L’importance des Langues
We’re not talking languages in the international spoken sense here, (personally, I wish everyone spoke one language - English - blast those Babel guys!) what we’re talking about here is the languages used in the Bible, Greek and Hebrew. So why is it important that we know them? And I’ll offer a few tips on how can we know them. So if you don’t know your theos from your huios, then either you have bad Christology or you should read on!
I’m going to give one simple reason why it’s important that we know Greek and Hebrew, and that is that we can go deeper into God’s Word. Knowing the languages helps a person see the reasons for differences between translations, they help a person see patterns and structures to different passages and authors, they help a person engage with more technical commentaries, they enable a person to see emphases that an English translation may not highlight and they slow down a person’s reading so that you spend more time thinking about it. So the one reason, that you go deeper into a text, actually has a lot of sub-reasons. If you want somewhat more detail on reasons for knowing the Biblical languages, look here, here and here for some good ones!
Now I know that not everyone is a languages person. I know that because I certainly am not a languages person. I do like to play with language (so long as it’s English) but I’m not the sort of person who understands grammar (apart from intuitively) or who picks up foreign languages easily. So I’m not going to say that everyone should kill themselves trying to be fluent in both Greek and Hebrew. But for a minister, it is an incredibly useful tool to have, even if it’s a fairly basic grasp. And because not every minister is a languages person, if you are a languages person and not a minister, then why not pick up these languages so you can be a tool for your minister. That way whenever they come to a complicated text, they can come to you for an explanation.
Our good English translations are very good (into this category I would include the ESV, NASB, NIV and the many others) so we can have a good and clear understanding of the original text. With the use of commentaries and reliance upon scholars and their language tools this is brought deeper and richer, but with the use of our own original languages it is brought even deeper and richer still.
So if I’ve convinced you to at least have a stab or a dabble at the originals, i guess there are three main ways you can start learning. First is take a Bible college course/module either by distance learning or by actually attending. I guess this is the most interactive and personal option but is also the most expensive at upwards of £367 per module at WEST. Another option is to buy a book. This would take some motivation and means you can’t ask further questions when you find topics to be quite difficult. I bought a book to help with my Hebrew recently that cost me £15.82 at the Book Depository. And the final option which is by far the cheapest option, since it is free, is by learning through the Information Superhighway that is the World Wide Web, A.K.A. t’internet.
First if you’re looking to learn Greek (which I’m sure is the easier one of the two), then there’s the online animated lessons by Ted Hildebrandt at Gordon College. I can’t work out whether his voice is computer generated or not, but in 28 lessons you can learn all you need to get the basics of the language down. You get to watch this funny little computer animated bloke dancing around the page pointing at bits and pieces and at the end of each lesson there’s a vocab. section. I’ve only watched one lesson in full which lasted around an hour, so you should be able to go through all the lessons in little over a day, (though I’d recommend spacing the lessons out so that you’ve got time to learn paradigms and vocab.) Click on the image to see a screen shot.
Then, for Hebrew, there’s a brilliant series of animated lessons by Charles Grebe at Animated Hebrew. Charles takes you through 40 lessons, working through Introducing Biblical Hebrew by Allen P. Ross (though it’s not essential to have the book). Each lesson lasts anything from 15mins to 1hr 35mins (though on average they’re about an hour) with a grand total of 35hrs 7mins. Again I’d recommend you space your learning out, (I tried doing four lessons a day and my brain refused to take anything in for a few days!) Charles draws most things out to engage your mind in ways that are a real help for people like me who learn visually. He’s got this neat little program as well that’s such a great tool for his lectures (you really need to see them just to see how cool this program is!) He also has a fantastic vocab. flash card program that fits his lessons (and Ross’ book). Click the image for a screen shot.
So have a go, even if you can spare just an hour a week, it may well pay richly in years to come, or you might get nothing more than a basic understanding of the principles of the original languages, but hey, at least you can say you’ve tried!
I’ll have a go at Christmas - just after I finish the golden compass stuff.
man, you guys are making me read loads…
Is it more important, do you think Mr. Rainman, for the lay person to improve their knowledge of English (and especially English grammar) or to get a VERY basic grasp of new testemant Greek?
Very inspirational Mr Raine… I always THINK I’m going to get around to some language study at some point… somehow I never manage it…
I think it is very important to have a good grasp of English grammar, and I’m one who rubbish is at the grammar of the English. But the way I’ve learnt the most about English grammar is actually by doing Greek (even though I had four weeks of intensive grammar in reading skills with the John Kendall).
Now I was actually planning on writing another paragraph on the importance of English grammar, but I thought I’d waffled on long enough and I guessed it would come up in the comments. Since our English translations are so good, it is very important to have good English grammar so we can understand our English translations better, but better still is to understand the original grammar if that is something we can do.
I can obviously see the advantage of getting into the Greek/Hebrew, but I think for many (and this includes teachers of the Bible) that it’s a case for running before you can walk. JK must have pressed it on you pretty hard that understanding English grammar is really important.
Another question though Mr.Rainman, is there benefit for make glorious Scripture, in learning the Greek if we still don’t understand the English? Or is understanding the Greek helpful independent of our grammatical (and vocabular) grasp in English?
Both my parents are classics grads (so I really have no excuse for having no NT Greek, not to mention Vulgate Latin…) and they tell me that the 2 benefit each other. The more you study the (a) classical language(s) the more your English grammar improves, and vice versa…
I’m afraid that I’m a bit of a grammar snob generally (and complain about it’s demise in the English language like an old man) but yes, I’m sure even an increased understanding of English grammar would help Bible study no end.
I’m sure it was grammar that I was arguing with the JW’s. Once in Greek with regards, “the Word was A god” while the other was in English in Collosians 1 with regards being first born etc.
So grammar can make a MASSIVE difference, get it wrong and there wont be a stocking at the end of your bed this pagan December holiday!
Yeah, as Huwie boy said, the more your Greek Grammar improves, the more your English Grammar improves. In fact, I’d say that your Greek Grammar can only be as good as your English Grammar is. So as you grasp more of the Greek, in so doing you first grasp more of the English. Anyway, enough talk about it, get on with it and then you’ll see!
Cool. Greek & Grammar it is then…
First person to give me an example of a dangling participle gets the Huwie bonus mystery prize…
Talking to Jon yesterday, the fridge exploded!
Bravo! Sammy gets the prize of muchos kudos in the Prognosis grammar hall of fame…
…even if he does get the boobie-prize for spelling books of the Bible (see comment no.7…)