I would like a book dealing with the New Testamnet use of Greek. In particular, the greek idiom and expressions used and how they convey scriptural truth.

I have always had a nagging suspicion that Greek was used for clarity. Given that the New Covenant was/is such a radical change/fullfillment of the Old Covenant it required a new language.

How is Greek better for conveying biblical truth?

There needs to be a counterpoint to the argument for Hebrew.
"A written account of Yeshua the Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham. Mathew 1:1
The words are written in an alphabet that is Greek, but the content and concepts are not. 'Not a single word in this statement, nor the syntactic structure of the whole, is independent of the specific, preexisting cultural, literary and spiritual heritage of Israel. By implicitly invoking that heritage, Mathew brings a particular world into the text from the very beginning and shapes it's message.'

Copernicus and the Jews, Daniel Gruber p24

Christou is an attempt to place into the Greek language a reference to, or marker for, the Hebrew Biblical concept of Mashiakh, i.e. the Anointed One....
...The Greek word referred only to a physical action and the resultant physical condition. It carried no meaning beyond that. Christos did not refer to a person. Christos did not mean The Anointed One. In ordinary Greek, whether classical or koine, christos simply described an object that had been rubbed with some kind of ointment"

Copernicus and the Jews, Daniel Gruber p25-26

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Eoghan
member,Thurso Baptist Church
Scotland

specialist subject: Creationist Genetics (Bottleneck effect of the Ark)
interests: holiness (practical theology)
member of Biblical Creation Society (available as a guest speaker in the far north of Scotland)

Eoghan,
I've heard these arguments before from two differing camps that usually ended up in the same place. The camps were some among the Messaianic movement and the others were more of a warped Seventh Day Adventist type. The result every time? An elevation of the Law of Moses to a place equal to the finished word of Christ: legalism.

There are a variety of books that deal with Koine idiom. One easily accessible work is A.T. Roberson's Word Picturs in the New Testament.

The Hebrewistic slant of some of the New Testament is easily explained: The majority of the writers were Koine speaking Hebrews! If is speak Spanish my Southern roots still show. If I speak Gaidhlig my American Southern roots still show. It is the same with the writers of the New Testament. To take that fact and use it as a leverage point to 'prove' some great hidden mystery has shades of Kabbalism. Unfortunately, to some this great revelation is so wonderful that they are blinded to the facts that have been proven for 2000 years.

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Oh, you are right about clarity in the use of Koine; but, it is not from the idioms. It is from the grammar itself. Koine was a very clearly understood language in the first century. The verb, preposition, and modifying structures are more succinct than most other languages.

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We shall not adjust our Bible to the age; but before we have done with it, by God's grace, we shall adjust the age to the Bible. - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Lawrence Underwood, Jr.
Pastor - Providence Family Fellowship / Mobile, Alabama
1644/46 LBC
My Blog - Imprimis

Is this a six volume set? Or am I looking at the wrong book on amazon? I was really looking for a volume rather than a library ;-)

Be careful in putting too much stock in word studies, words are not the smallest unit containing meaning, sentences and sometimes paragraphs are. If I said to you "what does the word 'hot' mean?" you may come up with several valid meanings such as "warm temperature," "live ammunition," "apparent physical attraction," "connected wires," but I could prove you wrong in all of these by just adding the word 'dog' to it.

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Alan
Seminarian, RTS Jackson, MS
OPC

Can you explain why you say this? Who is pressing this "need' for a counterpoint?

