Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Alford and Piper: quick question

I know I heard (or read) John Piper saying something to the effect that Henry Alford was his favorite, most-used single commentator on the Greek text. But I can't source it. I fear it may have been in a panel session on a conference.

Anyone help me out on that?

[UPDATE: Phil Gons found the quotation, thanks to the suggestion by Pilgrim Mommy. It was after Piper's lecture on John Owen. Piper says:

When I’m stumped with a . . . grammatical or syntactical or logical flow [question] in Paul, I go to Henry Alford. Henry Alford mostly answers—he . . . comes closer more consistently than any other human commentator to asking my kinds of questions. (John Piper, “John Owen: The Chief Design of My Life—Mortification and Universal Holiness,” 1:30:11–1:30:31).

Now that Phil found the quotation, I remember agreeing with Piper: Alford asks my kind of questions, too.]

14 comments:

Mike J said...

One avenue might be to try asking Him ;-)
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/AskPastorJohn/

By the way, if I may be so bold as to humbly request it, would you turn on full RSS syndication? :-D

DJP said...

I don't mind your asking, but explain to me why I should. I don't really understand RSS. Does it make it so people don't actually come here, to the blog?

RodeoClown said...

I would also love if you could turn on the full text feed.

Pretty please...

RodeoClown said...

Hi DJP,

RSS makes it so I can read what you have written in one place.

I have a 2 hour commute to work each day, and my RSS reader grabs all the feeds I read, and then I can read them offline on the way to work.

If there is something I want to comment on, or read others' comments, I can then just click through when I get to work, or back home, and read those.

This is Google's explanation of a feed, from their Google Reader site (which I use to read feeds).

Persis said...

Hi Dan:

I think it might be at during the Q&A at the end of Piper's talk on John Owen. HTH.

Wes Walker said...

Hi Dan.
I came here because I trust you and your core readers to have their heads on pretty straight.

I know I'm off topic, but I thought you might be able to help.

I am in a conversation with a self-described Synergist, who presented Chrysosotom's commentary on Romans 9. (Eastern Orthodox.)

I tried to address / refute these from the Reformed position in my blog, but I'm still reasonably new to the same.

If there is someone out there with time / inclination to point out any mistakes I may have made, I would be grateful.

If I'm too far off topic, and get deleted, I understand that, too.

Thanks either way.

-Wes
www.dailytheophilus.blogspot.com

Ben Bush said...

Hi, Dan and others wondering about adding this blog on your rss feed.

I use google rss reader and simply pasted the home address in the subscribe box and now I'm subscribed.

As to the concern that it may deter traffic, for me, having the various blogs in one spot helps me to keep up w/all the ones I'm interested enough to subscribe to in the first place.

And, invariably, I'm then able to go to the specific blogs themselves easier and faster.

The more accessible the blog, the easier it is to go there and thus enhance readership.

Glad I found your blog, Dan. I'm looking forward to reading it in the future.

Ben

DJP said...

< shrug >

I've turned it on, but I must say that, if I understand it, it doesn't make sense to me. Partial feed lets people see if they're interested, whereupon they'll come to this blog. Full feed means they can read the whole article, don't need to come, right? How can it not drive down traffic / conceal how many are reading and where they are?

If I see negative impact, I suppose I'll just turn it off.

CR said...

Wes,

Hmmm, I'm surprised that Chrysosotom would have a different view on Romans 9. Chrysosotom (4th century) is known in church history as the Great Expositor. I know that the Byzantine Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox use him for their liturgy but I would not call him "Eastern Orthodox." It would like calling Augustine Roman Catholic just because the Catholic Church honors him as saint - even though he would completely disagree with the church's position on key theological issues.

Mike J said...

"I've turned it on, but I must say that, if I understand it, it doesn't make sense to me. Partial feed lets people see if they're interested, whereupon they'll come to this blog. Full feed means they can read the whole article, don't need to come, right? How can it not drive down traffic / conceal how many are reading and where they are?

If I see negative impact, I suppose I'll just turn it off."

1) Yes, it will knock down your hit counter since technically a person does not need to open your actual blog to read it.

2) HOWEVER, you can check how many people are subscribed via RSS (e.g., click on 'more' on the feed in Google Reader). Consider these to be your regular readers, and add this number to your hit count each time. For example, right now you have 94 subscribers. Every time you blog these people will get your full blog, much like a magazine subscription.

2.a) You can implement RSS hit counters. That is more tricky.

3) Commentators will still comment and visit your blog. I strongly doubt it will affect the interactivity.

4) This is much better for mobile devices.

5) It is much easier to read via remote control software, like RDP and VNC: Your blog is quite IMAGE-BASED, and it is slow loading over remote control software, which I primarily use for reading.

Thanks for turning it on, though. I hope it doesn't have a negative impact on the purpose of your blog.

Phil Gons said...

Hey, Dan,

Here's the Piper quote with source: http://philgons.com/2008/05/when-im-stumped-i-go-to-henry-alford/.

Thanks for your help. And a special thanks to Pilgrim Mommy!

Pastor Steve said...

Which work of Alford's would you recommend purchasing? Right now I am having a hard time finding anything of his in print, and I prefer my books hard copy rather than "Logosed."

Thanks in advance!

Oh, and how much Greek do you need to know to be able to use his works?

Anonymous said...

DJP,
Not sure why, but it took me a year to post your "Questions for a godly wife"
It slapped me, so I posted it on sistergotslapped.blogspot.com

Thanks for sending it to me.
I know that it will challenge the women at my church and my other friends who check in on my blog.

Amy DeBurgh

DJP said...

Pastor Steve: his Greek Testament is what I'd recommend. I was using it with profit fairly early on in my Greek studies.