GREEK I
LECTURE 1
INTRODUCTION
Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, wrote the following in regard to the importance of understanding Greek and Hebrew when studying the Scriptures: "The languages are the sheath in which the sword of the Spirit is contained." God sovereignly chose to have His Word written in Hebrew (the Old Testament) and Greek (the New Testament).
Greek was the ‘world’s language’ back in the 1st century. Today, English is the world’s language.
You do not have to know Hebrew and Greek in order to understand the Bible. God's intended message for us is accurately communicated in English. You can have confidence that God can reveal the meaning of His Word to you without your knowing Greek and Hebrew.
Greater efforts should be made at accurately learning English, than Greek or Hebrew. We believe firmly that the King James Version of the Bible is God’s Word perfectly preserved and is totally without error of any type. Therefore, the main problem a person can have with correctly interpreting the Bible is not a failure at knowing Greek, but a failure at knowing English.
The Greek is helpful to a KJV Bible believer in that it can shed light onto the ‘nuances’ of the Greek words in which the English word was translated from (or transliterated).
The Acropolis in Athens
An example of this is the "aspect" of Greek verbs. English verbs have tenses—past, present, and future. Greek verbs have these same tenses, but they also have what is known as "aspect." Present-tense Greek verbs mean more than the action is simply occurring presently. A Greek verb can also carry the meaning that the action is occurring continually or repeatedly. This is lost in English unless the aspect word "continually" or "repeatedly" is added to the translation along with the verb. A specific example of this is Ephesians 5:18, "...be filled with the Spirit." In the original Greek, this verse is telling us to continually be filled with the Spirit. It is not a one-time event—it is a lifelong process. This "aspect" is lost in the English translation.
Another example is Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
But what does "it" refer to? What is the gift of God? The ambiguity of the English translation means that it might be "faith" "grace" or the whole process of salvation. But in the Greek text, we find clarity: the word "it" requires a neuter object but "faith" and "grace" are both feminine nouns. Accordingly the "it" is best understood as the entire process of salvation by grace through faith.
Or consider the Gospel of Matthew where the genealogy of Jesus closes with: “And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ” (Matt. 1:16). Who is referred to by the "of whom"? In the preceding verses, the genealogy is male dominated and therefore we might suppose that Joseph fathered Jesus. After all, the "of whom" in the English translation could refer to either Joseph or Mary. But the gospel writer is careful to emphasise the virgin birth and employs a feminine relative pronoun that requires us to understand that Jesus was born of Mary. The mention of Joseph thus establishes him as the legal father of Jesus whereas Mary is given particular emphasis as the biological parent.
Finally, “it is finished”; Or, as the Greek of John 19:30 puts it, ‘Tetelestai’. Jesus' dying words are recorded in the perfect tense of a Greek verb that means to complete an action, especially the fulfilment of religious requirements. Furthermore, the usage of the Greek perfect tense indicates action that is not just completed but has ongoing results. The consequences of Jesus' death on the cross were not temporal: they are ongoing. Only in the Greek text are these nuances of meaning to be found.
The KJV Bible New Testament was translated mainly from Stephanus’ 3rd Edition Greek N.T. (1550) (the group of manuscripts used is known as the Textus Receptus). Thus, the KJV NT is based solidly on ‘Greek’. Greek is very important to the KJV Bible. Knowing Greek is not an unimportant issue for Bible students. However, the danger with studying Greek and getting to a point where one thinks they ‘know Greek’ is that they may follow the popular practice of ‘correcting the Bible’ via ‘going to the Greek’. Most ‘famous’ Bible teachers and preachers will routinely ‘go to the Greek’ and analyze some ‘key’ word in their text and then have a 30 minute technical essay on what it most likely means. It’s a very exciting and powerful thing to do for them for it gives them the ‘ability’ to ‘translate’ the Bible. Most of these ‘theologians’
have only 2 to 4 years college training in Greek; this gets you to a level of about a 6th grader in understanding. They need to at least have a doctorate in Greek before they start ‘retranslating’ the Bible! (in fact, there is no need to do this, for we have the inerrant word of God, the KJV Bible). Furthermore, the Greek ‘that they go to’ is the Catholic rendering of the Bible. They are not going to the Textus Receptus manuscripts (95% of all extant manuscripts; they very much agree among each other)…rather, they go to Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, etc. (5% of all extant manuscripts; they do not agree very much among each other). There are many well-meaning Protestant preachers that are routinely ‘marching back to Rome’ to get the truth of God’s word…how sad….
We are studying Greek in order to have a basic level of understanding of the language that are blessed KJV Bible NT was translated from. This may help us with ‘nuances’ of word meanings in our KJV Bible. It is not for ‘re-translating’ the Bible, however! Don’t run to the Greek…nay! Run to the English!
An old Scottish proverb states: "Greek, Hebrew, and Latin all have their proper place. But it is not at the head of the cross where Pilate put them, but at the foot of the cross, in humble service to Christ." Proficiency in Biblical Greek is a mere workman's tool to be used in handling the word of truth.