The Need to Learn Greek

[josephbradford]

I'm not sure where to post this question. This seemed like as good a place as any.

 

Why should anyone other than a Scholar (i.e. someone devoted to Bible Translation, etc.) need to learn NT Greek (or Hebrew)?

 

I know this might stir strong feelings but please hear me out. This question does not proceed from a place of ill intent. 

 

I've heard several reasons but none really answer the question. Yes, superficial reasons are given, but upon inspection, they don't hold water. I've thought about posting them to preempt their use. But decided it would be better if anyone who wanted to respond should think critically through their answer first.

For example...

 

"The layperson should know Greek to read the text in its original form without the interference of the translator."

Let's examine this: 

 

Should I tell a Latino he needs to learn English to really enjoy The Lord of the Rings? Well, there are probably a lot of English idioms he won't get, that North Americans probably don't get either, no matter how well he learns English. He didn't grow up learning English. It will always be a second language to him. He will always need the help of a book on English "Idioms" to figure it out. (See my Module Request post on "Idioms of the Greek New Testament" for more info.) He has a perfectly decent translation in El Señor de los Anillos. 

 

Moreover, unless I am bilingual, and I am, when I read El Señor de los Anillos, I'm going to be translating each individual word or phrase, bit by bit. "Este libro trata principalemente de los Hobbits." Este, This...libro...book...trata (where's my dicitonary, oh yeah...) deals...principalmente...principally... de... hmm. This is unnecessary in English and so on and so forth. Are we saying this increases the enjoyment of The Lord of the Rings? I hope not.

 

I'd wager that most people who "read" greek do this with the NT. That's not fluency. It may give me a sense of superiority but not understanding or enjoyment.

 

We also need to realize that regardless of how well I understand most of what I'm reading, I'm an interpreter of what I'm reading. I've mentioned this before. If I say, "Filthy, stinking, rich." How should I translate that into Spanish? It depends on what kind of "interpreter" I am. Am I more literal? "Sucio, hediondo, y rico." (Dirty, smelly, and rich.) And that doesn't make any sense. Or more direct, what does the idiom mean? "Muy rico." (Very rich.) Or what if I know what the idiom means and have an equivelant. "Podrido en plata." (Rotten in silver.) But here's another problem. Filthy could mean gross, unclean, dirty, or any other number of synonyms only exacerbating the problem. When we realize that all translators of the NT deal with this in just about every line of text it makes me ask the question...

 

Why would we ever tell anyone they "ought" to read the NT in its original language? 

 

After thoughtful meditation, I've only come up with one viable reason: to understand study helps. And then they would only need a basic understanding of grammar. 

 

Am I going to seriously argue that learning Greek is going make my understanding of the text better? How many translations do we have that range from hyper-literal to hyper-colloquial? Am I really arguing that reading Greek is going to help me realize that this translation is more correct than that one? Whole committies debate the validity of this or that word, not to mention phrases. What can I get out of the Greek text that I can't get out of comparing multiple translations reading the translator notes and their reasoning for choosing one translation and interpretation over another? Moreover, every translator is going to be ultimately guided by his theology. Be it me or a committee. 

 

So, can anyone help me sort this out? For what reason would a lay person need to read Greek?

 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I took two years of Greek (and Hebrew). I'm glad I did, and it's more than simply reading the study helps and higher-end commentaries (although I benefit from those as well).

 

I'm now competent enough in biblical languages where I can translate, exegete, and compare biblical language texts and gain a deeper understanding of the Word of God than I could simply knowing English or doing English Word Studies. I wouldn't give up this ability now that I've been trained in it.

 

I've also realized a year of Greek isn't enough. I would have still made major mistakes in my Greek exegesis with only one year of training. I needed two full years of training to get a handle on the biblical languages.

 

If you read my January newsletter, I gave another example of the importance of learning the biblical languages.

