Why Study Greek and Hebrew?
If I had to summarize the American church’s approach to Holy Scripture in one word it would be “unserious.” This attitude is sadly not isolated to mainstream evangelicalism but has also begun to take root in the Reformed world and even in the seminaries. I don’t think that there is a greater example of this unseriousness than the fact that enrollment in Greek and Hebrew classes in our seminaries is at an all time low for M.Div students.1 This attitude didn’t drop out of the sky onto the faculties (many of whom have vigorously opposed such changes). It’s the students! Many students argue that there is no pressing reason to study Greek or Hebrew, some even inferring that requiring such classes interferes with their calling to the ministry by erecting a barrier too difficult to clamber over. It should at least give congregations and pastors pause when they hear such complaints, after all, how could a better understanding of God’s word be an obstacle to ministry? Rather than face the challenge of studying God’s Word in the languages He inspired them in they settle. My grandmother has a saying that something is “close enough for government work,” and indeed many of our brethren have settled for just such an approach to the study of God’s Word. We must do better than this. We should take seriously enough our own claims about God’s Word to apply ourselves to studying it in the original languages, especially today when doing so has never been easier.
Three Big Reasons to Study the Bible in the Original Languages
There are three reasons in particular that Christians should study the Bible in the original languages:
Because God Commands us to Understand and Study His Word Carefully.
To Achieve Clarity and Confidence.
To understand (2 Tim. 2:15) and defend the truth (Jd. 3).
Our example above provides and illustration of all three ideas, but these are important
enough that it is worth exploring them all in greater detail. While we won’t explore this in the same level of detail there are some honorable mentions worth leaving here. We should study the original languages because: 1. God gave us the Bible in those languages, 2. Some goods are ends in themselves and need no further justification, 3. The discipline of working hard to understand God’s word leads us to savor it, and 4. Because we have the ability to basically do it for free today we have no excuse not to.
Because God Commands Us to Study His Word Carefully
The Bible is replete with commands to study God’s Word and understand it rightly. In fact, the very beginning of human history was defined by a failure of humanity to rightly understand and obey God’s command. Genesis 2:15-17 records:
“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep
it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”2
Later on, in Genesis 3 the serpent enters the garden and the first thing he does is attempt to undermine what God has said:
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” (ESV).
Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s Word, their rebellion was intentional and high handed. While the issue here was not interpretive or translational the truth that obedience to God’s Word is a matter of life and death is on full display. The fact is that God expects us to keep His Word and to obey it. There is no “close enough for government work” when handling God’s Word. This theme re-appears over and over again, here’s a handful of passages of Scripture to drive the point home:
“And when he [the king] sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. 19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them...” (De. 17:18-19 ESV).
“They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” (Neh. 8:8 ESV)
“Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Tim. 4:16 ESV).
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:8-9 ESV).
“Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” (2 Pet. 3:14-16 ESV).
The point is clear. The Bible is so important that kings are expected to write every word of God’s law and study it for their entire lives. The Bible is so important that when exiles returned to Israel from Babylon, Ezra and the scribes carefully explained everything it said so the people would get it. The Bible is so important that if we watch our doctrine and teaching closely those who hear us might actually be saved. The Bible is so important that if we deviate from its central message that we are to be damned! The Bible is so important that those who twist it will be destroyed. While none of these texts in themselves demand that we know Greek and Hebrew, the enormous weight of what God has commanded us ought to make us hungry to read it in the original languages. After all, if we believe that God has actually spoken and that His Word is authoritative and binding for our lives then ought we not devote ourselves to understanding it as best as we possibly can?
