The Real Reason to Study New Testament Greek - Andrew Lamicela

So, so when we're thinking about biblical languages and Bible manuscripts, all this stuff, why—I'm trying to think how to phrase this—but basically convince me why I should care about biblical languages, so to speak, I guess, right? Like if, if you had to give a pitch of why should people care, um, yeah, I'd love to hear that, whether that's Greek or Hebrew or, you know, any of the biblical language. I guess, um, Aramaic as well would, um, there's some portions of the Bible in Aramaic. Yeah. Um, yeah, why, why should I care? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess the short answer is we should care at least to some degree, uh, about the biblical languages if we care about the Bible, right?

Um, this is, this is God's message to us, and these are the languages it was written in. So I'm, I'm always quick. I try to be quick to point out that, um, you know, studying the biblical languages is really worth it. Um, there's a lot to be gained, but it's not something that everyone has to do, right? So I don't at all think, um, and I wouldn't want people to get the idea that, you know, in order to be a good Christian, or even in order to be a good, I don't know, pastor or Bible teacher, um, that you have to, like, put in all of the effort to actually kind of learn the language, um, to, you know, get in all the vocabulary and all the grammar and kind of go the, the whole distance.

Um, but I, I do think that in whatever capacity, whether it's just for personal study, for teaching, whatever it is, um, having a sense of maybe how to use the languages in a way that's, like, responsible, um, is, is important, I would say. Yeah. And it doesn't, it doesn't have to be like a, a kind of big centerpiece. It doesn't have to be the kind of thing. And sometimes I think it's better actually if, you know, Greek words and, and stuff don't actually form a, a big part of, of your, your kind of teaching. I get a little nervous and I hear people like, "The Greek?" It's like, well, okay, maybe, maybe, maybe back off a little bit.

Yeah. It's like you get this sense of there's this aurora or this, ooh, they're, you know, the Greek, it says this. Yeah. A little bit that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine that might be a little frustrating to you. Yeah. To you. I don't, do you want to dive into that a bit more? 'Cause I feel like that, that's one maybe we should, yeah, poke on that a bit. It is a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I think we, we were talking about this just before. Um, but I think sometimes, uh, there's a little bit of a danger for people who, um, you know, see that there's value in the original languages and who, who have a, a sense rightly, um, that there's something to be gained by going back to the original language.

Um, but sometimes there's, I think, a danger of, of kind of trying to use it like a, like a magic wand, kind of, you know, so if you, you know, you read the fairy tales and it's like, oh, they're out in the middle of the desert, they've run out of food, but, you know, you just wave your magic wand and all of a sudden, like, a whole banquet appears, you know, and it's like, oh, we got this. Amazing. And, and sometimes you get a little bit of that sense with, with the, the biblical languages where it's like, when I read this in English, you know, I have some questions. It doesn't all make sense for me, but if only I could read it in Greek, then like all my questions would be answered and all the problems would go away.

And, and if you come to it that way, then you're, you're, you're maybe, uh, less likely to, to use the, the original languages and to use the tools that you have in a responsible way, and then more likely to end up, you know, kind of importing meanings that aren't there or like trying to load up one Greek word with like a whole bunch of meaning that, that one word can't really carry, if you know what I mean. So it's the, the kind of, the kind of magic wand approach to the biblical languages that, you know, wanna kind of, uh, maybe discourage or, yeah. What, what would you say is, is a better approach then? Yeah.

To, to the biblical languages? 'Cause I feel that, yeah, I've definitely seen it where, yeah, you know, someone has a, people are well meaning, right? Yeah. Exactly. It's, it's, and they say, oh, well, the Greek word actually means this. And then you can extract all these sermon points from it. It's like, well, yeah, you know, that might be a bit much, right? Yeah. Um, but it's very easy to do. Uh, what would you say is a better mindset to have as we approach the text in its original? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a lot of the time I think, I think looking for and expecting to find maybe different nuances and kind of, uh, small, I don't know, small things that, uh, maybe can't be captured in translation.

Um, and, and those kind of, yeah, maybe it's not gonna just completely revolutionize your understanding of the passage, but it's gonna like shade in some extra detail or it's gonna like color how you see one word, like in a slightly different way. Um, and you know, there are some words, and, and this is where, you know, you, you can't expect to find this with every Greek word, but there are, there are some words where, you know, the, the range of meaning that one Greek word has just doesn't line up very well with any one English word. And so, you know, the translators, they, they've gotta pick an English word because you can't put in a whole dictionary entry, right?

So you, you pick one word. Um, but, but sometimes, uh, being able to look that word up and kind of see the full range of meaning actually gives you a, a better sense of, of what the, the verse is, is trying to communicate. That's not always the case. You know, sometimes like, you know, people will say like, oh, like I'm reading this verse and like there's this word impossible, but like what does impossible really mean in Greek? It's like, well, you know, I hate to say it, but it just means impossible, you know? Um, but, but there are those, and, and maybe I'll give you kind of an example on the other side. So, so in John one, maybe verse five, um, John says that, uh, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not, and I, I forget now what, what some of the English, yeah, we probably should forget what the English translations say.

