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Greek:
[quote:76d77e6345]
You really don't need it.
[/quote:76d77e6345]
Tell that man he should get out of the puplit before he gets into it!
Let me say this - the Reformation, the actual internal pressures that caused the surgence of the reformation (providentially speaking) was the need to go back to the sources - [i:76d77e6345]ad fontes[/i:76d77e6345].
Every scholar of the day wanted to do this as a good academian. Calvin, caught smack dab in the midst of all this while at Paris was forced to deal with the original languages of the text, as did Luther before him. Zwingli was a great linguist.
The reformation was BUILT ON the original languages and the need to understand how to do exegetical work on them.
If pastors think they can bypass the necessary work that needs to be done in translation and exegesis, and think someone else has done the work for them, then they need to rethink WHY they are getting into the pulpit. The reformation was about solid exegetical work preached in the pulpit.
The question, then about languages is critical to the preacher. The naswer is that not everyone is a linguist (that's not what I am saying) - but every pastor should be able to wrestle with THE TEXT in its original languages.
I took languages in college, which was a help to me because I spent 4 years studying biblical languages early on. honestly, I hate languages - parsing, syntax, rules, grammar, exceptions to rules, and hey, who likes to read from right to left anyway. So, I am not cut out to be a linguist (or a mathematician either), but I have to be able to deal with the text. I have to be able to translate the text. I have to be able to parse verbs and conjugate nouns, etc. I need to understand grammatical relationships - why? God is speaking. We need to get it right. In a school of 1200 in college, about 900 of those men desired to be pastors (it was a bible college). In the 4 years I attended, and in the 4 years I was in Hebrew or Greek class, there were a total of 12 that took languages. Now THAT IS SAD.
"Yes, I want to be a preacher - sign me up! I can talk in front of people. I can read a few books. I can even quote some good one every now and again, but please, oh please, don't make me do all the work I need to...I'm just not cut out for languages."
OK - then don't think about being a minister of the WORD (W-O-R-D as in text!)
Best starter book for Greek is Machen's NT Greek for Beginners. I like to go through that every now an again to keep fresh. Also, for grammar instruction - Dana and Mantley's "A Manuel Grammar of the Greek NT" is most excellent.
If you can start memorizing now (Greek conjugations) that would be a good start. If you go into the game reading the alphabet and having some of the chants down (os oo ow on oi on ois ous, etc.) that would be of help.
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