March 4, 2012

Learning The Biblical Languages: Peril and Profit

LEARNING THE BIBLICAL LANGUAGES: PERIL AND PROFIT

 CAUTION:  Learning the Biblical Languages Can Be Hazardous to Your Health!

As Professor of Greek and New Testament at a Christian university, I naturally champion the study of Biblical languages.  That I would even hint of hazards, let alone showcase them in the title of this article may come as a surprise. But I am seeking committed converts, not duped disciples, so there are two dangers I must mention before my unpaid political plug for learning the Biblical languages (No, the dread of deleterious effects on a GPA is not one of them!):  first, the erroneous assumption that knowledge of the Biblical languages is the key to unlocking every hermeneutical challenge (in fact, many additional factors are involved in the hermeneutical task); and second, the temptation to spiritual elitism that comes when one has “boldly [gone] where [all too few!] have gone before.” If we can successfully avoid these landmines, then the Biblical languages hold great promise for those who dedicate their time and effort to learning them.

WARNING:  NOT learning the Biblical languages WILL be hazardous to your health!

Why Study The Biblical Languages?

Did you know that when you read the Bible in English (or any non-Biblical language), you are not reading God’s Word; you are reading an interpretation of God’s word.  This is not an insignificant factoid because the Bible is the only divinely inspired, infallible and authoritative rule for belief and behavior, and since the “Bible” of this tenet of faith refers only to the original manuscripts that were penned by the Biblical writers (or their scribes).

Now if we take this tenet of faith seriously, then every Christian has a two-fold task with respect to the Bible: first, we must understand what each text means; and, second, we must live in accordance with the principles each text espouses. So, if there be any in this assembly, any dear friends of God who find themselves disinclined to put their hands to this exegetical “plow” until they find Biblical support for its necessity, they need look no further than Paul’s injunction to Timothy, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15, KJV).

The process of drawing out the meaning of a text, known in academic circles as “exegesis,” is always multidimensional, frequently fascinating, but sometimes downright painful. Occasionally a lengthy, painstaking investigation yields very little exegetical fruit, and this can be very discouraging. But like a miner panning for gold, even the smallest traces reenergize us with the confident expectation that continued efforts will generate a significant payoff.

Our hermeneutical task is made more challenging because of the chasm that separates our world from the world of the Biblical writers. We simply do not share the identical historical, cultural, geographical, and temporal context as that of the Biblical writers. But there is something even more fundamental that we do not share—their language!  Thus, our primary concern must be with the grammar of the original language, not the English translation, and for this we need to know the Biblical languages.

As an example, let’s look at 2 Timothy 2:15 (cited above).  Readers of the KJV have no way of knowing that Paul was not referring specifically or exclusively to academic “study” in his charge to Timothy. Nor would they know that “study” was not the main verb of the command at all! BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! At the risk of overkill, we should also note that readers of this translation would not know that “shew” was a word Paul used elsewhere to refer to “presenting a offering”; nor would they know that “approved” carried the sense of “one who has passed a test”; nor that “rightly dividing” not only has nothing to do with separating truth from error but also that it is not restricted to “correctly interpreting.”

“NOW HOLD ON!” you say. [background music adding depth to defiance] “We don’t need no edju-caytion; we don’t need no thot con-troll . . . .” “We don’t need to know the Greek; we have other ENGLISH translations that will identify these differences in meaning!” True enough. [rhetorical pause] And how will you determine which of them gives the best sense? [rhetorical pause] “Gut feeling”? “Holy Spirit Woosh”? Urim and Thummim? THE POINT: only those who know the Biblical languages have the tools to make these important decisions.  [For those interested, I offer the following translation of 2 Timothy 2:15 that brings out the sense, though it suffers from readability: “Spare no effort to offer yourself to God as one who has passed the test, that is, as a worker [who is] unashamed because he (or she!) continuously cuts a straight path for the word of truth.”]

And speaking of interpretive options, in the Greek language the genitive case alone has over thirty different grammatical functions, of which translators must affirm only one in any given occurrence; English readers frequently have little clue what possibilities the translators rejected. For example, in Galatians 2:20 Paul says “. . . the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in (or “the faithfulness of”?) the son of God.” Some translations footnote (usually one of) the grammatical options, but many do not. For this awareness readers need a knowledge of the Biblical languages and access to grammars, lexicons, and scholarly commentaries that deal directly with the original text, little of which will make any sense to those unschooled in the Biblical languages).

