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Using the Original Languages |
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The verbal inspiration of Scripture means that God has used words with great precision.
There is no sloppiness in the use of words in the original languages. There may be in some translations.
 | Translations become dated, and what may have been an accurate translation in the past, with modern English usage, becomes inaccurate. |
| This does not necessarily mean recent translations are more accurate. All translations contain some bias, due to the underlying beliefs of the translators.
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| Some versions of the Bible are not translations in the true sense, but paraphrases, and so carry no authority regarding the meaning of scripture. |
| Versions in this category are 'The Good News Bible' and 'The Living Bible'. They are good for devotions and comfort, but not for serious Bible study. |
Grammar
Learning Hebrew and Greek to the level where the Bible can be read in the original languages is beyond the reach of most Bible students. However, the serious student can discover much from these languages using a number of available tools.
Caution is necessary. Getting information from words used in another language is not the same as understanding that language. A language is much more than words. It requires grammar to give it meaning. In every language grammar is complex. There is no such thing as a simple or primitive language.
For a language to be a language it must be able to express many things unambiguously and consistently.
For example it must be able to distinguish between
| masculine, feminine and neuter | gender
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| one, two or many | number |
| past, present and future | tense |
| who is performing an action | nominative case |
| what the action is being performed on | objective or accusative case |
| ownership | possessive or genitive case |
There are many more complexities to grammar than these few items.
Some languages have more than the three cases listed. Most languages have a more complex tense structure than 'past, present and future'.
Each language has its own ideas about word order and innumerable other things, and apart from these problems, every language has its short cuts and idiom, and these may differ in a language as time passes.
So gleaning information from a language by using its words has severe limitations. However, if this is kept in mind, and not too much is expected, then many useful things can be discovered.
Ways to find and study words
Concordances
One of the oldest tools available for finding and examining words is the concordance.
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible is probably the most useful, for it numbers every word in both the Old and New Testaments and gives a brief definition of each word. This numbering system has been adopted by authors of other books about Bible words. It is therefore an easy matter to trace a word and build up information about it.
There are other concordances, such as Young's Analytical Concordance, and each has its own strengths.
As an example of the value of a concordance it is worth examining the word 'love', for in the New Testament it has more than one meaning.
In standard Christian works we are told that these meanings come from different words in Greek, and much is made from the Greek words employed. This information can be readily obtained from the concordance. Table 1. is a reproduction of a short section of Strong's listing for 'love'.
The right hand column lists the Strong's numbers - in this section there are four.
25 26 5360 5365
Checking these numbers in the dictionary at the back of the concordance gives the following information.
| 25 |  | ag-ap-ah-o perhaps from agan (much) [or comp. 5689]; to love (in a social or moral sense) |
| 26 |  | ag-ah-pay; from 25; love, i.e. affection or benevolence; |
| 5360 |  | fil-ad-el-fee-ah; from 5361 fraternal affection: brotherly love (kindness),
love of the brethren. |
| 5365 |  | philarguria fil-ar-goo-ree-ah; from 5366; avarice:- love of money |
Four different words for 'love' are defined, and each has a different meaning.
| agapao | = | love in social or moral sense
| | agape | = | affection
| | philadelphia | = | fraternal affection
| | philarguria | = | love of money
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These definitions contain some disappointment, because it is generally believed that 'agape' means much more than affection.
A check of its usage shows this to be correct. It is 'agape' which John 3:16 says made God send his only Son. In 1John 2:15, if a man loves the world, the love (agape) of the Father is not in him. In both cases something much more than affection is meant.
This shortfall in meaning of the Greek word 'agape' illustrates one of the problems with the Greek language. It was defined and established centuries before it was used to write the New Testament. Its words carry meanings associated with the pagan society which developed them, not the New Testament world.
To find more about this problem it is necessary to introduce another way to find words.
Lexicons
Lexicons give much more information about words than do concordances.
An excellent example is 'A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament' by E.W.Bullinger.
Regarding 'agape', Bullinger writes
agape, love. [A word not found in the profane writers, nor in Philo and Josephus, nor in Acts, Mark, and James. It is unknown to writers outside the N.T. philanthropia, philanthropy was the highest word used by the Greeks, which is a very different thing to agape, and even far lower than philadelphia (philadelphia). philanthropia in its full display was only giving to him who was entitled to his full rights.] agape denotes the love which springs from admiration and veneration, and which chooses its object with decision of will, and devotes a self-denying and compassionate devotion to it. Love in its fullest conceivable form.
So agape does appear to have a special meaning.
But the story does not end here. Three verses follow which express God's love or Jesus' love.
| John 5:20 | For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: |
| John 11:3 | Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. |
| John 16:27 | For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. |
The highlighted words for 'love' in each case is Strong's 5368, phileo. This word has been translated in much the same way as agape. Maybe too much has been made of agape. Maybe not. Finding out for yourself can sometimes raise problems, and may force you to rethink some things.
There are more than the four Greek words already mentioned which relate to love in some way. Strong's numbers 25, 27, 5358, 5369, 5373 and a number of other words scattered down to 5391 all relate to love or affection, some in specialized senses. So there is plenty of room for personal research.
Interlinear Bibles
Interlinear translations are helpful in identifying words and in making some simple grammatical deductions. However they do require a basic knowledge of the Hebrew or Greek alphabets.
The following is a reproduction of a passage from an interlinear New Testament.
The passage was chosen because it is about people who chose to find out for themselves.
Without knowledge of the Greek alphabet, it is not of much use, but if the alphabet is known, it is possible to identify many of the words used.
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