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. That's ESV. Yeah. That's ESV. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. Do you want a, in a different? Uh, yeah, I don't know. Maybe. So this would be the King James for John, uh, John chapter one, verse five. And the light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. Yeah. Yeah. So, so this word, you know, the, the range of meaning is, is kind of broad. Um, and so it has often the idea of like to seize or to like attain. Uh, sometimes it's to kind of, to grasp, sometimes even like intellectually, like to, to get it. And so sometimes, and I think this is especially a thing that the Gospel of John, that John himself would, was kind of fond of.

Um, he'd, he'd maybe use a word that had a broad range of meaning kind of intentionally. Um, and so you, you get different translations for that word. Maybe it's the darkness hasn't really fully understood the light, or maybe the darkness hasn't been able to like kind of take hold of the light in some way. And, and maybe, maybe then overcome is, is a good translation. The, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never overcome it, I think. So, so there are some of those cases where seeing, seeing the, the range of meaning of a word can, can help. Because it's not like you pull out your Greek New Testament and okay, you find this Greek word and then you open up your English dictionary and it's this word.

Yeah. And you know, this equals this. Yeah. That's not really how language works. And I think it's kind of easy to just, I don't know, just kind of assume that's the way it is, right? Yeah. And it's not really. Yeah. So maybe a, a word to keep in mind would be like nuance, perhaps nuances of meaning. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Mm. That's good. Anything else you wanna add on, on that, like why we should care about biblical languages? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, there's, you know, in addition to seeing those, those maybe nuances of meaning and being able to, to get a better sense of where kind of one Greek word or phrase doesn't neatly correspond to one English phrase. Um, there's also sometimes where there's a certain kind of theological debate, uh, that will sometimes hinge on a particular word or particular Greek wording. Um, and, and that's the kind of thing that probably not everyone is gonna be like thinking about or putting lots of effort into. Um, but it's the kind of thing where, uh, it's useful for a church or, you know, a community maybe to have some people who are familiar enough with the original languages to be able to kind of get into that debate, uh, if you will.

So there's this, there's this kind of big scholarly debate about, um, faith in Christ or the faithfulness of Christ. Galatians and Romans, this is, oh, yeah. It's maybe perhaps not so well known just among kind of, uh, you know, your, your sort of average, you know, everyday Christian. Um, but there are, there are some of those places. Maybe, maybe another example would also be, um, you know, you, you hear the, the kind of knock on your door and it's the, it's the friendly Jehovah's Witnesses. Um, and they'll, they'll, they'll try to tell you, hey, you know, in John one where it says, uh, the word was with God and the word was God, actually that Greek word God, it doesn't have the definite article before it.

And so it should be translated, the word was a God. Yes. You've maybe heard this. I don't know. Oh, I've totally heard this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead and just, just dive into that case. Let's use that as a case study. So what's going on there? Yeah. Like, do they have any grounds? Like, where does this come from? Yeah. That they say that? Yeah. I mean, the short answer is no, but it's, well, yeah, there goes that. But it's, I mean, there's your Jehovah's Witness and you're watching this. It's too bad, I guess. Or like, that's just, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you're watching this, I mean, sorry, but you know, this is, uh, this is, I don't know, a chance to, to maybe rethink an important passage.

Um, so, so there's a bit of truth to it, right? So, you know, the definite article doesn't appear in that verse. So if it did, we would, well, it would, the sentence wouldn't really make sense, but you would translate it, the word was the God or something, but that wouldn't make sense.

Um, but we have this kind of idea of like, oh, definite, you know? And so if, if the word the appears, then it's definite and then indefinite. And so if the article doesn't appear, then, then we wanna say it's indefinite. Um, but that's, it turns out a bit too simplistic. So somewhere in between definite and indefinite, there's this idea of being qualitative. Um, and so maybe a, maybe a good example comes from actually first John, uh, so the same author, but where he says that, um, God is love.

God is love. And so I don't know how, how would we think about the word love? It's not definite. It's not God is the love. It's also not indefinite. It's not God is a love. Like that doesn't really make any sense. Yeah. But it's qualitative. In other words, what is God like? What, what's the quality that, that God has? And in this particular statement, God is love. That's what God is like. And then the very same thing is, is of course in, in John one. So the word was with God. And what was the word like? The word was God. Yeah. So it's right. You, you can end up getting into a really kind of theologically bad place if, you know, you, you, you try to jump in with like, oh, it's gotta be either definite or indefinite.

You don't have enough kind of, um, maybe background on how those things work. Maybe also the, the broader point is, um, not every, not every Christian needs to know the whole, the full grammatical kind of argument for what's going on in that verse, but it is useful if there are a few people around, if there's someone in your church that you can go to and say, hey, you know, the JW said this, can you help me understand this? And that's the kind of situation where, you know, having some sort of access to biblical language resources can actually be really helpful.