Christians, do you think that if you had to learn Green and Hebrew?

Question

in Church to read the Bible in orignial format that it would bring your faith together through the denominations? Would there still be debate on meaning do you think? This is serious question. I'm really curious.

Green = Greek LOL at my mistype.

Answer 1

I don't think there'd be debate on the meaning of the bible ... the debate would just move to other topics ... would probably be in greek or hebrew instead of English.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, there are no existing originals of The Bible, at least that we've found. The versions in Greek and Hebrew were, at best, only a few generations from the original and without a doubt had already gone through at least one translation. But given the spirit of the question, I'll try to answer as best I can, because it's a good question. I think that people argue semantics as a last resort. In other words, I think they bring up the fact that it could be a flawed translation because they don't want to have to think hard enough about the things that really matter. For instance, the first part of my answer addressed only the literal meaning of your question without even touching on what lay beneath. It was an easy answer and one which didn't put me in an intellectually vulnerable place. There will always be debate about the words as long as people are unwilling to look at the deeper meaning and start walking their own spiritual paths, no?

Answer 3

Yes, there would still be debate on meaning. There are many reasons for this. But as far as the original languages go, if you have ever studied a second language, you know that there is almost always more than one way to translate a passage of anything. And so debate of what a particular passage means, even in the original languages, would continue.

Plus people disagree. They see things differently. They bring to the text different opinions, backgrounds and perspectives. Think about it. In America, all the politicians speak English, and they still disagree vociferously about the meaning of just about everything, including the constitution. Knowing the original languages wouldn't solve the problem.

That said, the majority of Christians are still, even now, able to agree about most of the MAJOR orthodox teachings of the Bible. If you sit down and think about it, they agree about far more than they disagree. Try not to focus on the negative. Try and list all the things most Christians agree on. It's a long list!

The glass is half full!!!!

Answer 4

Yes I think I could learn both Greek and Hebrew, as both are taught at any Seminary. I think there would still be much debate. When a person goes to seminary they typically take classes in Greek and Hebrew and have to translate Bible passages, there are typically a few people who translate thing differently. For example in Mark 7:6 when Jesus confronts the Pharisees

6He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
" 'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.

We often think of the Greek meaning of "hypocrites" meaning "pretender" but, there are comentaries that say He was using the Aramaic "hypocites" meaning "over zealous".

Answer 5

I learnt both while I was still a Christian. It was translating the Gospel of John that I finally understood what scholars talk about when they say that linguistic evidence indicates multiple authors for a text. In Greek, it is so clear that John 21 was written by a different person. And learning Hebrew meant that I could evaluate the 'prophecies' for myself and realize that they are all mistranslations. Christianity is built on mistakes. No wonder Jews don't consider Jesus the Messiah, they understand what the Hebrew means.

The major Christian schisms were made by men who could read the original languages. It still would have happened.

Answer 6

The meanings become clear in the original language. The 1610 KJV is a HORRIBLE translation and it has lead to many strange doctrines. Check out LEXICONS for clarity of text, and if you are serious about it start learning the languages. Learning Hebrew, and I'm still learning, has opened my eyes to many mistakes in our English Bibles. There should only be one "denomination".

Answer 7

the Translation we have from Greek and Hebrew, to English, Spanish, and Portuguese, are the closest accurate interpretations, the different is that words in Hebrew and Greek have different meanings, and many words derived from other words that could have different meaning (I'm talking just about the words not the verses or whole passages)

if you really want to study the Bible you should have a Greek and Hebrew dictionary by your side!!
it's like squeezing the Orange til the last drop!

Answer 8

There's some great concordance books to use when you're reading the bible. One awesome one is "Strongs Concordance." It shows the original word, translated from Greek, Hebrew or Aramic. It's a must have.
They have a new verson called -The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.
This helps shed some light of the original word- to see if the meaning has been changed.

Answer 9

You have a greater knowledge base if you understand the original languages. With that also you learn the difficulty of translating words and idioms.

Answer 10

Yes learning the original language would help. ALthough the English Bible is tranlated pretty closely. Just a little research on our part and we can learn the exact meanings without learning the language.