Learning Greek

I’m teaching myself biblical Greek.

Oh, I can hear the reaction: “What—is he mad?”

Yes, I probably am mad, at least semi-mad anyway. What man approaching sixty would even consider doing something like this? I mean, most men my age take up golf or spend quality-time bouncing grandchildren on their knee (one at a time, presumably). I’ve never been like that. Besides, my son has yet to engender any offspring. When I was less than half the age I am now, I began to translate the Old Testament from Hebrew into English. Did I know Hebrew? No. Was I trained as a translator? No. Did I have any qualifications whatsoever to undertake such a task? No. Did I finish my undertaking? Regrettably, no.

I’ve been contemplating this for some time now but have always been intimidated by the enormity of the undertaking. I’ve been using various Greek aids, lexicons and the like for a long time but that can only take your understanding so far and it is easy to get things wrong or out of context that way. Some people would consider me to be foolish or worse, a dilettante. Well, perhaps I am a little foolish; but for what, exactly? Am I foolish because I love God’s Word? Am I foolish because I want to understand it better? Am I foolish because I want to wring every last drop of meaning out of it? I hope the answer to all these questions is “No.”

What about the charge of being a dilettante? This could be truer for me since I have not received any formal training as a minister of the Word. I don’t want to be a dilettante. Who would? Or who would ever admit to such a charge, even if true. Not I. Yet it may very well be true of me. I hope and pray that I not be like the men Paul warned Timothy about—“vain janglers” as the KJV describes them— those who have forgotten or never understood that, “the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Oh, let me not be one of the vain janglers, those “who have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions” (1 Tim. 1:5-7).

That unpleasant thought aside, why am I now undertaking this self-imposed task? Well, I’m not sure. I have struggled with a sense of calling for a very long time—long before I knew I was a Christian even. It was partly a sense of needing to know more and to experience more of the mystery of God I suppose. Christ has been in my life since I was about six years old, though I only came to realize this through the direct experience of His presence and His displeasure with my abundantly sinful life less than a decade ago. But I have always had an inner hunger or thirst that nothing could ever slake—until I experienced God’s gracious love and mercy in the person of Jesus Christ. And since coming to know Him, I’ve also come to want to know Him more deeply and completely. This I do imperfectly and always with less sincerity than I would like through prayer, worship and bible study. But how can a merely superficial understanding, gleaned from the experience of others, be enough? Perhaps it is enough, yet I still feel the need to go deeper.

Will I get very far? He knows; I don’t. I’ll try to give it my best shot though. I’ll keep you posted as to my progress. Perhaps those of my readers who are already well along this path—ministers, seminary students and the certifiably odd—could mentor me, or at least offer me some help from time to time. I’d appreciate it.

Bill Mounce, whose book Greek for the Rest of Us, is one of the resources I’ve begun to use, reminds his readers that, “it’s not a little Greek that proves dangerous. It’s a little bit of pride that proves dangerous.”

Lord, keep me from the sin of pride and the equally horrendous sin of self-righteousness that comes with just a little bit of knowledge. And I pray, Dear Lord, whatever I learn, turn it to your own glory alone.

Amen.