How many have tried to learn Greek?

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That’s awesome.

Just like you shouldn’t have to know English to appreciate Shakespeare. But it helps.

Or you shouldn’t have to know Latin to appreciate Ovid. But it helps.

Or you shouldn’t have to know Greek to appreciate Aristophanes. But it helps.

Knowing the original languages brings a certain amount of nuance that you totally lose in translation. Certain words, certain verb tenses, may have shades of meaning that totally don’t translate into, say, Malay or Hindi, or whatever. I went for years without comprehending the whole point of “Migdal Eder”, because it was always given as the placename “Migdal Eder”— but until I saw Knox translate it as “Tower of the Flock”, I’m like, “Oh! Woah! Sheep symbolism! Near Bethlehem! Near Jerusalem! Where the Temple Sheep would later be kept for sacrifice! Except it’s in Genesis!” If I knew Hebrew, I could have pulled it together and appreciated the foreshadowing that was taken place a thousand years before events would later occur in the same place— but I didn’t, so it wasn’t until I saw two different translations for the same thing that the pieces fell into place.

Nine-tenths of the point of studying Biblical/Classical languages is to be able to understand writings as they were originally presented to their intended audiences, and have access to writings that remain either un-translated or inaccessible.

There’s nothing wrong with relying on translations. I’m sure 99.9% of us do!

But it’s a bit myopic to come in and pooh-pooh a thread about “Hey, has anyone made the effort to do X”, and saying, “Nope, no reason to do so” in a thread full of people who are/were/would be interested in doing X. 😉 Weren’t you just saying in another thread, “I shouldn’t have to know Latin to follow the Tridentine Mass?” People were praying the Rosary in Spanish before Mass the other day, and I just found myself thinking, “Wow, if we all still knew our Rosary in Latin, I could pray along with them.” 😉

We’re spoiled because English is the international language these days. Thank you, Queen Victoria. But it used to be that (at different points in history) French, Latin, and Koine Greek were the languages of international diplomacy, science, and trade.
 
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I did not say you shouldn’t learn Greek or Latin. I just said that you should not have to learn either to be able to enjoy God’s words.
Some would like to return the Church to having Mass said totally in Latin. I like it in my own language.
I understand that the are not literal translations from one word to another in many languages, but we usually get the essence of what is meant.
You are free to learn every language in the world, but I see no real advantage in understanding Greek or Latin, unless it is just something that you want to do.
Feel free to lecture me more.
 
It helps me to enter the world of that time and adds to my reflection on the words. But it is certainly not for everyone.
 
And I have an old Greek New Testament with nothing but the Greek and I would just love to open it and be able to read and understand it.
 
I taught myself koine greek, concentrating on vocabulary. It allows for some important insights, even if I miss some grammatical nuances.

Of course, I am also capable of missing grammatical nuances in English, Russian, French…
 
I haven’t tried to learn Greek but looking at words I am very close to being able to read. Reading comprehension is a different matter.
 
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To learn Greek, I signed up for classes at a university. The second semester, there
were only two of us students. There were a number of students the first semester, but they didn’t

continue.
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Because of my writing, I needed to learn to read the Bible in the original Greek. So I
forged ahead. Without a serious reason, I never would have continued myself.
 
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I had to learn to read Koine Greek in college so I could read certain documents in the original language, but I couldn’t speak it. I greatly prefer Hebrew, though, which I learned when young.

I suppose my Greek has deteriorated now from lack of use.
 
JackMcCoy said:
I see no reason to learn Greek or Latin.
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There are times when mistranslations can occur, but if you’re not translating and have no interest in learning languages, I don’t see why you should.
 
You are no doubt right, Hodos, but I have so much to do now, and I am out of college now and no longer need the Greek. Languages aren’t the easiest thing for me, and Greek takes so much dedication, I doubt I’ll go back to it. I’m glad I had the experience, though.

Thank you!
 
ConstantLearner said:
You are no doubt right, Hodos, but I have so much to do now, and I am out of college now and no longer need the Greek. Languages aren’t the easiest thing for me, and Greek takes so much dedication, I doubt I’ll go back to it. I’m glad I had the experience, though.
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I hear you. Most of my study comes during my lunch hour. Would like to learn Hebrew at some point as well.
 
I love Hebrew; I found it easier than Koine Greek, but then I began learning Hebrew at a young age. I do have a Hebrew workbook so I can keep my Hebrew skills up.

I hope you learn it some day soon! And good luck with the Greek!
 
I’ve studied Classical Greek on my own but am better at Semitic languages, including Arabic, Biblical Hebrew, Old Babylonian (a dialect of Akkadian), Ugaritic, and Phoenician.
 
CRM_Brother said:
I took Koine (Biblical) Greek in seminary. Thankfully, Koine is the easiest of the Greek dialects to learn.
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Same here. I took three years, I liked it so much. I learned a lot about English grammar as a side benefit.
 
Thank you, @Fuerza! I have just downloaded Rutherford’s Accidence and Syntax, both of which I remember looking at briefly many years ago though I had forgotten the author’s name.
 
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