know that I was really excited about this discovery.

Tomorrow the student head of our Learning Center, Laurie Bates, is giving her Senior B.Th. sermon in chapel. My good friend, and former director of the Learning Center here, now Vice President for Academic Affairs at Dallas Christian College, is coming to hear her speak. It will be good to see him.

Blessings on you all!

DGF