[B-Greek] Using Greek

Susan Jeffers susan at read-the-bible.org
Wed Mar 11 07:58:07 EDT 2009


Stephen Lord wrote:
> We've all encountered someone who was dismissive of the utility of 
> knowing or exploring Greek in an effort to better understand and 
> interpret the NT.  I'm curious how list members would or have 
> responded to such an attitude.
>   
(1) Usually I just talk about my own experience of how learning some 
Greek (and Hebrew) has helped me, personally.  I usually talk about my 
growth in faith, as well as my gratitude for God's great gift of the 
Scriptures and my eagerness to get into them as deeply as I can, to know 
God and to know how best to serve God.  For me the main value of 
engaging the Bible, in Greek & Hebrew or otherwise, is spiritual, and I 
tell people how the languages have helped me spiritually.  Which of 
course is out-of-scope for this list :-)

(2) Depending on the person, the situation & my mood, I might shrug and 
say something like, "Pretty much the only people who think learning 
Greek isn't useful for understanding the New Testament, are people who 
don't know any Greek."

As for "utility" -- I dunno.  That word kind of rubs me the wrong way.  
I've gained more humility than utility from learning Greek. 
:-)

Susan Jeffers





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