To Achieve Clarity
It has been said that, “[r]eading the Bible in translation is like kissing your bride through a veil.”3 I can definitely say that after years of reading the Bible in Greek in Hebrew there is a lot of truth to this quote.4 We have the truth in our translations, no doubt about it,5 but there is greater clarity, understanding, and precision that comes from reading the Bible in the original languages. Understanding the biblical languages enables us to engage in a more careful, rigorous study of the Word. Furthermore, it enables us to have greater confidence and clarity when we study the Word. However, we must acknowledge that the Bible is perspicuous which is a sadly ironic term that means “clear”. The Second London Baptist Confession helpfully explains this idea: “Some things in Scripture are clearer than others, and some people understand the teachings more clearly than others. However, the things that must be known, believed, and obeyed for salvation are so clearly set forth and explained in one part of Scripture or another that both the educated and uneducated may achieve a sufficient understanding of them by properly using ordinary measures.”6 What are those “ordinary measures?” Well, they have historically been understood to be the grammar, context, syntax, and historic background of the biblical text. But I further submit that the original languages ought to be considered “ordinary measures” in that these languages are the ordinary languages of the day in which God spoke to His people.
When we stop paying attention to these ordinary measures it can indeed be the case that the truth of Scripture is lost and distorted. Take for example the infamous mistranslation of the Greek verb δικαιοω “to render a favorable verdict, vindicate,”7 as iustificare “make righteous” in the Latin Vulgate by Jerome. At first blush such a mistake doesn’t seem huge, but over time this mistake compounded until the entire Roman Catholic system of sacraments, penances, treasury of merit, and eventually indulgences developed. The kickoff to the Reformation was the recovery of the New Testament in Greek and renewed understanding the concept of justification worked out by Martin Luther and the Reformers.8 Let’s work through a modern example to demonstrate just how knowing the languages is necessary for refuting errors.
To Understand and Defend the Truth
Last Christmas, I got a knock at my door while my turkey was in the oven. Three people from the World Mission Society Church of God9 stood at my door and asked me if I knew that the Bible teaches that we have a heavenly mother!10 Naturally, I asked where such a notion came from, and they proceeded to take me on a whirlwind tour of too many twisted passages of Scripture to cover here. Yet, there are two arguments they made which are relevant to our current study:11
That because ֱא ִהים (ʾïlō*hīm/Elohim) the Hebrew term for “God” is plural in form it is semantically plural when referring to the God of the Bible. This then supports their belief in a heavenly mother.
That ֱא ִהים (ʾïlō*hīm/Elohim) has a (supposedly) feminine form utilized throughouttheOldTestamentֱאלוַֹהּ (Eloah).BecauseHebrewfemininenounsend with an “ah” sound. Therefore, these 50 or so uses of Eloah are of our heavenly mother.
At first glance it might seem they have a case. Yet, under scrutiny neither argument holds up. But that aforementioned scrutiny requires a knowledge of Hebrew to be effective. Let’s dismantle these arguments, shall we?
1. The fact that Elohim is plural is absolutely meaningless for their claims.
a. First, morphological plurals (morphology refers to the formation of words) are not necessarily syntactically or semantically (semantics refers to the meanings of words) plural in usage. Hebrew plurals can be used for a wide range of things, including abstract concepts (obviously God is not abstract but you get the point).12
b. The plural noun Elohim is often used with singular verbs.
ְבֵּראִ֖שׁית ָבָּ֣רא ֱאִ֑הים ֵ֥את ַה ָשַּׁ֖מִים ְוֵ֥את ָהָֽאֶרץ׃i. Genesis1:113
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth” (ESV).
Elohim is the third word from the right (for those who do not know
Hebrew)anditisprecededbyָבָּ֣רא whichistheHebrewverb“to create”14 While the subject, Elohim, is plural the verb itself is singular. Hebrew verbs have gender, number, person, and pattern. “create” here is is a Qal Perfect 3rd Person Masculine singular verb. So right away grammatically we see that the noun is being used in a singular fashion. If it was truly an instance of Elohim being used to denote the existence of multiple gods, then the verb would also be plural as well.
ִאם־ ֹיו ִשׁי ֖עוּ ְבּ ֵ ֣עת :2:28 Here’s such an example, Jeremiah .1 ָר ָע ֶ ֑ת ֚ ִכּ י ִמ ְס ַ ֣פּ ר ָע ֶ ֔ר י ָה ֥י וּ ֱא ֶ ֖ה י ְי ה וּ ָ ֽד ה
“...if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah.”
