"Why study Greek?"

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Sat Dec 11 17:42:03 EST 1999


To: Pastor Jayce C. Edwards,

<< How would you answer the question, "Why study Greek?" if posed to you? >>

I would should stress some negative as well as positive reasons.

First, I would point out that by simply knowing Greek that will not 
necessarily make any Greek text completely lucid so that by merely peering 
into one's Greek text one will know what that author really meant. I would 
also stress that ironically often the Greek text is more vague than our 
English translations (of course, understanding what part of a text is truly 
vague and what part is not, is part of any real understanding of a text). 
Also, I would stress that many people would be better off reading a real 
good commentary, than trying to figure out what a Greek text means with 
only one year of formal study (or its equivalent). On the other hand, if 
one wants a really in depth understanding of any text, whether it is the 
NT, Dostoevsky's "War and Peace," Vergil's "Aeneid," Hugo's "Les 
Miserables," Homer's "Iliad," or whatever, one can only do a real in depth 
study in its original language. There is simply no sort cuts here. And I 
would also point out that there is an interesting side advantage to 
learning even just a little bit of Greek, and that is it makes reading 
scholarly commentaries (on Greek texts) much easier to comprehend.

As a Christian I am also somewhat ambivalent about learning Greek and/or 
Hebrew in order to understand scripture. Most of the more godly people I 
have known have not been among the more educated, although I have been 
fortunate to meet a few exceptions. And I seriously doubt that my personal 
knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin (although I really only keep up with 
my Greek), has helped me to live a more godly life. On the other hand, 
scripture is the foundation document of a Christian's faith, and if one is 
to do a real in depth study of scripture, one needs to know the original 
languages. Hugo wrote of the bishop in his "Les Miserables" that "He had 
great respect for the learned, but still more for the ignorant."

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Disclaimer: "I'm just a simple house-husband (with no post-grad degree), 
what do I know?"




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