Mark 11:25
Doing a "power read" of my Greek New Testament these days. I know that a great number of you dear folks who bother to read this blog are pastors, sem students or others who have had the pleasure/pain of studying New Testament Greek. I studied with several fabulous teachers. The first was a woman who had studied classics but was an English teacher at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, where I was majoring in football in the early 80's. A few of us who planned to go on to graduate school/seminary
begged her to cobble together a course and we began studying Machen's basic Greek text (New Testament Greek for Beginners). With great difficulty, I was able to transfer to Concordia Seward for my final semester of study (while graduating from Morningside). That's a whole story in itself. I arrived at that marvelous campus in Nebraska in January of 1984 and jumped right into Dr. Ken Block's course midway through the year. Dr. Block was then using Crosby's very challenging classical Greek text. Oh my goodness! It was "sink or swim." It was like going from comic books, to Ph.D. dissertations. By an act of divine mercy, I survived, then even thrived. I still recall a fellow student, now a pastor in Missouri pleading one day in class: "But Dr. Block, we are spending 95% of our time on Greek and the other 5% on our four or five other courses!" He responded, "Yes, gentleman. I know it's difficult. Now, that declension!" No mercy. None. But he knew what he was doing. Boy did he know.
I took my Greek text to Canada while we worked as missionaries in a remote Cree Indian village in 1984-85. When I arrived in Ft. Wayne, Dr. Jim Voelz was teaching there. I jumped right into his "Textual Criticism" course, which taught us about all the significant ancient texts of the N.T. and to deal with the complex apparatus of the Nestle Aland text of the N.T. Wow. I was blown away. I loved it.
In 1987 Kathy and I traveled to South Australia, where I did an exchange year at Luther seminary in Adelaide. There I learned a surprising lesson. I registered to take Latin with Dr. Clarence Priebbenow. I showed up the first day to learn that I was the ONLY student in his class. That was murder. I had to come in every single day prepared to the hilt. He would begin each class period by walking to the chalkboard and then he would stand - chalk at the ready - and ask me to recite the paradigm or declension assigned for the day. I could never sluff. He wouldn't tolerate it. But the work soon paid off as we began reading passages from the Lutheran Confessions, then Luther's commentary on Galatians and the Genesis lectures. I'll never forget one time reading Luther's commentary in Latin on the sacrifice of Isaac. He had to stop and remove his glasses for the tears. Among the many lessons learned was that studying one language improves language skills across the board. When I went back to my Greek Testament, my Greek had improved!
Then another event changed my life. We traveled from Australia to Conroe Texas where I did my vicarage. I learned what a "Yankee" is first (with plenty of good-humored ribbing), and I also resolved to read a chapter of my Greek and Latin New Testaments every day. I got through all but the final chapters of the Book of Revelation before I returned to the sem. Along the way there was Dr. Harold Buls, Dr. Walther Maier II, Dr. Arthur Just, and others at Ft. Wayne. Further graduate studies brought me and my Greek New testament to Concordia Seminary, St. Louis for course with Dr. Jeff Gibbs, Dr. Voelz again, and even Dr. Jack Kingsbury among others. It's been such an amazing blessing personally and professionally. The texts keep me so grounded, and the Greek text is ever fresh, ready to reveal an unbelievable and wonderful nuance, a word never considered, a connection never dreamed of. It's like viewing the Gospel as a bright light inside a huge diamond. It shines in so many different ways as it's turned and I marvel at the facets. It's all gift.
Are you studying Greek now? Might you in the future? Have you set it aside? Fear not. Pick it up. Pull out Grovenor's "Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament" (Just put me on to that), or one of the myriad tools, and get into the text. Joy's await. Gems are ready to be mined and shared.
Matt Harrison
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5 comments:
Amen Matt. I just put Crosby back on the shelf a few minutes ago,after reviewing the usage of the perfect active of Luke 10:9 "The kingdom of God has come near to you." Denotes completed action with the affect of the action still continuing. What powerful, reassuring gospel for the sick, weak, ill, the delicate and helpless. This heaven is a done deal. It here for you! Rejoice!
michael
I have to say I came to the Greek party a bit late. Prior to taking summer Greek with Dr. Voelz, my familiarity with Greek was that it's alphabet was used by fraternities and math geeks (as well as my poor-pre-sem roommates in undergrad). I struggled through my languages, passing the qualifiers, and struggling mightily in my exegetical classes.
Now a year out and change from Seminary, I'm glad I went through that struggle. I'm also trying to take Dr. Brighton's encouragement to make the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament the Bible which I read . I'm no where near that, and I was encouraged when he shared it took him years to get to that point. As I wrestle with the text I'm preaching each week, I consistently lean on my interlinear w/ morphology and English translations... but I'm finding I'm leaning less and less. It is as you say, a joy, even if it is at times a tedious struggle.
Another piece of advice would be to encourage our congregations to support their pastors in this endeavor. It certainly will consume more of your pastor's time than if he glanced at the English translation and scribbled out a sermon outline. However, what better gift for the church than to have pastors who are diligently studying God's Word.
Greek did me in at CTS, failing it twice, but I often think I should try to learn it on my own anyways. Despite failing Greek, I think it's absolutely necessary to be an effective pastor.
Yes. The next Greek Grammar that CPH puts out, even if it's Voelz, 4th edition, should be titled "I Trust When Dark My Road." What's that? That one's already taken?
The days that I come into the office and am not given the time to study my Greek New Testament, are miserable days.
I've taken to translating a paragraph or two of it every morning.Having read through it. Still rely a lot on the Grammatical Annalysis, which is a great little book.
Reu, in his "Homiletics" said that a Pastor who can't read Greek will have a hard time justifying his existence. (now if I could just get my Hebrew there again.I did better in Hebrew than in Greek, but... though Weinrich once made the case that the Septuagint was the Christian's O.T.)
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