In this case the noun clearly is being used in a singular fashion, as it is literally thousands of times in the Hebrew Old Testament.
c. Elohim is also used to in the singular sense to refer to pagan gods.15 (Eloah) is a poetic form of Elohim and actually grammatically masculine not( ֱאלוֹ ַהּ .2feminine.16First things first, the feminine noun ending in Hebrew is actually
completely different etymologically than the word above.17
In the case of ֱאלוֹ ַהּ (Eloah) we may have the same sound but we have a
totally different morphology. In the case of this noun what we actually have isshorteningofֱאִהים (ʾïlō*hīm/Elohim).Themasculinepluralending is removed and a vocalic glide is inserted to make the word easier to ”ִים“ pronounce.18
Conclusion
We’ve seen how important it is to study and to understand the Word of God in the original languages. There are some problems that are simply too challenging to tackle without having access to those languages. We don’t need scholars or a magisterium to interpret Scripture, we need to simply lay hold of the tools and resources that God has given us. It has never been easier for us to learn Greek and Hebrew than it is today. There are so many free resources available online for the would be student. Daily Dose of Greek (www.dailydoseofgreek.com) and Daily Dose of Hebrew (www.dailydoseofhebrew.com) provide free lectures and curriculum for learning both languages, all you need to do is buy the affordable text books. There are YouTube channels such as Aleph with Beth19 and Alpha with Angela20 that provide a living language approach to students for free. Greek and Hebrew Bibles can even be found for free courtesy of the United Bible Society21 or Crossway if you search for these things. Just as there are more ways to learn these languages today than ever before there is also a greater need than ever before. Cults, heresies, and false teachers are multiplying on every corner of the internet. The more ideas are exchanged the more new arguments and problems arise. There is no better time than now to start learning these languages and applying them in your studies. May we heed the battle cry of the Reformation “Ad Fontes!” To the sources! Back to the Word of God in the original languages. May we not forget that this is all to the glory of God alone. Amen.
1 Robert L. Plummer, “An Ideal Beginning Greek Grammar?” in Linguistics and New Testament Greek: Key Issues in the Current Debate, ed. David Alan Black and Benjamin L. Merkle (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020), 218-219. See also Michael W. Halcomb, “Living Language Approaches,” in Linguistics and New Testament Greek, 165-167 for hard data. Halcomb advocates for a living language approach to learning Greek and while I think that this is valuable, I don’t think it’s entirely necessary.
2 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ge 2:15–17. Hereafter, ESV.
3 Benjamin L. Merkle and Robert L. Plummer, Greek For Life: Strategies for Learning, Retaining, and Reviving New Testament Greek (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017), 4.
4 For the record, I’ve never kissed my wife through a veil.
5 There are some translations though that are terrible and no longer Scripture, such as the New World Translation, the Joseph Smith Translation, and the Passion Translation of Scripture.
6 The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith: In Modern English, I.7, https://founders.org/library/chapter-11- justification/.
7 William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 249. Hereafter “BDAG” for short.
8 Robert Letham, Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 678-701. Letham provides a great summary and analysis of the debate and history surrounding justification. I do not intend here to labor this point since this is not an article about justification but rather why you should learn Greak and Hebrew.
9 https://www.examiningthewmscog.com/ If you want to get up to speed on this fast growing cult check
out that site.
10 For a critical take on this cult see: https://www.examiningthewmscog.com/ and Cultish by Apologia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf-hijYwchY&ab_channel=ApologiaStudios. Mike Winger also has many helpful videos on this topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUeNiX-WLoo&ab_channel=MikeWinger. Mike Winger might be an Arminian but his dedication to answering the false claims of the Cults brings glory to God.
