Learning Greek and Hebrew

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One of my goals one day is to learn Greek and Hebrew, so that I can get even more out of my Bible. However, is it really necessary?

There are some superb English translations and no shortage of translations. I tend to read from three particular translations, but I do sometimes wonder if I could get even more from my faith if I were to learn Greek and Hebrew.

Just out of interest, does anyone think you can go through life without learning Greek or Hebrew and still enjoy the Bible? I do. I believe that God will make His Word clear to me if I pray to Him and ask Him to make it clear. Learning Hebrew and Greek would be nice and might help me appreciate the biblical texts more, but if I never get around to doing it, I do think that, with the many excellent English translations and my faith in God, I will still be able to appreciate His Word.
 
Stephen_Parry said:
One of my goals one day is to learn Greek and Hebrew, so that I can get even more out of my Bible. However, is it really necessary?

There are some superb English translations and no shortage of translations. I tend to read from three particular translations, but I do sometimes wonder if I could get even more from my faith if I were to learn Greek and Hebrew.

Just out of interest, does anyone think you can go through life without learning Greek or Hebrew and still enjoy the Bible? I do. I believe that God will make His Word clear to me if I pray to Him and ask Him to make it clear. Learning Hebrew and Greek would be nice and might help me appreciate the biblical texts more, but if I never get around to doing it, I do think that, with the many excellent English translations and my faith in God, I will still be able to appreciate His Word.
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It’s interesting to me that while Jews and Muslims stress the value of being able to read their scriptures in the original languages, there’s really no similar emphasis in Christianity. Learning these languages is not all that difficult, but the vast majority of Christians don’t seem to want to even make an effort.

I think one of the chief benefits of knowing Greek and Hebrew is being able to take a critical look at the English translation, and know what the other possibilities of translation could have been. In addition, one is also better able to see when a translation is simply out-and-out erroneous. There’s an old Latin saying, traduttore, traditore (essentially, “a translator is a traitor”); people translate with all kinds of agendas and the biblical text can come out pretty skewed or sanitized. I’m not sure on what basis one could judge an English translation as “excellent” or “superb” without understanding the underlying text that’s being translated.

I’m sure people can still enjoy an translation of the Bible in much the same way someone can enjoy an English translation of, say, The Divine Comedy. They just need to keep in mind that what they are reading is not actually the Bible, it’s a translation of the Bible.
 
Dave_Noonan said:
Learning these languages is not all that difficult
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Speak for yourself…I have enough struggles learning French or Italian…ancient Hebrew and Koine Greek would be more than enough struggles for me to deal with. So, yes, learning languages can be difficult.
 
Stephen_Parry said:
One of my goals one day is to learn Greek and Hebrew, so that I can get even more out of my Bible. However, is it really necessary?
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This depends on whether or not you are Catholic. 🙂 I believe that, in the fulness of Christ’s Church, we do not each of us need to become as scholarly and educated as we possibly can, simply to understand what God teaches us.

However, the original languages certainly can help one a great deal to refine exegesis skills. Whilst it may not be necessary, however, I would also mention it may not be practical either.

As Mr. Noonan mentions, (orthodox) Jews indeed do place a great emphasis on Hebrew, and of reading Scripture in that tongue. In point of fact, a great deal of them learn the language from a very young age; and there are some native speakers of it. I would add, however, that they would often say that an adult learning Hebrew will almost always be extremely limited in how much of Scripture they will be able to read unassisted by various resources. Likewise, their insistence on Hebrew often takes the form of mere counter-missionary defense. That is, ***you **can’t tell **me *what my own Scriptures say, may not be as accurate as they should hope.
 
Dave_Noonan said:
It’s interesting to me that while Jews and Muslims stress the value of being able to read their scriptures in the original languages, there’s really no similar emphasis in Christianity. Learning these languages is not all that difficult, but the vast majority of Christians don’t seem to want to even make an effort.

