Re: WHY STUDY GREEK?

Dale M. Wheeler (dalemw@teleport.com)
Mon, 20 Jan 1997 10:46:53 -0800

You should go back through the archives since there is a thread, perhaps as
much as a year ago, on this topic; I remember posting a series of my
favorites.

Here are a couple more:

You can't tell whom Jesus is talking to in Luke 22:31-34 (ie., who is the
"You") apart from the Greek text, since "you" in English can be either sg
or pl, and this passage uses both (cf., James 2:20-24 where it switches
from sg to pl in v24).

You can't see structure of arguments in English when a writer uses the
repetition of a certain preposition to show the stages of the idea
development; eg., the use of EIS in 1Pet 1:3-5.

I also agree that Greek helps you with 1John 3:9 (and context), but I don't
think its in taking the presents as "habitual"; I'd agree with Marshall
(1John in NICNT), Kubo ("1John 3:9...", Andrews Univ Sem Studies
7[1969]:47ff), Hodges (1John in Bible Knowledge Comm), and Fanning (Verbal
Aspect) that they are "absolute" or "generic" statements.

XAIREIN...

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Dale M. Wheeler, Th.D.
Research Professor in Biblical Languages Multnomah Bible College
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