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Radical Reformation History  /  Lecture 6: The Early Lives of Zwingli and Conrad Grebel  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 2
Zwingli said, “Nothing but God will prevent me from acquiring Greek… for the sake of the Scriptures,” and he reportedly hand-copied Paul’s epistles and memorized the Greek New Testament; what view of God and of Scripture is assumed in that kind of effort, and what would early Christians (who often heard Scripture read aloud and memorized it communally) recognize—or challenge—in our approach to Bible knowledge today?
Another way to ask: What does Zwingli’s hard work to learn Greek and copy Scripture say about how he viewed God and the Bible? What would early Christians recognize—or question—about how we try to know the Bible today?

Direct Answer The transcript suggests Zwingli assumed Scripture is worth extraordinary labor because it is God’s Word and must be pursued with seriousness and sacrifice, not for status but for truth. Early Christians would recognize the hunger to internalize Scripture, and they might challenge modern casualness and dependence on others when we have far more access.

Support from Transcript:

  • Zwingli’s motive was explicitly spiritual: “Nothing but God will prevent me from acquiring Greek, not for the sake of fame, but for the sake of the Scriptures.”
  • Dean says Greek Scripture was “revolutionary” because “there had not been a different version of the Bible translated for over 1,000 years.”
  • It’s “said that he actually hand-copied many of the epistles of Paul and would carry them around with him.”
  • Dean adds that Zwingli “would memorize the New Testament in Greek,” showing deep internalization rather than surface familiarity.
  • The wider setting was that “no one even hardly ever heard the Bible” and “the priest didn’t even have a Bible,” making Zwingli’s effort stand out.
Discussion Follow-ups If Zwingli pursued Scripture without doing it “for fame,” what kinds of spiritual motives should we check in our Bible study today? What practices could help churches move from owning Bibles to truly knowing them?

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