I think one of the chief benefits of knowing Greek and Hebrew is being able to take a critical look at the English translation, and know what the other possibilities of translation could have been. In addition, one is also better able to see when a translation is simply out-and-out erroneous. There’s an old Latin saying, traduttore, traditore (essentially, “a translator is a traitor”); people translate with all kinds of agendas and the biblical text can come out pretty skewed or sanitized. I’m not sure on what basis one could judge an English translation as “excellent” or “superb” without understanding the underlying text that’s being translated.

I’m sure people can still enjoy an translation of the Bible in much the same way someone can enjoy an English translation of, say, The Divine Comedy. They just need to keep in mind that what they are reading is not actually the Bible, it’s a translation of the Bible.
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Thank you for that response and for sharing that old Latin saying, I’ll have a think about what you’ve said - it makes sense.
 
AdesteFideles said:
This depends on whether or not you are Catholic. 🙂 I believe that, in the fulness of Christ’s Church, we do not each of us need to become as scholarly and educated as we possibly can, simply to understand what God teaches us.

However, the original languages certainly can help one a great deal to refine exegesis skills. Whilst it may not be necessary, however, I would also mention it may not be practical either.

As Mr. Noonan mentions, (orthodox) Jews indeed do place a great emphasis on Hebrew, and of reading Scripture in that tongue. In point of fact, a great deal of them learn the language from a very young age; and there are some native speakers of it. I would add, however, that they would often say that an adult learning Hebrew will almost always be extremely limited in how much of Scripture they will be able to read unassisted by various resources. Likewise, their insistence on Hebrew often takes the form of mere counter-missionary defense. That is, ***you ***can’t tell **me **what my own Scriptures say, may not be as accurate as they should hope.
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Thank you, more food for thought. 🙂
 
Dave_Noonan said:
I’m sure people can still enjoy an translation of the Bible in much the same way someone can enjoy an English translation of, say, The Divine Comedy. They just need to keep in mind that what they are reading is not actually the Bible, it’s a translation of the Bible.
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While I agree with the idea that reading in the original languages can be beneficial, I think you put too fine a point on this. We could carry this out and say, “Since the early Christians didn’t use a Hebrew-language OT, for they used the Greek Septuagint, we shouldn’t bother with learning Hebrew.”

We should trust the Magesterium when it says that we are reading an acceptable and approved translation of the Bible – that we are, indeed, reading the Bible.
 
It will be very hard, without spending years in Israel and Athens, to learn the languages to the point of not needing to think in English. And without being at that point, you are still using a “translation”, except it’s in your head.

(And if you do go to live in Israel and Athens, the languages you would learn are not quite the Biblical languages, anyhow.)

The point of being able to compare translations is a good one, though. And knowing what words are used where and their various meanings is also useful. The usefulness may be limited, however, by the huge effort that Greek and Hebrew study may require for some, IMNAAHO.

ICXC NIKA
 
Stephen_Parry said:
One of my goals one day is to learn Greek and Hebrew, so that I can get even more out of my Bible. However, is it really necessary?

There are some superb English translations and no shortage of translations. I tend to read from three particular translations, but I do sometimes wonder if I could get even more from my faith if I were to learn Greek and Hebrew.

Just out of interest, does anyone think you can go through life without learning Greek or Hebrew and still enjoy the Bible? I do. I believe that God will make His Word clear to me if I pray to Him and ask Him to make it clear. Learning Hebrew and Greek would be nice and might help me appreciate the biblical texts more, but if I never get around to doing it, I do think that, with the many excellent English translations and my faith in God, I will still be able to appreciate His Word.
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I am going to get formal tuition in Koine Greek next year, with the possibility to learn Hebrew (it is not offered at my institution, however there is a Hebrew Scholar who may be willing to teach a small group of us Hebrew). It is not fundamental, however learning Greek and Hebrew will allow you to appreciate several small nuances that are in the original languages that are just not conveyed in English, this is why biblical scholars learn Greek and Hebrew to pick up on these small nuances.
 
They teach me Classical/Koine Greek in school, thanks to that I can read the NT in Greek. Don’t high schools in the US teach Greek?
 
Credo_ergo_sum said:
They teach me Classical/Koine Greek in school, thanks to that I can read the NT in Greek. Don’t high schools in the US teach Greek?
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From what I’ve heard public ones don’t, however some private ones do. Similar situation to what we have with Latin/Greek in Britain, many Private Schools teach Latin/Greek, however the ones run by the state see no use for it.
 
