It’s in the Greek

by Greg Gwin

As we study and discuss the New Testament there is sometimes a reference made to things that are contained in the original language. Someone will mention that “the Greek says” this or that. It’s not a bad thing to try to understand something about the meaning of words as used by the inspired writers, but a couple of warnings are in order.

First, there are relatively few real scholars of the Greek language, and there are none who have become such by spending a few hours looking at reference books or following links on the Internet. Not even those who have enrolled in one or two semesters of Greek studies at a college or university are qualified as true experts in this complicated field of study. This being the case, it is highly unlikely – effectively impossible – that the average person is going to find some undiscovered ‘nugget’ of information hiding in the Greek that was never noticed by those who have spent long years of dedicated work studying and learning the language.

Once, in a discussion of the meaning of certain words in an important New Testament text, one fellow made it a point to emphasize his high marks in two semesters of Greek during his college days. He then proceeded to claim that the established authorities were wrong and that he had a better understanding of what the words meant and how the passage should be translated. There was little use in further discussion because he had – at least in his own mind – settled the matter with some ‘insider’ knowledge of what was ‘in the Greek.’ How foolish!

Additionally, we should never convey the idea that the average person who has never studied Greek is incapable of comprehending the will of God. The truth is that large teams of competent researchers have combined their efforts to produce some excellent translations into the English language. Any diligent student today can take these versions and fully understand what God would have him to do. It may very well be – and often is the case – that a guy who couldn’t tell an ‘alpha’ from an ‘omega’ knows more about the real sense of a Bible text than another individual who has trouble ‘seeing it’ from behind his pile of Greek reference books.

Any and all efforts to fully understand the inspired Word and apply it to our daily lives are commendable. But, be cautious about novel interpretations and conclusions that are based upon claims about what is "in the Greek."