 

I recently read a book about death from an author (not well-known, and I won't publicly post names) that came to some wild theological conclusions concerning death, conclusions the majority of Christians would find to be biblically inaccurate.

 

One of the author's biggest fallacies was that the author took an English Bible, used English dictionaries to perform various "word studies", and drew major theological conclusions from them, conclusions that most pastors and biblical scholars would be able to argue is not the meaning of the biblical text. Their fallacy was they were trying to perform interpretations and "word studies" on picking out English words in an English Bible. They failed to go back to the biblical languages and read the Bible in Hebrew and Greek and perform word studies on the language the Bible was written in.

 

So does it matter to learn Greek? It does if you want to accurately communicate theological truth. There can still be some theological debate and differences, but at least we have a foundation in which to ground our theological conclusions.

 

Additionally, the Bible is more than literature such as The Lord of the Rings. It is God's Word. It is OK if I were trying to translate The Lord of the Rings in another language and I translated some of it incorrectly. The plot may not read well, but it's not "mission-critical" issue. Reading and studying the Bible, on the other hand, is a much more "mission-critical" effort of utmost importance. I respect all of the work our customers are doing in their Bible study and exegesis, and I am glad I get to work every day helping our teams build the finest tools we can put in their hands to complete their high-calling work for the Lord. I realize the importance of this job and just how much our customers depend on the tools we deliver them to advance the Kingdom of God.

[Accordance Enthusiast]

If you only read the Bible in translation, (be that English, Dutch, German, Spanish or whatever), you will have no idea which words and phrases are firmly represented in the orignal and which are the translator's guess. There are some sections of the Bible that are super clear, while other sections are very difficult and ambiguous. In a translation it's all just the same. You'll never know.

 

This can be super important if you want to defend the Bible as true and accurate, and it's also super important to those who want to attack the Bible and declare it a lie.

 

A very good reason to learn the Biblical languages is to avoid plain deception and lies. People who don't read the original languages are always relying on their favourite teacher to expound the Bible, and thus we run the danger of swallowing lies for truth "because my pastor/teacher said it so."

 

Sure, no one needs to read the original languages to obtain salvation, nor to gain a working knowledge of the Bible, but if you are at all interested in resolving contradictions, or controversial topics, you cannot rely on second-hand information.

 

The Hebrew Bible for example, contains thousands of wordplays, keyword themes and instances of emphatic word order that are not shown nor seen at all in English translations.

 

If the Bible is just another ordinary book, then, who cares. But if we believe that the Lord really inspired all the words in the Bible, then the details do matter.

 

Let me give you one example of how the original languages can help you understand the Bible:

 

"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light" - HCSB, Mt 6:22.

 

So what is the "good eye" ? Here is what the New International Greek Testament Commentary has to say:

 

"ἁπλοῦς is literally ‘single’ or ‘simple’... In ethically coloured contexts the ‘singleness’ involved is related to wholeheartedness, integrity, sincerity, or generosity. One needs to be open to the possibility that in the layered metaphoricality involved here an ethical sense is sitting behind the medical sense." - John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew : A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids, Mich.;  Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans;  Paternoster Press, 2005), 301.

 

So, the sense of "generosity" is mentioned, but it is only an interpretation, with no evidence at all. If I do a search for all occurrences of "eye" and "good" in the HCSB here is what I find:

 

 

It does not help me at all to understand the original meaning of a "good eye."

 

But lets now turn to the orignal languages. 

 

If I look in the Old Testament for "טוב" and for "עין" in one verse, I find a clear answer to my question:

 

 

So now we see it is spelled out in the Old Testament that "Good of Eye" means "generous" - it is even explained as one who gives food to the poor!

In most translations, you'll never find this answer. I could not even find it in the New International Greek Testament Commentary.

 

Most people have no idea that this idiom is explained clearly and plainly in the Hebrew Old Testament, and its supposed to be obvious to readers of the New Testment. 