Splagchnizomai said:
While I agree with the idea that reading in the original languages can be beneficial, I think you put too fine a point on this. We could carry this out and say, “Since the early Christians didn’t use a Hebrew-language OT, for they used the Greek Septuagint, we shouldn’t bother with learning Hebrew.”
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Certainly the Greek Orthodox would heartily agree with you—and it would be a start. Of course, most early Christians were probably reading the scriptures in Aramaic/Syriac, which, once you know Hebrew is also not that difficult.
Splagchnizomai said:
We should trust the Magesterium when it says that we are reading an acceptable and approved translation of the Bible – that we are, indeed, reading the Bible.
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I wasn’t aware that Catholics have magisterial teaching on particular translations of scripture so I would be interested in where you see this. I’m not sure, but I think you may be confusing magisterium and magister (teaching versus teacher).
 
Credo_ergo_sum said:
They teach me Classical/Koine Greek in school, thanks to that I can read the NT in Greek. Don’t high schools in the US teach Greek?
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I don’t know of any that teach Classical Greek. Some private schools (which may be the opposite of what you are thinking if you live in the UK) teach Latin.
 
Dave_Noonan said:
I wasn’t aware that Catholics have magisterial teaching on particular translations of scripture so I would be interested in where you see this. I’m not sure, but I think you may be confusing magisterium and magister (teaching versus teacher).
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Perhaps.

I’m thinking of this …
usccb.org/bible/approved-translations/

Also, I’ve read that the Vulgate is considered to be the only translation to be free from error. Does this sound familar? Maybe Trent?
 
In the Netherlands one can choose to learn Greek and Latin in many public schools. I chose to do both Greek and Latin.
Splagchnizomai said:
We could carry this out and say, “Since the early Christians didn’t use a Hebrew-language OT, for they used the Greek Septuagint, we shouldn’t bother with learning Hebrew.”
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Well I agree and disagree with that statement. Yes, the Septuagint always takes precedence over the MT and so one could better learn Greek, however I don’t discourage anyone to study Hebrew. Origen did just that and used it for great text criticism. Therefore, if you know Hebrew and Greek you can compare the two which is always good. I always place the LXX and the (since I can’t read Hebrew) Vulgate together and compare them, it always helps me a great deal.
 
I do not think it is necessary. We can meditate again and again upon a parable like the prodigal son and get new insights without having to look at the Greek.

But if you would like to do things like see which word is used again and again in one section of the bible but not in another, translations are not always up to the task. Some concepts might be easier to track if you are tracking the Hebrew forms/roots themselves. I’m not sure if you need a perfect understanding of (biblical) Hebrew to do this, though. You might be happy enough to let a reference work or a computer do this for you. (disclosure, I know some little Hebrew, but it has mostly faded from my mind over time.)

For reading I imagine in most every instance the translator will have a better command of Hebrew than you yourself posses, unless you study a long time.
 
Having taken Latin for years while attending parochial schools, I wised I remember some it now. 😦 But there are several online internet schools and/or professors who will teach you the older languages: Koine and Attic Greek, Syriac, Aramaic and Biblical Hebrew…just Google for them. 😉

Yes, it’s too bad that people were not taught Koine Greek since some of the Greek words when translated into the English, lose some of their original meaning. For instance, love is mentioned in the English Bible but what is the writer conveying in that passage. Does he mean Eros, Phileo…brotherly love or Agape…unconditional love. It is very important and can change the whole context of the passage.

Also in Koine Greek sentence structure, syntax or grammatical structure are extremely important. For instance, some Protestants use the word Believe on Christ as their source of Salvation but they take it one step further and say it is a one time event. Then you have the heretical doctrine of once saved, always saved or commonly known as OSAS. However the word for believe in the Greek is present tense meaning it is a continual action of believing throughout your life and not a one time event. This is how heretical doctrine is started. Similar to Luther adding the word ‘alone’ in reference to “Salvation is by faith alone” in KJB. It’s not there in the original Greek manuscripts.
 
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