People can argue til they're blue in the face over why God providentially chose to use Koine... To ask the ultimate question of why Koine over Hebrew is to delve into matters I don't think we'll get anywhere on, and matters that I think are a significant waste of time to deal with. I honestly don't think the "new covenant / new language" argument holds much water, either. Koine for clarity? Sure, but again I'm not sure how long I'd want to try to pry into God's providential choices. I think as far as we can go is something like this line of thought: The Old Testament was translated into Greek in the 3rd century BC or so - why? It was useful for the time given where the Jews had been scattered to and what the dominant language was. The NT was written in Greek - why? Not so much because of some radical change, but because it was a broadly used and recognized language that enabled easy transport into the Greek-speaking world. (though the OT and NT both were needed - the NT alone is not the fulness of God's special revelation)

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Todd K. Pedlar
member, First Congregational Church, (CCCC) Cresco, IA
http://inprincipiodeus.solideogloria.com
http://puritanwisdom.blogspot.com

"As God did not at first choose you because you were high, He will not now forsake you because you are low."
John Flavel in Keeping the Heart



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I had a feeling there was more to the choice of Greek for the New Covenant!

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[QUOTE=toddpedlar;688486][quote=Eoghan;688363] Who is pressing this "need' for a counterpoint?

QUOTE]

I am! The argument they present is very convincing with beautiful examples. Yet a half truth sold as the whole truth is a lie.

There is a proverb which says "the first to present his case seems right - until someone steps forward to question him." Well someone needs to step up to the plate.

Actually, to argue for the peculiarity or holiness of the Greek (or Hebrew) language is to undercut the value of it. If a language is "unique", it is impossible to translate. Thankfully, comparative linguistics has shown us that there is no such language. There are a number of ideas that the mind can convey, and although different languages may make certain ones a bit easier or harder, languages are pretty much the same. If it were not so, we couldn't understand the Bible without being NATIVE Hebrew and Greek speakers.

Now, I do think that a grasp of the original languages gives superior insight into the text, just like it would for any other text. There's nothing really special about Greek, and even less about Hebrew, which is only a slight variation from other Semitic languages (Aramaic, Ugaritic, etc.).

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Charlie Johnson
Downtown Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, student

I don't see their argument (who are "they" specifically that you're referring to?) as being very convincing at all. I don't think the argument for some underlying Hebrew original can possibly be supported, if that's the argument you're worried about. If the Hebrew was to be supported and used as God's Word, why wasn't it copied and copied and copied as the Greek texts were, such that we have hundreds and thousands of Greek copies that date back to as early as two or three centuries after the original manuscripts were written? Why is there no positive Hebrew original evidence? Their argument concerning beauty of lanugage, etc., falls flat it seems to me.

Why must God have used Greek for some special characteristics of Greek? Why could He not have designed to use the prevalent and universally-understood common language of the people, as He did? I really don't understand why this question of finding out some super-conclusive reason proving the superiority of Greek over other lanugages is so crucial - not to be offensive, so please forgive me if I am. I just don't see where the Hebrew original argument holds any water at all, and why the plain evidence for the Greek original is insufficient.

I bought this book which arrived today. Very impressed, the four loves (CS Lewis) teaching places special emphasis on agape for example. Agape is used in the LXX in connection with the rape of Tamar in 2 Sam 13 and the agape of the world led Demetrius astray in 2 Tim 4:10

I will review the book when I finish - looks like a real page turner

You know, people get the wrong idea about The Four Loves. It's not a word study, or an exegesis of Scripture; it's a concept study. Lewis was not a bad lexicographer stretching to make a point: he was, for the sake of convenience, distinguishing four different ideas that can be covered in English by the word love. As evidence, let me submit the fact that one of his four words, by his own admission, does not occur in the NT.

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Ruben
Moderator
F.P.C.I.
Indiana

Vanities and disguises have covered us, and thereby we are naked; licenciousness hath inflam'd us, and thereby we are frozen; voluptuousness hath fed us, and thereby we are sterved, the fancies and traditions of men have taught and instructed us, and thereby we are ignorant.
John Donne

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Calvinistas Conversando
Teología en Mexico
The Howling Wilderness

I can't help feeling that "the ends justify the means". Only when something comes from scripture does it carry weight. I have lost count of the number of times I have heard preachers talk of agape love in the text!