 

The reasons why most people don't even know this, or think it's only an opinion, is because of the inconsistency in translations between the OT and NT. 

 

Currently the only way to get past these inconsistent translations to the truth of the Bible is to read and study it in the original language, and ask the Lord to help you see the amazing treasures in His word. 

 

My conclusion is that anyone who believes that the Bible is really the truth would like to know the original version of it, not a second-hand or worse translation. Such a person would really like to work with the raw evidence/sources, and not just with the stories built upon and around the original sources. It is a worthwhile endeavour for anyone who can make time to learn.

[JohnABarnett]

"Lord Of The Rings" is not life-determining revelation, Tolkien, good as his tales may be, is not God.

 

God's word deserves more safeguarding than does the word of Gandalf.

 

Edited March 13 by JohnABarnett

[Accordance Enthusiast]

14 minutes ago, Dr. Nathan Parker said:

the Bible is more than literature such as The Lord of the Rings. It is God's Word. It is OK if I were trying to translate The Lord of the Rings in another language and I translated some of it incorrectly

 

Excellent. That is the main question. Do we consider the Bible to be another book and "who cares if there are a handful of mistakes in my translation?", or do we consider the Bible as the word of the Lord, his instructions to us, his truth, his ways, his light, his guidance.

 

If truly the Bible is the word of the Lord (and I do believe it is), then it may be disrespectful to say that the original wording does not matter. If we truly want to know the truth then we should pay attention to the details, and do what we can to know the original languages in which that truth was written.

[Lawrence]

@josephbradford

 

There are two issues that you've entwined.

 

First is the matter of sacred text. As others have mentioned, there's a difference between communicating entertainment and communicating authority. Imagine your monolingual boss gave you an instruction in English via a colleague, your colleague passed on the instruction in Spanish, and the instruction sounded a bit odd to you. You could say "Oh well, if the boss said so, I'll try my best." But more likely, you'd ask something like "What did he actually say, in English?" Then go do what the boss actually wanted. The Bible is God's communication, so it's even more significant.

 

The second is the issue of fluency. You're right to think that if all you do is map words poorly into your native language, there's no point to learning the original language. But the objective is not to stop at that level. It is to become as fluent as you can in the original language(s) so that you can get a better sense of the original communique. Then there are language conventions such as μέν [something] δέ [more important thing] that convey emphasis but aren't always translated into English - sometimes because the translation might come out clumsy, sometimes because the matching δέ isn't mechanically obvious, so the translator needs to choose which clause to match with the μέν.

 

Having said that, there's merit in your original comment. If someone isn't prepared to learn a language well due to time constraints or whatever, it is much better to read several good translations in as many languages as the reader knows and even consult a few commentaries, than to make a poor translation on our own based primarily on dictionary glosses and then say that the Bible really meant whatever the poor translation said.

 

Personally, I find reading the Greek to not always be easy, but where I am able to, it is like watching a movie in colour rather than just greyscale. The connotations and depth of meaning sometimes get lost in translation but stare me in the face in Greek. Part of this is simply because I'm forced to slow down in my reading, giving me time to smell the flowers, as it were. But there's also another factor which I think bilingual and multilingual speakers would attest - that each language conveys something of its culture; history and wordplay can shape the sense of what is said in a way that can be picked up directly in one language but isn't easily conveyed as artistically or effectively in another.

[darrylmy]

4 hours ago, josephbradford said:

So, can anyone help me sort this out? For what reason would a lay person need to read Greek?

 

If we can agree that the basic definition a of "lay person" is a person who is not in full time vocational ministry teaching God's Word, then I would answer: No. A "lay person" does not need to read Greek. But here is a more relevant question (I think): Can reading Greek benefit a lay person? If that is the question. My answer is, "Yes."

