“I have firmly decided to study Greek, nobody except God can prevent it. It is not a matter of personal ambition but one of understanding the most Sacred Writings.” –Ulrich Zwingli
“It is a sin and shame not to know our own book or to understand the speech and words of our God; it is still greater sin and loss that we do not study languages, especially in these days when God is offering and giving us men and books and every facility and inducement to this study, and desires his Bible to be an open book. O how happy the dear fathers would have been if they had our opportunity to study the languages and come thus prepared to the Holy Scriptures! What great toil and effort it cost them to gather up a few crumbs, while we with half the labor—yes, almost without any labor at all—can acquire the whole loaf! O how their effort puts our indolence to shame!” – Martin Luther (1482-1546)
“Without languages we could not have received the gospel. Languages are the scabbard that contains the sword off the Spirit; they are the case which contains the priceless jewels of antique thought; they are the vessel that holds the wine; and as the gospel says, they are baskets in which the loaves and fishes are kept to feed the multitude. If we neglect the literature we shall eventually lose the gospel…No sooner did men cease to cultivate the languages than Christendom declined, even until it fell under the undisputed dominion of the pope…In former times the fathers were frequently mistaken, because they were ignorant of the languages and in our days there are some who, like the Waldenses, do not think the languages are any use; but although their doctrine is good, they have often erred in the real meaning of the sacred text; they are without arms against error, and I fear much that their faith will not remain pure.” –Martin Luther
“It is certain that unless the languages remain, the Gospel must finally perish.” – Martin Luther
6 comments:
Justin,
Thanks for the encouragement. Now I will ask you one question: How? For someone that is unable to attend seminary, and will be unlikely to find one single other person interested in studying with me, how best can I learn Greek? Do you have any curriculum that works well that is available in the market? There are so many programs, but I am unsure which ones are halfway decent. Is Greek a language that can be learned in a box, without speaking it and hearing it with others?
This is something I've wanted to do for some time. I simply lack direction in how to begin.
Barrett
Barrett, I am glad you are encouraged by the quotes. I need to do a much better job of keeping up with my languages.
Here is my advice, maybe someone else can give better:
Yes, Greek can be learned from programs, books, etc. Many people through history have "taught themselves" Greek.
Greek is different than Spanish in this respect. We are not interested in speaking Greek, we are interested in reading Greek.
You can take a basic Greek textbook and just work through the lessons and vocab. Set a schedule and try to keep to it. I learned from David Allan Black's "Learn to Read New Testament Greek." Also, anything by Daniel Wallace is good.
Also, there are good computer programs that will walk you through the process of learning.
Go for it (with God's help)!
I would recommend the Greek Tutor as a Bible program and Mounce's textbook to work through. He is very good and as easy as is possible for Greek to understand.
Timely encouragement for a guy in the midst of Greek Syntax. Thanks, Justin.
Justin and Randy,
Thanks for the recommendations! I will see about picking some of these up. How about Hebrew? I've heard that this is much harder than Greek. Can anyone attest to this? Is this a language that should be sought to be learned in a class?
Yes, I found Hebrew much more difficult than Greek. However, I have heard people say the opposite. My counsel would be to master Greek and then begin working on Hebrew.
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