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Do you need to know Greek in order
to understand the New Testament?
And the answer to that is no, of course not.
We have many wonderful translations
in English and other modern languages.
We have an embarrassing wealth of riches of translation.
At the same time, there comes a point,
especially for people who are
reading the Bible all the time,
preparing lessons on this weekly
for sermons and Bible studies,
where there's a sense of I want to be closer.
I don't want any distance between myself
and the words of the apostles and the prophets.
It would be, for example,
if let's say that you love French literature,
and there comes a time after reading Moliere
and Camus and Sartre in English where you say, wow,
I really want to read these in the original.
I'm not content for this layer of language
to exist between me and my love.
What does reading the Greek New Testament
do that you don't get in English?
And I thought it might be nice
just to pick a short little book of the Bible,
the Book of Philemon,
and just talk about a few differences it makes.
First off, there's the difference
in seeing the structure of the text.
Many times in the Greek language,
you may have a Greek sentence that's
three verses or even 10 verses,
and in that original sentence,
you'll have a main statement,
and then you'll have supporting points,
and that structure is clearly visible
in the original language.
But when that's translated into English,
because of the difference of structure in our language,
maybe what was originally one sentence will become three,
and so you'll see an obscuring.
It's just more difficult to see that original structure.
Even here in the Book of Philemon, in verse 5,
there's this beautiful chiasm,
this A, B, B, A, structure
that's very difficult to bring across
in English translation.
There's the second issue, is the issue of clarity.
An example of this in verse 6 of Philemon.
When I was in college, my preferred Bible was the NIV 1984,
and I still love the 1984 NIV,
and verse 6 in the NIV '84 says,
I pray you may be active in the sharing of your faith
so that you would have a knowledge
of every good thing we have in Christ.
Now, if you're an Evangelical Christian,
and you hear about sharing your faith,
the first thing you think about is evangelism.
You say, I need to be sharing my faith.
But as I'm looking at the Greek text,
the word there is 'koinonia', right?
The word 'koinonia', fellowship, partnership,
never has to do with evangelism.
It's always about partnering or sharing or living
with Christians in the community that you're in.
And, of course, the Book of Philemon is about Philemon,
this slave owner, and Paul sending Onesimus,
his runaway slave, back to him,
and then what it means for Philemon and Onesimus
to be brothers in the same Christian community.
That's why the NIV 2011 has updated
and changed the wording to make it partnership,
because clearly there was originally
some potential for misunderstanding there.
So there's just this beauty, this clarity,
this profundity, this nuancing
that comes from reading the text in the Greek.
And you can find people who tell you
it's not worth learning to read the Bible in Greek.
But I would say, can you find someone
who's learned to read the Bible in Greek
who then will tell you it's not worth the time?
That would be my challenge to you.
I'm not saying that everyone
has to learn Greek and Hebrew, by any means.
We have wonderful reliable translations.
But maybe when you're hearing this, you're thinking,
I've always wanted to learn to read the Greek New Testament.
The good news is it's never been easier to do that.
With the resources we have now, with online education,
wherever you are in the world,
you can learn to read the Greek New Testament.
I'm grateful to be at a seminary where we have
a robust and rigorous education,
both on campus and online.
We have students, I believe,
in over 60 countries around the world.
And we offer Greek and Hebrew so that wherever you are,
whatever you're doing, whatever stage of life you're in,
whether you're 20 years old or 80 years old,
if you have that hunger in you, you say,
I love readin' the Bible in English,
but I just feel like I don't want any distance
between me and the words of the apostles and prophets,
then it's never been easier to go that route yourself.
Also, if you're not ready for more of a formalized education
but you just want to dabble in it a little bit,
I oversee a couple websites,
The Daily Dose of Greek and The Daily Dose of Hebrew,
and these have some basic lessons.
Not the equivalent of a online master's course,
but they have some basic videos that'll get you started.
Learn to read the alphabet, begin to make progress in it.
Or maybe you're a pastor who took
Greek and Hebrew years ago,
and you feel embarrassed when you're watching this
because you think you let your Greek slide
and your Hebrew slide.
You think, could I get it back now?
You can get it back at the Daily Dose of Greek and Hebrew.
You can sign up and just with two minutes a day
of a free video sent to you.
Those websites are all free.
Two minutes a day, you can begin to ease back into it
one verse a day, and you'd be surprised.
After a year of doing just two minutes a day,
your Greek and Hebrew will have revived and be flourishing.
- [Narrator] Thanks for watching Honest Answers.
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or in the Comments section below.
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the answer to next Wednesday's question.
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