11 If you’re with WMSCOG and happen to be reading this, I am well aware that other arguments (about the divine image for example) are furnished to contend for the existence of a mother god. This article isn’t about chasing down every single thread but is about the relevance of Hebrew when refuting theological error. The above links provide plenty of resources for engaging these arguments. There are countless other videos by Cultish and Mike Winger which delve into other details. Also, for a thorough examination of the divine image controversy see Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1–15, vol. 1, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1987), 27-35.
12 Paul Joüon and T. Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (Roma: Pontificio Istituto Biblico, .469-473 ,)2006
13 a. K. Elliger, W. Rudolph, and Gérard E. Weil, Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, electronic ed. (Stuttgart: German Bible Society, 2003), Ge 1:1. Hereafter, BHS.
14 Ludwig Koehler et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000), 153. Hereafter, HALOT.
ַי ֣ ַע ן ׀ ֲא ֶ ֣שׁ ר ֲע ָז ֗ב וּ ִנ י ַו ִ ֽיּ ְשׁ ַתּ ֲח ו ֮וּ ְל ַע ְשׁ ֹתּ ֶר ֮ת ֱא ֵ ֣ה י ִ ֽצ ֹד ִנ י ֒ן ִל ְכ ֹמ ו ֙שׁ ֱא ֵ ֣ה י ֹמ ו ֔ ָא ב וּ ְל ִמ ְל ֖ ֹכּ ם ֱא ֵ ֣ה י ְב ֵ ֽנ י ־ ַע ֑ ֹמּ ו ן ְו ֽל ֹא ־ ָה ְל ֣כ וּ ִב ְד ָר ֗ ַכ י “ , 3 3 : 1 1 S e e 1 K i n g s 5 1 b e c a u s e t h e y h a v e f o r s a k e n m e a n d w o r s h i p e d A s h t o r e t h t h e g o d d e s s o f t h e “ ” ַל ֲע ֨ ֹשׂ ו ת ַה ָיּ ָ ֧שׁ ר ְבּ ֵע י ַנ ֛ י ְו ֻח ֹקּ ַ ֥ת י וּ ִמ ְשׁ ָפּ ַ ֖ט י ְכּ ָד ִ ֥ו ד ָא ִ ֽב י ו ׃ Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and they have not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my rules, as David his father did.” (ESV).
16 HALOT, 52; David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press; Sheffield Phoenix Press, 1993–2011), 287.
17 a. The Hebrew word for horse סוּס (sus) is masculine and “unmarked” to make it feminine we add the . ָ”ה“ and we get mare (su-sah). The difference is we’ve added the historical long vowel qamets hey סוּ ָסה ah” ending“ While not all singular feminine nouns have this morphology it is the most basic and standard.
18 In Hebrew there are letters that are “guttural” and these all prefer “a” sounds of some form or another. Sometimes, when a word ends with a guttural consonant a vocalic glide is inserted for pronunciation, not meaning. There are debates as to how and where this nominal form came from, but it appears to be built on the same stem as Elohim with the masculine plural ending removed. Furthermore, a Hebrew syllable only has one vowel. Period. The is a vowel and the word itself is only one Hebrew syllable. The “e” sound at the ֱאלוֹ ַהּ in the middle of ”וֹ“ beginning is a vocalic shwa which is not a vowel, strictly speaking, just like the vocalic glide (furtive patach) is also not a vowel. To make a long story short, there is nothing about this noun that is feminine, it’s an accident of pronunciation and hearing not an aspect of Hebrew morphology and word meaning, Joüon and Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, 77-79.For a helpful and accessible treatment of Hebrew syllabification see, Karl V. Kutz and Rebekah L. Josberger, Learning Biblical Hebrew: Reading for Comprehension: An Introductory Grammar (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018), 25-43.
19 https://www.youtube.com/c/AlephwithBeth
20 https://www.youtube.com/c/alphawithangela
21 https://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/en/bible/BHS/GEN.1 for Hebrew and https://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/en/bible/NA28/MAT.1 for Greek.
From the Editor: The Hebrew alphabet does not always publish well on our web host. Any strange or illegible text is due to this, and not a result of inadequacy on the part of the author.