 

Let me start by framing my argument with an illustration. According to Statista, "Cooking/Baking" is the most popular hobby/activity in the US as of December 2023. Forty-two percent of U.S. consumers state that cooking/baking is their hobby. That means that they may have practiced to develop specialized skills (e.g. knife skills), or may own specialized cooking equipment/utensils, or may have studied regional cuisine types, or may source their ingredients from specialized local providers, or they may have experimented with different seasonings and pairings, or they may have developed an intuition of measurements and weight, etc. In other words, a person engaged in the hobby of cooking or baking will most likely have developed specialized skills, knowledge, and experience even though they may not be a chef or baker in a restaurant or bakery by vocation. But have they (and likely others) benefited from what they developed from their hobby? Absolutely.

 

I think the same thing regarding a "lay person" learning Greek: Although a lay person does not need to read Greek, every lay person can benefit from it depending on their interest, ability, and the time they are willing to invest.

 

4 hours ago, josephbradford said:

After thoughtful meditation, I've only come up with one viable reason: to understand study helps. And then they would only need a basic understanding of grammar. 

 

As I have argued elsewhere on the forums, a basic understanding of Greek grammar may help someone to understand study helps, but it will not help them evaluate them. Therefore, I do not believe that every lay person needs a "basic understanding" of Greek to help them understand study helps, because it will only develop a false sense of understanding without the ability to competently evaluate them. And I would even argue that a basic understanding will not get someone as far as they think it will. As the saying goes, "just enough to be dangerous."

 

4 hours ago, josephbradford said:

Am I going to seriously argue that learning Greek is going make my understanding of the text better? How many translations do we have that range from hyper-literal to hyper-colloquial? ... Whole committies debate the validity of this or that word, not to mention phrases.

 

Yes, learning Greek will help one to understand the text better. Committees are about compromises.

 

4 hours ago, josephbradford said:

Am I really arguing that reading Greek is going to help me realize that this translation is more correct than that one?

 

Generally, someone who knows Greek hasn't learned it in order to "realize that this translation is more correct than that one." The reason for learning Greek (although admittedly varied depending on the individual) is ultimately to personally engage the text of Scripture without the mediation of a translation in one's native language.

 

4 hours ago, josephbradford said:

What can I get out of the Greek text that I can't get out of comparing multiple translations reading the translator notes and their reasoning for choosing one translation and interpretation over another? Moreover, every translator is going to be ultimately guided by his theology. Be it me or a committee. 

 

Comparing translations is usually a step that reveals an exegetical difficulty, rather than determining a correct translation; it is a clue that there might be something worth exploring in the original languages. Here are some of the benefits that one would gain from learning to read Greek (that you often will not get from translations) in no particular order:

• Understanding of Greek Verbal Aspect. Understanding imperfective and perfect aspect will help one understand the story structure (mainline actions of the event or summaries) of narrative (e.g. in the Gospels).
• Examination of Greek word order. Greek word order can be used to specify focus (e.g. interrogativity or prominence).
• Analysis of Greek prepositions. One preposition can govern two or more items which can have theological significance (e.g. the deity of christ).
• Identifying the function of the absence or presence of the article. This can specify quality or identity.
• Opening the door to more specialized tools. TLG, Apparatuses, more specialized works, etc.
• Understanding of Colwell's Construction. This is applicable for an understanding of John 1:1c. Understanding this construction will also help to spot the mistakes in exegetical literature.
• First-Class Conditions. A proper understanding of first-class conditions will help to spot even expository blunders on the difference between "since" and "if" in passages such as Matt 4.
• Adjectival positions. This will help to understand passages like 2 Tim 3 whether or not Paul is saying "all Scripture is inspired" or is talking about "every inspired Scripture" which is a big difference.

These are just handful of the benefits that I have found along my journey. Not to mention, that meditation upon the text (that is, thinking about the text in different ways) is a means of having my mind renewed. And the renewal is directly tied to dealing with the intricacies of the original languages because as one of the other's posted above, reading in Greek causes you to slow down. This is not just because of the unfamiliarity in comparison to one's native language, but because more options and nuances become realized.

