Going to Seminary | Part 14
by Elouise
Finally! Back to seminary days! This post is about the most important skill I learned at Fuller Seminary. I didn’t expect it to be life-changing. But first, an important digression.
Several years ago when I was still a professor and dean, our faculty had more than one long discussion about biblical languages. Should we continue to require both Greek and Hebrew of all students in the Master of Divinity program?
- Some seminaries aren’t requiring both or even one language anymore.
- Translations of Hebrew and Greek Scriptures are easily available online.
- Comparisons and contrasts between various translations are equally available online.
- Many students struggle to pass the requirement for just one language. Why require two?
- Some potential students choose not to come to our seminary because of this requirement.
- Maybe we should just require one of the two? Or offer one on site and one online?
Discussion was vigorous. I won’t say what the outcome was. I’ll admit, though, that after listening to a few colleagues suggesting this requirement might be elitist, I waded in with my personal observations.
I haven’t changed my mind since then. In fact, I’m more convinced than ever that Fuller Seminary’s Greek and Hebrew courses were the most valuable, liberating, and ground-leveling courses I ever took, even though they weren’t required for my MA in Bible and Theology.
When I arrived at seminary, I was weary of being told over and over what Scripture says or doesn’t say about me as a woman. Not simply in my relationships with men or other authority figures, but also in my relationship with God, who would most likely speak to me through the voices of men.
As a woman I was expected to submit to the interpretations of men. Not just men like my father, but so-called learned men down through the centuries who spoke authoritatively about what Scripture requires of women, to say nothing of little girls.
At first I wasn’t interested in taking Greek or Hebrew. But it didn’t take long for me to realize I needed these courses if I was going to be a theologian or biblical scholar. I signed up for Fuller’s intensive requirements for each language. It took time—three long quarters of study for each language (3 courses worth each quarter), followed by at least one course in which I was required to use Greek, and a course in rapid Hebrew reading.
When I think of what liberated and gave me a voice as a woman theologian, there’s no contest. Other courses were important, engaging and even exciting: feminist theology, systematic theology, church history and the history of Christian thought. Yet nothing was as foundational as knowing how to read and use Hebrew and New Testament Greek in my research and writing.
The capacity to read and interpret biblical texts for myself, in dialogue with other scholars, was invaluable. I finally had a voice! I was able to see how various commentaries and translations of biblical texts sometimes mistranslated words, or read into them more than the texts allowed.
For the first time in my life, I was in my own scholarly driver’s seat. I didn’t know everything. I was, however, equipped and ready to be part of the dialogue with scholars, activists, pastors, teachers, and congregations. Even with my father.
I learned to weigh things for myself, make more appropriate choices when translating and interpreting texts. Consider discarded alternatives or suggest some of my own. Recognize mistranslated texts and unexamined assumptions that needed to be questioned.
Though language study didn’t resolve everything for me as a woman, it was a necessary beginning. It gave me what I’d call Big Soft Ammo. Not the kind that speaks loudly or tries to shout down the ‘other side,’ but the kind that does its homework, reports what it sees and hears, asks questions, and seeks faithful answers or alternative solutions that are life-giving for everyone.
To be continued….
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 22 February 2016
Photo taken by a family member in Florida, summer 1974
Ah wonderful liberation, from an unexpected quarter. It must feel good to finally accept, too, that you is one bright cookie! ((xxx))
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Hi, Fran! Your comment makes me laugh! Not sure about that bright cookie part, but I am so grateful I could pursue seminary and graduate studies. I don’t know exactly why, but the sense of soundly justified confidence in my own perceptions and interpretations (not being a data-driven person!) was greatly strengthened by these language skills. Quite amazing, actually. I didn’t even have to burn my bra! 🙂
Elouise
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I know you must be a bright cookie, because you mastered two languages – in text anyway – and I’m sure I couldn’t have done that, even as part of regular studies. 😀
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Aww…in text anyway is the right way to put it. 🙂 Though we did have to read Hebrew out loud in the rapid Hebrew reading course, and even memorize Psalm 23 and deliver it to the entire group (about 8 to 10 of us). Thankfully, our fabulous instructor gave us three tries before we were out! I found Hebrew easier (in the end) than Greek. It’s more structured and even more interesting as a window into Hebrew culture and ways of thinking about human beings and relationships.
Elouise
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Well, Elouise, you just knew that I would comment on this one, didn’t you? 🙂 I, too, remember the conversation – an important one for all of us, as it was for our students…and the Church…and the world…Thank you for this. I think that what is good for women is good for all of us.
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OK. Time for a tiny confession: I’ve been watching to see how long it might take! 🙂 You said it all in that last sentence. Good for all of us. I’m so grateful for the work you’ve done with hundreds of seminarians sweating out NT Greek–and discovering they actually enjoy it (in the end, of course!).
Elouise
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As someone who labored in a different field, I have the same view of math & its liberating potential for students. Not so they will do math for a living, but will have been trained to reason well.
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Thanks, Meg! Yes, I can see that connection working well.
Elouise
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I believe that each of the “discreet” disciplines of study equip us to use our minds well in a multitude of ways that we do not/cannot necessarily understand until later, and so we trust our teachers/leaders/shepherds to take us places, teach us things, they know/trust will bless us and the world in life-giving ways…thanks, Meg, and thanks again, Elouise, for this encouragement to thinking more broadly than we sometimes do!
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Let me simply say that I know enough to know that I do not grasp either Hebrew or Greek (some might even add English!) enough to use as tools except as basic word studies. But I did learn enough to realize that we must listen to all the voices, not just the learned men of history, but the hidden voices from the ancients (Gnostic Gospels) and the modern challengers (Mieke Bal and John Cobb, among others). Joy has never described my relationship to languages, but I always marveled at those like Natalie who could grasp and read those texts!
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David, This is a brilliant confession. 🙂 Thanks, too, for your good comment about listening to all voices–whether they seem important or not.
Elouise
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