Those ignorant of the Biblical languages are at the mercy of those who do.  If Paul commended the Beroeans for checking up on his theology (Acts 17:10f.), how much more should Christians have enough knowledge of the Biblical languages to discern the accuracy of Biblical teachings espoused in the pulpit and in the academy?  Buying into the doctrinal teachings of a particular preacher or evangelist based on her or his likeability or popularity or charisma or even academic credentials is a dangerously disturbing dereliction of duty—namely the duty to think critically and responsibly about all matters of faith and practice and to act in accordance with the life principles that derive from such critical thinking. We need look only to the Jim Jones tragedy (unfortunately not a solitary example!) to see just how dangerous “blind faith” and “uncritical thinking” really are. Knowledge of the Biblical languages will safeguard us from being led into distorted understandings of the Christian faith.  Compare also, for example, the claim by the Jehovah’s Witnesses that the absence of the definite article attached to “God” in John 1:1 indicates that Jesus was merely “a god” with the grammatically faithful understanding that Jesus was (and is) every whit as divine as God the Father.

Having to establish the precise use of a case or mood or voice forces the interpreter to consider all the various possibilities of meaning inherent in the language of the text. When it comes to hermeneutics, attention to detail often brings a huge exegetical dividend from this investment.

Here we think specifically of rhetorical features, such as alliteration, assonance, poetic structure, chiasm, marked/unmarked word order, and the like, most of which are completely lost in translation—but all of which are clearly discernable to those schooled in the Biblical languages.

Grappling with Biblical texts in their original languages repeatedly calls our preconceived notions about the meaning of these texts to account; it checks unfounded certainty and preformed conclusions. As one scholar put it, “Faced with the issues posed by the nature of human language and the range of possibilities for translation and meaning, we may more readily come to see that we do not already know everything about the Bible – we become a bit more unsettled in our assumptions, and perhaps a bit more open to learning something new. . . . It is harder to default to one’s own familiar theology as the obvious and perhaps only true meaning of the text when one is confronted with fundamental decisions about grammar . . . .”[i]

This final point may well be the second biggest shock of this article. My enthusiasm for electronic Bible study resources (e.g., Bible Works, Accordance, and, in my judgment, the “King of Bible Software Kings,” Logos Bible Software) needs no comment, much less embellishment. Nevertheless, as eminently powerful as these resources are, they do NOT eliminate the need for knowledge of the Biblical languages. They DO make much of the “hard data” related to the original languages available to those unfamiliar with the Biblical languages in ways heretofore unimaginable!  The power of this tool simply cannot be controverted or hyperbolized. But unbridled power can turn a very useful tool into a very dangerous weapon.  Just as no parent of right mind should hand a loaded .44 Magnum to a teenager before giving hours and hours of rigorous, detailed instruction in the rules and regulations of gun safety, so also should spiritual parents recommend (require? demand?) rigorous, detailed instruction in the grammatical rules and regulations of the Biblical languages.

Electronic resources are incredible in what they offer, but they are not without their limitations.  This is seen especially in their handling of the Biblical language tools.  Firstly, although Bible software programs can display (and even pronounce!) the precise Greek or Hebrew word underlying a word from an English translation, and also provide a list of possible meanings of the word, they cannot assure that users will choose the meaning most appropriate for the specific context in which that word is found (the same danger lurks in The Amplified Bible).  Secondly, Bible software programs DO make the gathering of word study data eminently easy, but apart from the skills necessary to interpret the data they so quickly supply, risk of misinterpretation and misapplication looms large. Secondly, when it comes to the morphological data that electronic resources supply, the generated output sometimes disguises one or more interpretive options, by the editor’s choice for the specific context (for example, some indicative forms are virtually identical to imperative forms; the editors must choose only one for the context. Those familiar with the Biblical languages are aware of the other options; those unfamiliar are not. Thirdly, electronic resources can identify a form as in the genitive case, but they cannot show the user which of the 32+ grammatical functions of the genitive case is most appropriate for the given context and why. By now, I hope I have succeeded in demonstrating that as indispensable and invaluable as electronic Bible software programs are (AND THEY ARE!!), they do not eliminate the need for acquiring at least a basic understanding of the Biblical languages!

CONCLUSION

Throughout this article I have stressed the importance of all Christians coming to some level of understanding of the Biblical languages. I am quite obviously speaking in highly idealistic terms. I understand that this ADMIRABLE and IDEALISTIC goal is in many cases, unrealizable—often for very practical reasons. I am not intending to drag all Christians into the “gymnasium” (a Greek word, by the way!) of the Biblical languages by guilt and manipulation. I am especially trying to persuade those called by God to preach and teach God’s flock to be TRUSTWORTHY in their charge. Congregations naturally put their trust (often, sad to say, blind trust) in their spiritual leaders—and sometimes for very laudable reasons. But this does not eliminate the danger of such a practice, and it certainly makes preachers and teachers of God’s word all the more responsible for “cutting a smooth path for the Word of Truth.” Therefore, let us not shrink back from our duty to ACCURATELY communicate God’s word to the world.  And let us do our due diligence by equipping ourselves with a thorough working knowledge of the Biblical languages.


[i] Brian K. Petersen, Professor of New Testament at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina; accessed on-line at: http://bpeterson.faculty.ltss.edu/Greek/WhyStudy.htm.


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