 

So to summarize. Do lay people need to learn to read Greek? No. But will a lay person benefit from learning to read Greek as a personal hobby? If they have the interest, ability, and are willing to invest the time required—absolutely!

 

[JonathanHuber]

20 hours ago, josephbradford said:

For what reason would a lay person need to read Greek?

 

I'm a lay person and took 2 years of Greek + 1 year of Hebrew. I wouldn't trade away that investment for anything. Does a lay person *need* to read Greek? No, but it's worth the effort. Reasons are below. 

 

- to see the words for myself. Doesn't mean I have full confidence in my reading of them, but I want to at least be able to understand them. 

- to be able to use more technical resources eg commentaries 

- to enable more precise study eg searching for original words rather than English glosses 

- to see/understand wordplays 

- to better understand the reasons behind translation differences, including both renderings and the apparatus 

- to be able to pronounce OT names correctly  

- perhaps most important: to understand how the languages themselves work (as a corrective against exegetical fallacies)

Edited March 11 by JonathanHuber

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

13 minutes ago, JonathanHuber said:

to be able to pronounce OT names correctly  

 

After two years of Greek and Hebrew, I still struggle with this. :-)

[Mike Atnip]

One or even two years of a language is not really internalizing it. I read years ago that it takes the average person 10 years to truly master another language.
For example, I wrote the following sentence on the blurb of a book: "Jacob ... humbled himself and confessed."

This was translated to Spanish by a native Spanish speaker as: "Jacob ... se humilló y confesó."

Later, I saw this retranslated back into English (maybe not by a human, but a computer) as: "Jacob ... humiliated himself and confessed."

Those of us who are native English speakers know that humiliating oneself is distinct from humbling oneself.

This is but one sample of the nuances of language that two or even five years of language cannot bring to life.

My point: Let those of us who are only in this one or two years be humble, or we may find ourselves humiliated someday by our premature conclusions!

If you are into NT Greek, by all means at least read the LXX. Then expand into Philo and the early church writings. Then secular Koine writings. All this ain't gonna happen in two years. Unless you are smarter than I am; if so, have patience with me. :-)

[cweber]

I want to learn a basic understanding and appreciation of the Greek and of Hebrew. I program software for a living these days and the various software languages and syntax still catch me out often. It will be worth knowing enough to check on a word or simple sentence if I am uncertain about something I read in the Bible, OT and NT.

 

I also wish to advance my understanding of my own language English! I am reasonably capable and have written some comprehensive user guides and technical documentation. However, to study another language I desire to have a better comprehension of the formal English language. I self taught after high-school and had never even heard of formal sentence structures via diagramming tools. I can only assume there is a wealth of knowledge in my native language I do not know where some might be required learning, perhaps even before I study Greek or Hebrew. Full disclosure, I hated English at school, I was a Math and Science guy

Edited March 11 by cweber

[mbcvida]

If I could give what appears to be a minority opinion. I understand the importance of languages in academic or pastoral study. I recently retired after 42 years of pastoring two rural churches in Oregon. I used my Hebrew and Greek training every day in studying for sermons and Bible studies. I have two years of modern Hebrew, four years of Biblical Hebrew and 4 years of Greek in seminary. I taught Hebrew classes for three years at a seminary level (albeit beginning Hebrew courses).  I value and thank the Lord for the language training I received. But I agree with others, one or two years of a language is usually insufficient to provide a comfortable level of knowledge, unless one continues to study. Most seminary and Bible school graduates lose what capabilities they have learned after a few years of ministry. That level of training enables one to use the language tools that are currently available. But the ability to look up words in a lexicon or a grammar, of software program is what most seminary graduates end up with. The importance of languages is especially vital because it is the Word of God that we are studying and we must be as accurate as possible.  But one very important lesson I learned after taking language courses, is how good most English versions are in reflecting the underlying text. (I know that evaluation requires an adequate level of language training). But for most laymen, we must not imply that their English versions are somehow inadequate. I very seldom correct a version or make comments about 'the Hebrews really says...". There is a way to do that without impugning the major English translations (which were prepared by scholarly committees that are much more adept than most of us.) Obviously there are some things an English reader will miss, by not knowing the underlying languages. But really, how much are they really missing? Last Sunday I taught on Hebrews 4.8, "if Joshua had given them rest...". It is a second class (contrary to fact) condition. I did mention it because it was pertinent to the argument of the text. So I am not saying languages are unimportant. What I am saying is that  realistically, a lay person who studies Greek or Hebrew, needs to understand that unless they are disciplined and diligent, and have a good mentor (digital or personal), they need to devote not a year or two, but a number of years to learning these important languages. For those willing to do the work, it is certainly well worth it; But be realistic. You won't be making new translations after only a year or two. Just my two shekels.

