Surviving Seminary: The Successful Student
Part 1 - Why We Learn
Surviving Seminary: The Successful Student (Part 1)
Rocky is one of my all-time favorite movies. There’s something about the underdog tale that really resonates with me (and a whole lot of other people too). Yet, there’s more than that to Rocky, isn’t there? It’s not just that Rocky is the underdog, though, there’s more to the story than that. It’s who Rocky is that compels us as viewers. He’s a boxer whom many view as a wasted talent, working as a loan shark, and essentially on his way to fading into obscurity forever. But he gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to fight the champion. Rocky, after some deliberation, decides to take the chance to fight Apollo Creed and prove himself to everyone. Rocky is just an ordinary man, an ordinary fighter, living an otherwise ordinary life, and he is up against an extraordinary adversary. It’s his dogged perseverance, relentless training, and hellbent determination to push Apollo Creed to the limit that makes him a compelling lead. In a sense, we love Rocky because we see what any man can do when he’s pushed.
Not just anybody can fight Apollo Creed, it takes someone with grit, discipline, and a willingness to catch a right hook to the face. Not just anybody can learn Hebrew and Greek, it takes someone with grit, discipline, and a willingness to catch a right hook to the face (metaphorically speaking). Who you are matters a whole more than any natural talent or ability when it comes to learning Greek and Hebrew (although that helps). The character, discipline, and methods employed make a massive difference. The Student’s motivation stands above all else in pursuing this goal.
The Character and Mindset of the Successful Student: Understanding Why We Learn
The single most important aspect of being a good student of Biblical Greek or Hebrew is understanding why we should even study in the first place. I’ve found in life that understanding why I’m doing something can motivate me to overcome adversity. Thinking back to Rocky, he had a strong desire to prove himself and step up as a man against the champ. That drove him to practice hard. That said, here’s a few great reasons why we should study the languages.
1. The Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
This is probably the most obvious reason but it’s the most important too. At the end of the day the 39 books of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew with a small splash of Aramaic in parts of it. Likewise, the 27 books of the New Testament were all written in Greek. Now, in English we have some amazing translations, in fact we have an absurd number of them to the point where we can afford to actually bicker with each other about them. Those translations are trustworthy and very high quality. In fact, the more I study Hebrew and Greek the more I find myself appreciating the translations we have. In short, they’re great. Yet, God didn’t choose English, Spanish, German, French, or Latin to give us Scripture. He chose Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. God ordained everything (Isa. 46:8-11) and His wisdom is unparalleled (Rom. 11:33-36). Therefore, we can assume that He chose those languages for a reason. Furthermore, we would reasonably expect that an expert in say, Russian or French literature, would naturally be able to read (or perhaps even speak!) those languages. We, as prospective pastors or devout Christians, ought to be striving to be experts in the Bible, right? Therefore, it is a reasonable expectation that we would know the languages which God gave us His Word in.[1]
Furthermore, Protestants typically, historically, have held the Scriptures in the highest esteem. If you want a great example, look at the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy here: https://www.etsjets.org/files/documents/Chicago_Statement.pdf.
If we really do hold the Scriptures in as high esteem as the above statement indicates, then doesn’t it logically follow that we would want to understand as much as possible about God’s Word? If we hold in such a high esteem as to base our entire lives on it ought we also not devote ourselves wholly to studying it?
2. Clarity and Confidence
Learning Greek or Hebrew enables us as readers and students of God’s Word to have greater clarity in our understanding of Scripture. While it is true that there are plenty of trustworthy English translations of the Bible, it is also true that translation is an imperfect process. There are going to be nuances, wordplays, and rhetorical devices that are difficult to carry over into English. Seeing the text in the original language enables us to study the material directly. A Jewish poet, Haim Nacham Bialik, famously quipped, “Reading the Bible in translation is like kissing your bride through a veil.”[2] There is serious truth to this analogy, although I wouldn’t press it too far. After all, as a Protestant I affirm the perspicuity of Scripture:
“All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for Salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of ordinary means, may attain to a sufficient understanding of them.”[3]
I love the way the confession puts it. The learned and the unlearned may both use ordinary means (grammar, study, context, and more) to understand the Word of God. So, we know that the text itself is clear even in translation. Yet, there is opportunity to shed light on the more difficult aspects of the text by employing Greek and Hebrew. I would add too that learning those languages could be considered ordinary means. You need not be in a special category of Christian to try and learn them.
