Why study Hebrew and Greek anyway?

I am often greeted with a certain amount of surprise when I mention during the course of a conversation that I am still studying Hebrew and Greek.  This  borders on near astonishment when the listener then learns that I do it just for pleasure! Perhaps if I was studying for an academic qualification it might make some sense they conjecture and then toss in comments like “Well, these are dead languages anyway, are they not?”

The motivation however is really quite simple, a love of God’s Word and a desire to understand Him better. Surely enough motivation for a believer to dig that little bit deeper into the scriptures! Speaking of digging I would compare the study of the scripture in the original languages to prospecting for gold. In the early days of the gold rush people just turned up, strolled around the hills in the cool of the evening  picking up the nuggets as they went along. Nuggets, of course, only last for a while and as the fever intensified and more people wanted a share of the action the methods of searching intensified, tunneling mineshafts deep into the earth’s core and diverting the course of rivers with elaborate devices to sift out that elusive and precious yellow dust.  As time elapsed the effort required to obtain the same returns as in the early days dramatically increased. Eventually the rush was over but even today the gold is still out there and can be found if you are dedicated and patient.

It’s a bit like that with the study of the scripture in the original languages. In the early days scholars pocketed all the nuggets. Today for the most part it is hard labour panning for that elusive truth. Still, from generation to generation a few nuggets previously hidden just below the ground do surface, exposed by the latest developments in linguistic studies.

Some might argue “Why should I bother with learning the languages. I just need to read the right books” Well it is true that there are a few books out there if you can still find them (see note below), and there are still some teachers of the Word around who faithfully mine the scriptures in the original languages but such an approach does rely heavily on these good scribes making their finds accessible to those individuals who have neither the time nor inclination nor ability (or so they claim) to look for themselves. There is however much to be said for the excitement and pleasure one receives on finding, after a long day’s study, those few glistening specs of gold dust at the bottom of the pan that others before have overlooked, and by sharing them with others we can contribute to the sum of all our knowledge of God and His Wisdom over the ages.

At the moment I am working on a blog called ‘Lost in translation’ in which I will look at the benefits of this type of study in greater detail and how study of the original text can put back some of those things that have got lost, even in the best of Bible translations.

 

Note - a couple of the classics:

 Synonyms of New Testament Green – Archbishop Trench  (Republished as Synonyms of the New Testament (With Some Etymological Notes by A L Mayhew M.A.))

Word Studies in New Testament Greek  - Kenneth Wust

The Scribbling Scribe

9th Sept 2009