Is studying hebrew and greek necessary?

[BeauJangles]

50 minutes ago, NotAllThere said:

1 hour ago, BeauJangles said:

Millions were saved without ever reading a Bible!

Amen to that!

Would it be inappropriate to say #metoo?  I did not grow up in a Christian family. Neither did my wife. We really knew nothing other than we wanted to follow Jesus when we were saved. And we got saved before we became a couple.

Yes, indeed! And I loved reading the brief testimonial as well. That's wonderful!

[CaptWalker]

15 hours ago, other one said:

 

 

Edited August 22, 2020 by CaptWalker
Irrelevance to discussion topic.

[JohnDB]

I began my language studies over a New Testament verse in the first chapter of John's Gospel. 

 

I was doing inductive Bible study in English. This is a type of study where you read the same passages over and over again and then begin outlining paragraphs and diagramming the sentences so that you truly understand exactly what is said. Oh it's very obvious that many can't seem to read and know what the Bible says in English much less Hebrew or Greek. 

 

Anthropology and History studies really help a lot with understanding why something is said the way it is said. 

 

None of that helped me when it came time for John 1:12. 

For those who received him, for those that believed in his name, he gave the right to be called sons of God. 

 

And I had a hard time getting past this one verse because of the past tense of all the verbs. 

And eventually after years of studying Greek and Early Latin (which many mistake for Greek) the truth is that the perfect aortist tense is one that signifies past, present, and future all at the same time. And when Wycliffe or Erasmus (not sure which of the two) came across situations like this he had to pick a tense...so he picked past. Everyone has followed this tradition since. 

Then it became apparent during my studies that many many New Testament verses and letters referenced the Old Testament in a strange fashion. None of the quotes matched up correctly. This was because they were referencing the Septuagint...a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures common in the time period of the apostles. Some were more allusions to scriptures than direct quotes. 

Hebrews and Jude reference many writings other than scriptures. A whole library's worth. Westcott and Hort got those covered. 

But Hebrew is where the truth really comes out. And it's difficult because of the reading backwards and the metaphoric nature of the language. But a lot of anthropology and understanding comes out from the clarity.

"Torah tohorah."

The scriptures will clean you and make you acceptable to God is what that means. 

It's where Paul says "wash her with the water of the Word" but in a short pithy way that was rife in Jewish society. 

And that two word quote isn't really in the scriptures...but you learn it to get the accent and breathing's right...a tongue twister for your esophagus. 

Greek is hard

Hebrew is harder 

You can't go back...the studies will forever change you. And at some point you will understand that action is better than knowledge. Being able to just talk to people and slowly infect them with your relationship with God is more powerful than knowing any language. You ain't gotta preach at them in Hebrew or Greek...just you being you unashamed of your relationship with God speaks louder than anything else you could ever do in a world lost for salvation. 

[Omegaman off duty]

On 8/21/2020 at 12:02 PM, NotAllThere said:

It's sad, but I've never managed to get through to a JW.

I used to know a guy named Randall Watters. He was an ex-JW, even worked for the Watchtower, printing bibles. He started and ministry to train people how to reach JWs, he had a hard time, because JWs are not allowed to talk to Ex Jws.

Of course, none of us gets through to anyone, that is the job of the Holy Spirit. It is our job to try, and to give them the gospel entrusted to us.

One thing that I recall Randy telling me, was that in his experience, it is hard to get through to a Jehova's Witness, because as soon as you start to make headway, the run back the the Watchtower, or local Kingdom hall, were they get patched up by more experiences JWs.

He said what he found to be more effective, was to go into the history of the Watchtower itself, it history of failed prophecies, corruption, and changes in theology over the years. Just thought I would toss that in here.

[JohnR7]

On 8/19/2020 at 12:42 AM, bderbider said:

Wanted to ask if you think reading the Bible in hebrew and greek is necessary to be a serious student of the Bible. 

It is essential to know Hebrew. Each Letter has a symbolic meaning and I would not even allow a child to begin the first grade if they do not know what the letters represent. For example the A represent the horns or the lead animal.  B represents a tent or a dwelling, C represents a Camel or Commerce. D represents door and we know that Jesus is the door.  At this point we already have the Gospel Message. Jesus came to dwell with man to show them the way. We always have to go back to the beginning in the Bible and build on our understanding from there. They call this the law of first use. Over the years as we grown in understanding and become more mature, then we enter into a better understanding of what Jesus does for us and what He wants from us. As a camel takes their product to the market we are to take the message of Jesus to the world. We go and we return having won converts for Jesus. We are to gain the wealth of having saved lost souls. 

[Ozarkbound]

I own a Jewish Study Bible. It gives the hebrew text, then translates the text into English. It is interesting to compare it to our Christian Bibles. There are many instances of our Bible not lining up with with the hebrew.

[JohnR7]

On 8/22/2020 at 9:08 AM, JohnDB said:

None of that helped me when it came time for John 1:12. 

For those who received him, for those that believed in his name, he gave the right to be called sons of God. 

Where do you get the word: "called" from. I use Bible Hub so I can click on the Greek and get an idea of what the verse says in the original language.  In this verse we are told that those who  believe and receive are given the authority of sons of God. This whole verse centers on the authority that we have as sons of God. So it is a good idea to click on the word authority and look at the other verses where this word is used.  We can see in Matthew were Jesus teaches on this. The law of first use is important so we read in Matthew 7:29 "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, 29 because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their scribes".  After this He talks about the authority a soldier has to command the troops. Jesus teaches so a child can understand. Because children are under the authority of their teacher. It may take us the rest of our life to understand the authority that we have. Yet from the beginning we should understand we have authority. We can then go to the third verse and we see the authority we have over sin, sickness. We do not have to be paralyzed as the man is told to take up his mat and walk.  Then the last verse in Matthew show us we are to give praise, honor and glory unto God for the authority we have. Clearly the authority we have comes because of God and because we are children of God. 

Edited November 15, 2020 by JohnR7