Likewise, as we develop a better understanding of Scripture in the original languages, we will have far greater confidence in our own readings. There are more translations and commentaries on books of the Bible than ever before, and I thank God for it! Yet, if we do not know Greek or Hebrew, we’re not really in a position to judge the material we’re reading (to some extent). Meaning there is a dependency on scholars to handle of lot of interpretation for us. So, where Greek and Hebrew come in is boosting our confidence in reading the Scriptures.
3. Preventing Doctrinal Error
The famous battle cry of the Reformation as “Ad Fontes” which meant “to the fountain/spring.”[4] This was in reference to returning to the original languages in which the Bible was written as opposed to studying the Latin Vulgate Bible. In the 16th century Martin Luther’s famous recovery of justification by faith came as a result of studying the Bible in Greek, courtesy of Erasmus’ Greek New Testament and Philip Melancthon’s studies in Greek. The Latin Vulgate had translated the Greek verb δικαιοω as iustificare in Latin. The Greek term meant to declare righteous[5] whereas the Latin term meant to make righteous in “the sense of moral transformation.”[6] The difference between God passing a verdict and ruling that in Christ we are righteous and God actually making us internally righteous is massive. It’s so massive that as the Reformation began and unfolded the significance of this fact eventually became one the major fault lines of the Reformation between Catholics and Protestants.
Relying on the Bible in translation for so long led to a profound accumulation of errors over time. This is why it is so crucial to rightly understand the languages. Furthermore, I grew up in Utah. Utah is of course famous for having a massive Mormon population and just like other heretical groups they deny the deity of Jesus Christ. They will charge that the Bible is not correctly translated and thus the LDS church is to be trusted over it. When we know Greek and Hebrew, we can easily refute such objections by inspecting the text ourselves. John 1:1 clearly teaches that Jesus Christ is God and that is even clearer in Greek. Thus, the student of Greek and Hebrew ought to be energized in his or her pursuit to defend and appreciate the truth.
[1] Robert L. Plummer, “An Ideal Beginning Greek Grammar?” in Linguistics and New Testament Greek: Key Issues in the Current Debate, ed. David Alan Black and Benjamin L. Merkle (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020), 217-219.
[2] Benjamin L. Merkle and Robert L. Plummer, Greek For Life: Strategies for Learning, Retaining, and Reviving New Testament Greek (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017), 4. I am in many ways dependent on Merkle and Plummer. I also WHOLEHEARTEDLY recommend purchasing their book because it goes deeper on many of these aspects than I intend to. Furthermore, they’ve earned the small income they’ll receive from your purchase. Supporting our scholars is critical for Christendom, if they cannot earn a living, they cannot devote their entire lives to studying God’s word in Greek and Hebrew. I have seen firsthand that the life of a scholar is not a life in the limelight or a life of indulgence. There are detractors on the internet who protest that someone should profit off of gospel work. I believe these complaints are misguided in their application to most members of the evangelical academy who merely make enough to support a family and own a home. They are not rich or fleecing anyone. Most of these scholars profit virtually nothing from book sales and give their material away for free as much as possible. It is easy for keyboard warriors to assassinate the characters of these men and shield themselves from the consequences. We must do and be better than this.
[3] The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689), I.3.vii. See also The Westminster Confession of Faith, I.3.vii for identical language.
[4] Nathan P. Feldmeth, Pocket Dictionary of Church History: Over 300 Terms Clearly and Concisely Defined, The IVP Pocket Reference Series (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008), 8.
[5] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 249.
[6] Nick Needham, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power: Renaissance and Reformation, vol 3. (Ross-Shire: Christian Focus Publications Ltd, 2016), 88, see 87-93 for a more thorough treatment.