09-17-2004, 06:04 PM
Dave: I have already announced my belief in Greek primacy in another topic.
The argument used by D.A. Carson is far from "false" by any means. Roots can't give words meaning other than what the normal meaning of a word is. This is problematic for proponents of Peshitta primacy since much of the research done invovles a dogmatic use of etymology.
For example, our English word "goodbye" comes from the anglo-saxon term for "god is with you" but that doesn't mean that the "literal meaning" of goodbye is "god is with you" since it is never used in that context any more. By nitpicking the context the otherwise clear message is lost behind a meaning that we hammer onto it.
The argument used by D.A. Carson is far from "false" by any means. Roots can't give words meaning other than what the normal meaning of a word is. This is problematic for proponents of Peshitta primacy since much of the research done invovles a dogmatic use of etymology.
For example, our English word "goodbye" comes from the anglo-saxon term for "god is with you" but that doesn't mean that the "literal meaning" of goodbye is "god is with you" since it is never used in that context any more. By nitpicking the context the otherwise clear message is lost behind a meaning that we hammer onto it.