[cweber]

@mbcvida do you see value in learning some minimal level of knowledge that a layman is unlikely to forget and is still useful to them?

 

For example, I am interested in understanding basic concepts for situations like deciphering and understanding the text I hover over in Accordance; sometimes it’s obscure to me.

 

At the least I’d hope to be competent with dictionaries. Maybe one of @Dr. Nathan Parker Videos will suffice 😀
 

PS: I know someone who obtained their Divinity degree and studied one year of Greek and Hebrew and said they’d forgotten most of it a year later. That confirms what you’re saying.

 

[Accordance Enthusiast]

9 minutes ago, cweber said:

PS: I know someone who obtained their Divinity degree and studied one year of Greek and Hebrew and said they’d forgotten most of it a year later. That confirms what you’re saying.

 

Unless one keeps reading the language regularly for at least a few years one will forget most of it. So revision might be even more important than learning!

[cweber]

If I don’t keep using a particular programming language I forget too. However, it’s easier to pick up again than starting from scratch.

[mbcvida]

its good to get a rudimentary knowledge - and then build on that. There are a number of tools and books that can explain what the various tags are. If you have a greek text in  Accordance, go to the search menu, choose tag, and you will see the various grammatical elements. Learning what these mean could be a good place to start.  I think something basic like this would be good for a webinar.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

It's true that it takes one more than two years to truly "master" Greek and Hebrew. I would consider myself far from being near a "master" of it, but at least I know enough now where I can competently perform word studies, and since I trained on Accordance while also completing my biblical language training, I can take more advantage of the power in Accordance. I would need far more time in it regularly to truly get close to "mastering" it.

 

Daily Dose of Greek and Hebrew offer great and free intro "courses" to the biblical languages. I would recommend anyone wishing to dabble in biblical language learning to start there. It's a work-at-your-pace, no-cost way to give it a try, and you could even load them in the Accordance web browser so you can study inside of Accordance. If I had known about those websites before I took biblical language training in seminary, I would have worked through them for pre-training.

 

When you're ready to take a course in biblical languages, there's a wealth of good seminaries who offer them, many online and at a good general pace. I completed all of mine from Luther Rice, and I had two fine instructors, and I'm still friends with one of the students who was with me during all the courses. I'm sure others here can point you to fine institutions as well. 

[Brian K. Mitchell]

On 3/11/2024 at 6:59 AM, josephbradford said:

"The layperson should know Greek to read the text in its original form without the interference of the translator."

Let's examine this: 

 

Yes, let's examine this!

Who are you quoting and in what context can we find this quote? 

 

On 3/11/2024 at 6:59 AM, josephbradford said:

So, can anyone help me sort this out? For what reason would a lay person need to read Greek?

 

Sure,  In some congregations languages like Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Copitc, or Arabic may be the shared liturgical and or ecclesiastical language of the local congregation and the greater community of faith. In such congregations both the laity and clergy may be expected to have proficiency in the language of the community. Some communities may even use their ecclesiastical language for written and spoken communication among their community of faith as well as for Bible Study even though they may use the language of their country in other situations. 

