Should pastors and other Bible teachers bother to learn Greek and Hebrew? You can use Greek and Hebrew without having to memorize a single paradigm, let alone 3,000 vocab words, so why torture yourself?
I’ll give you ten reasons studying the original languages is worth the pain, five this week and five next.
1. Because they increase interpretive accuracy.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a medical doctor by training. He had no formal theological education. Yet he went on to become one of the twentieth century’s most influential preachers—and a proponent of studying the Greek and Hebrew. He said that the languages
. . . are of great value for the sake of accuracy; no more, that is all. They cannot guarantee accuracy but they promote it. (Preaching and Preachers, 127–128)
Lloyd-Jones knew that some preachers would be tempted to treat a sanctuary like a linguistics classroom, and he discouraged that. But he also understood the interpretive power of Greek and Hebrew study. This pulpit master, in his classic work on preaching, goes on to rigorously subsume the value of the original languages to the end goal of conveying the biblical message to people. And it’s key that, in his view, they only “promote”—not “guarantee”—hermeneutical and homiletical accuracy.
I have heard comparatively untutored preachers teach Scripture accurately to groups that included numerous biblical studies PhDs. I have also heard the opposite; I have sometimes thought to myself, “Does this guy have any idea who he’s talking to?” (Indeed, the phrase “the gall!” has only ever come to my mind while listening to preachers.) If you are a Greek/Hebrew novice, by dabbling into something you don’t know, you may very well limit the effectiveness of your ministry to the educated by unwitting inaccuracies.
2. Because they make contextual connections which are necessarily obscured by translation.
There’s an apparently awkward break in the chain of Jesus’ reasoning in English translations of John 15:1–4. See if you can catch it:
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
One of these sentences doesn’t at first seem to flow very well with what comes before and after it. Why does he break out of his vine and fruit talk to mention, “Already you are clean”? That “already” implies some contrast with uncleanness—but he was just talking about pruning, not cleaning. And after his reference to cleaning, he goes back to talking about the main topic of the paragraph, namely branches and vines.
This is a perfect example of the kind of thing that knowing Greek can do for you. The word translated “clean” and the word translated “prunes” in the previous sentence are from the same Greek root (καθαρος). Jesus isn’t awkwardly lurching; he’s making a bit of a pun that’s hard to put into English. You can’t make these sorts of connections (the sorts that are necessarily obscured by translation) without knowing the original languages.
3. Because they rule out some interpretations.
Knowing original languages is more often helpful for ruling out bad interpretations than anointing true ones. Consider Psalm 14:1.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. (ESV)
In the English Bible translation I grew up with, the KJV, the words “There is” are italicized, meaning that they were supplied by the translators and not present in the original Hebrew. That’s true.
So I have heard numerous people say over the years that, supposedly, the italics indicate that the original Hebrew reads, “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘No, God!’” (I particularly remember hearing this from a clever roommate in college, who won the smarter-than-thou award for that day.)
But once I learned Hebrew I discovered that there’s a significant problem with this argument: the Hebrew word translated “no” doesn’t mean “no,” as in the opposite of “yes.” It means “non-existence of.” The fool described in Psalm 14:1 is denying God’s existence, not saying “No” to God.
Knowing Hebrew didn’t give me the right interpretation of this verse; that was something I already knew from my English translation(s). It just enabled me to decisively rule out the urban legend interpretation.
… For reasons 4 through 9 please follow the direct links, below.
8 Comments
That's great news, Robert! Might be a good time to re-read "Facade" and "Portent" so they're
Fresh in mind.
That is what we are talking about J9 , and Im sure you know a lot more.
One ancient dictionary has the definition of the word "gay" to mean "happy, bright, and cheerful…"
And I will start the recovery of words , right here, and say " Oh how sweet it is , that you purified that back to its original sign of Peace made by God, and not this deceptive false unity , which we can bust effectively , by exposing the things they try to unify over vainly. " —–While I am here Terence , be in prayer with me as Mike is writing his new novel. I am thrilled that he has wisely chosen That, to use his time for. And I am praying that he gets the revelation to make it as full and long as God gives him the opportunity to do so. FULL from the reservoir of ideas that I am sure we all have contributed to him since he last took up his writing pen.
So many words have been transformed into their opposite meaning, in my lifetime, that
It starts to get a bit exhausting when trying to choose precise words when writing.
On a different front, I'd like to see Christians begin to recover the sign of the rainbow.
I think Genesis 9 came before Mork wore his rainbow suspenders on TV or Gilbert Baker
In 1978.
Now THAT, is well put. The " moving target" even makes it even more imminent ( you might be able to think of a better word there) than I was suggesting. Just over night, I was thinking of how people have changed a wonderful word " sweet" ( because I was thinking of the song ' he gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by' ) into meaning Marijuana.
Yes, this word thing, I try to really stay on top of, because I keenly feel the importance of it.
My favorites are …because the vernacular is a moving target and that it's a protestant tradition; one that cost many their lives to get started.
It's astounding how so few church fathers had facility with the original languages.
Here is one " Because the original is , well, the Original" , LoL— Big fan of this ! Because definitions of words get so corrupted , twisted, changed subtily ,as to their meaning, deliberately so. Just like Enoch said they would.