Language | Knowable Word

How Can a Human Book be Divine?

October 11, 2023 By Peter Krol

Lewis Varley addresses a matter commonly raised by both Muslims and secularists against the Christian doctrine of special revelation: How can a book produced by humans be inspired by God or accurately communicate divine speech and intentions? Isn’t God—according to the Christian conception—so far above us that human speech and human writing is utterly unable to adequately communicate his will?

Varley offers a number of helpful responses:

The Divine-Human Scriptures Point to God’s Power
What Form Should a Book of Direct Revelations Take?
God Has Shown His Kindness to Us in the Accommodation of Scripture
The Divine-Human Scriptures Are Made Possible Because of Our Identity as God’s Image Bearers
The Literary Forms of Scripture Resonate with Our Lives

Here is a taste:

It comes as no surprise that our friends who deny that God could inhabit a human body would also deny that God’s words could also be human words. To deny the character of Scripture as a divine-human book is, by extension, to deny that God could ever come into our world, our times, our lives, but must inevitably be detached from us. To affirm the divine-human word is to affirm God’s immanent involvement in our everyday, often ordinary, lives.

Check it out!

Why Greek is Not Like a Precise Code

August 17, 2022 By Peter Krol

The Logos Word by Word blog has a fabulous piece about how the ancient Greek language works, contrary to urban legend.

There is an idea which floats around in pulpits and Bible studies, and it goes something like this: “Greek is a perfectly precise language which clearly conveys its meaning, and this is the reason why God used Greek for the New Testament.” I do not pretend to know the mind of God regarding why the New Testament is in Greek. But there are some substantial problems in the assertion that Greek is “perfectly precise.” Uncovering these problems…will actually help us interpret the Bible more accurately.

I have heard this folk tale many times, typically espoused by people who do not themselves know Greek. But armed with a Strong’s Concordance, they believe they can get themselves to “the real meaning” of the words of the New Testament, which are “more precise” than English words could ever be.

The same myth is often espoused regarding the Hebrew language of the Old Testament. Such myths simply need to be blown to bits and scattered to the wind. Biblical Hebrew and Greek were human languages that function very much like the human languages that are still spoken today. There are differences, of course, in how the grammar works. But the fact remains that they function like languages and not like computer code. So this article is well worth your time.

Check it out!

Avoid Using Greek or Hebrew to Persuade People

August 12, 2020 By Peter Krol

Tommy Keene has another terrific post on the Bible’s original languages. This time he’s aiming to persuade you that you almost never need to refer to the original Hebrew or Greek in order to make a point. In the process, he refers to a Greek phrase; but he didn’t have to. And he shows you why he didn’t have to.

Near the end, he gives a series of steps to teach you how to argue your case from the context instead of from an obscure reference to original languages. His advice here is priceless.

My favorite lines in the article come when Keene paints the picture of a person who knows Hebrew/Greek making an argument with someone who doesn’t. The only real reason the Hebrew/Greek person would reference the Hebrew/Greek is to play a trump card that can’t be questioned. This fundamentally bases the argument on the authority of the person who knows Hebrew/Greek and not that of the text itself. By choosing to leave the Hebrew/Greek out of the argument, you are doing a more to actually make disciples. Thus he concludes:

You are not only telling them what the text means, you are showing them how to arrive at that conclusion themselves. You are making yourself redundant. Go ahead. That’s the way Jesus wanted it anyway.

I highly commend Keene’s post to you. The only thing I might add is that there is one place I have found it particularly helpful and important to reference the original languages, and that is when there is a pun or repetition that the translation has glossed over. Of course, it’s not always necessary to do this, but if observing the repetition bears interpretive weight, that is part of the context required to understand the text. And that context might not be apparent in English. (Incidentally, this is why Robert Alter has a rule for translators along the lines of “Thou shalt not employ a variety of English words when the Hebrew repeats the same word.”)

Check it out!

4 Simple Language Principles

May 16, 2018 By Peter Krol

Mark Ward writes about “4 Simple Language Principles That Will Improve Your Bible Study.” He’s writing to the Bible student who wants to learn Greek or Hebrew. Or possibly to the person who wants to use original language tools well. You know, the sort of person who can be heard saying things like, “What the Greek word here really means is…”

Ward offers some excellent advice for these folks, and for the rest of us, when he encourages us to learn first how all languages work. Then we’ll be in a better place to understand how Greek and Hebrew work.

His principles are as follows:

Usage determines meaning.
Usage determines meaning—no, I mean it.
Look at every level of meaning, not just the word level
Learn linguistic and literary labels

These principles are so important, especially the first two. Many people tend to think words have specific meaning built into them inherently, like a code. But words only have meaning according to how real people use those words in real communication. Another way to put it is that we assume words get their meaning from the dictionary. But we fail to realize that dictionaries get their word meanings by listening to people use words in conversation (for real: see this TED talk). And therefore, word meanings are constantly changing over time.

Ward’s musings on this topic are worth reflecting on.

Check it out!

3 Ways Not to Use Greek in Bible Study

November 12, 2014 By Peter Krol

An all-too-common myth in Bible study is that there is a “true” or “deeper” meaning in the original languages that doesn’t come across in English. Not only is this idea almost always untrue, it is also normally damaging to careful Bible study.

I’m not saying that Greek and Hebrew are worthless. They matter, and pastors and Bible teachers will benefit from studying the languages. But we must study them as languages, not as secret codes. It’s far more useful to learn how language works than to learn how to reference Strong’s numbers and identify Hebrew and Greek word roots.

For example, “agape” means very little on its own. It finds meaning only when it’s used in a sentence. Matthew, Luke, Paul, and John may have very different things in mind when they use the same word. We benefit much more from examining the sentences than by scrutinizing the exact vocabulary. And normally we can do this just fine in English.

Justin Dillehay walks through 3 common errors committed by those who dabble in Greek vocabulary in their Bible study. We do well to take notice!

Usage trumps etymology: Avoid the root fallacy. The origins of a word have very little to do with that word’s later usage.
Scholars are necessary: Avoid the cult of the amateur. Praise God for those members of the body who dedicate their lives to rich understanding of Greek and Hebrew. Perhaps we ought to be slow to suggest how a certain passage “should” be translated.
Context is king: Avoid the overload fallacy. When a writer uses a certain word, he’s not normally tapping into every other use of that word in prior literature. Therefore, Dillehay writes, “An ounce of good contextual analysis is worth a pound of poorly done Greek word studies.”

Dillehay’s full article is well worth reading. Check it out!