 

And, two Love.

My wife's first language isn't English but she is fluenty enough in conversational English that on paper I have no quote unquote need to learn her language. However, before we got married I felt the desire to aquire proficiency in her culture and language because I wanted to know as much about her as I possible could. I wanted to be able to hear her actual words, idomatic expressions, and intonation ( I feel the same way about Biblical texts, too). When it comes my wife's mother tongue and when it comes to Biblical languages I am an enthusiast. I am neither an academic scholar nor am I clergy, but I do it out of love and a bit of obsession.

 

Τα λέμε αργότερα!

[Brian K. Mitchell]

11 hours ago, Dr. Nathan Parker said:

It's true that it takes one more than two years to truly "master" Greek and Hebrew.

@Dr. Nathan Parker How far one gets is largely dependent on how many hours one can spend on the language during the year. Is one spending three hours a week for the two years? OR is someone spending 5 or more hours every day for two years. Take for example one who take a language for credit in university/seminary vs one enrolls in a language institute for two years. 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

@Brian K. Mitchell Good pointers. It's true that the amount of time one spends on it while learning it helps. 

[Brian K. Mitchell]

On 3/11/2024 at 6:59 AM, josephbradford said:

Why should anyone other than a Scholar (i.e. someone devoted to Bible Translation, etc.) need to learn NT Greek (or Hebrew)?

@josephbradford By the same token why would anyone but the trained scholars need to read/study an ancient anthology like the Bible? After all the Bible is a collection of ancient texts far removed from us by time, place, culture and language. Wouldn't the laity be better off if they just placed their faith in the words of the trained specialists, scholars, theologians, and ordained Priests?

 

On the other hand if Scriptures are more than just the property of the scholars and theologians then so are the languages the Scriptures were written in.

And for some of us who follow this point of view we may not want to leave the study of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and the Greek NT to the scholars (and ordained clergy) but want to get as close as we can to the inspired text of the Scripture thus may put in the time to aquire Biblical languages. Maybe for us the journey, the adventure, and the struggling with the ancient text is much more fun and fulfilling than simply relying on the translation/interpertations of the scholars.

 

I would say this line of thought is reflected in this famous saying often attributed to Anan Ben David (ענן בן דוד)

 

 חפשו בתורה היטב ואל תסתמכו על דברי

(Study the Torah for yourself and do not rely on my interpertion) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 14 by Brian K. Mitchell

[josephbradford]

I haven't abandoned this post. I've skimmed some of the topics and am eager to respond. However, I'm swamped right now with teaching four classes at midterms, not to mention preparing a pitch for the NHS of the UK. I will more than likely bundle all responses in one post. I've enjoyed what I've read so far. 

[josephbradford]

I also realize that many people won't pay attention to you unless you pepper your sermons, messages, posts, etc. with Greek words. So here goes.

 

Baklava. 

[Brian K. Mitchell]

1 hour ago, josephbradford said:

I also realize that many people won't pay attention to you unless you pepper your sermons, messages, posts, etc. with Greek words. So here goes.

Actually this is a good reason why at least some of the laity should also learn Biblical languages so they can at at least have some tools to fact check the leaders, ministers, scholars, and charlatans who pepper their sermons, messages, and post with Greek words.

[Brian K. Mitchell]

2 hours ago, josephbradford said:

I haven't abandoned this post. I've skimmed some of the topics and am eager to respond. However, I'm swamped right now with teaching four classes at midterms, not to mention preparing a pitch for the NHS of the UK. I will more than likely bundle all responses in one post. I've enjoyed what I've read so far. 

σας ευχαριστώ πολύ για την άμεση ανταπόκριση σας

Μου έφτιαξες τη μέρα και απλά χαμογέλασα!!

 

Τα λέμε αργότερα