What Can A Preacher Teach A Person Who Studies The New Testament In Greek?

Question

This Is In Reference To A Preacher Who Does Not Study The Hellenic Language Themselves. So Keep That In Mind When You Answer.

Someone Said That There Is More To The New Testament Than The Original Language. However How Can You Move Forward Without Knowing This Language? I Can't Trust Your Revelation If It's Based On A Mistranslation Like The King James Version, New Living Translation, Geneva Bible, New International Version, etc.

I Capitalize All These Words Because Every Word Is Important. Not To Mention It Is Similar To Hellenic In That There Is No Lower Case Or Upper Case In This Language.

Answer 1

How to get up peoples face and shout a lot.

Answer 2

Presumably you are using something like that Nestle-Aland New Testament in Greek. That would certainly give you the bestest access to the original text that currently exists, with variations etc indicated. However don't the most recent translations work from this anyway ?

Small changes in the translation aren't going to change much of most passages in the gospels I would have thought. So the preacher should be able to pick up on key points anyway, if he has a decent translation. KJV relies on Byzantine text-type manuscripts they say, whereas as newer ones prefer the Alexandrian text-type much more, and are based on many more manuscripts.

Isn't a lot of the wisdom really available through the Holy Spirit though; we have to have revelation given to us by the Holy Spirit, or else the epistles in particular are very hard to understand. Experts can spend years trying to understand with their 'natural mind' and make little progress.

Answer 3

I can read Greek for the most part, and use an interlinear translation to figure out those words and phrases I don't recognize. I am quite sure our pastor cannot, as languages are not his strongest suit. (I know that from his French lessons. :)

I don't for a moment assume that I generally know the New Testament better than he does,as he's taken several courses in theology, and has studied the works of those great interpreters such as Aquinas, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, et al. And he's studied homiletics, which I never have.

But every once in a while in a homily he'll say something that I wonder at, something of the Greek sense of a passage that most people don't catch. But no, generally, I accept that he can preach better than me.

Answer 4

The scriptural oold testament is not Genesis-Malachi; but the law of Moses. Apply the '2 or more witnesses' principle (Christians Matt. 118:16, 2 Cor. 13:1, Jews Deut. 10-20) along with discard others (Christians 2 Tim. 3:16-17, Jews Joshua 1).

Answer 5

There's more to the Word than just the original language--which is important, but there are layers of revelation such as models, types, foreshadow and the prophetic. The Bible has been craftily poo pooed by such scholarship. They miss the point entirely.

1 Corinthians 2:14
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

For example, you can give me the exact transliteration, verb tense, and structure of John 3:16. However, the penitent sinner listening to the message will be saved--not the scholar that breaks it down to its fundamental grammar.

Answer 6

That they don't have to capitalize every single word? The way you asked the question indicates stress, not a good thing to convey when when the Gospel message is being preached. The stress typically would come from the one's being preached to, not the one telling to Gospel, which is about peace, love, and grace from God through Jesus Christ.

That's one thing anyway. By capitalizing all your words like that, you are telling people that you are rather nutty. And that means that they already have a reason why not to listen to what you say.

Answer 7

That there are actually multiple versions of ancient Greek texts. In one version of James it says either "double hearted" or "double minded." In the version used for the RSV, the Gospel of Luke was shortened.

Paul wrote in Galatians that he did not receive his knowledge from other men or by education, but by direct revelation.