Note: I post the article below every year as seminary students arrive. I hope it will prove helpful for a new group of readers (or maybe even prior ones!)
A few weeks ago, a new crop of seminary students began the grueling month-long experience of Summer Greek. And, like all seminary students before them, they will begin to ask the question of why studying these ancient languages even matters. After all, a few years after graduation all will be forgotten. In the midst of a busy pastoral life, who could possibly maintain proficiency in the languages?
As a result of these questions, some students decide (very early on) that the biblical languages are just something to be endured. They are like a hazing ritual at a college fraternity. No one likes it, but you have to go through it to be in the club. And then it will be over.
Behind this “take your medicine” approach to the biblical languages are a couple of assumptions that need to be challenged. First, the characterization of pastoral ministry as somehow incompatible with the languages (due to busyness, or other causes), is an unfortunate misunderstanding of what a pastorate is all about. No doubt, pastors should be busy shepherding their flock, meeting with ministry leaders, and running the church. But, the core of the calling is to be a “minister of the word.”
And if the pastoral call is to be a minister of the Word, then there is a significant component of pastoral life that should be devoted to serious study of the biblical text—beyond just the preparation for that week’s sermon. Put differently, pastors should continue to be students. They need to be readers, thinkers, and theologians.
Unfortunately many modern pastors do not view themselves this way. This is evidenced by the language used to describe the place a pastor works at the church. In prior generations, it used to be called the pastor’s “study” (because that is what he did in there!). Now, it is called the pastor’s “office” (because pastors view themselves more as a CEO).
One of my biggest disappointments is when I go into a pastor’s office and see that there are no (or very few) books. It is like going into a carpenter’s shop and seeing no tools. I remind such pastors of the words of Cicero: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
If pastors recover their calling as ministers of the Word, then keeping up with the biblical languages should be a more natural part of their weekly activity. If they work in a “study” instead of an “office” then studying might just come more easily.
But, there is a second assumption behind the “take your medicine” approach to the biblical languages. Many students assume that the study of the languages is useless if the specifics are forgotten at a later point. Indeed, this may be the biggest assumption in the mind of today’s seminary students.
This assumption, however, is profoundly mistaken. Even if a student forgets every single vocabulary word and every verb paradigm, the intensive study of the languages during seminary still plays an enormously significant role. Put simply, it helps students think textually.
Prior to learning the languages, most of us simply do not know how to think on a textual level when it comes to studying the Scripture. But after learning Greek or Hebrew (even if we forget it), we now understand grammar, syntax, logical flow, and sentence structure. Moreover, we understand the way words work, how their meaning is determined (or not determined), the importance of context, and the avoidance of certain exegetical fallacies.
These factors alone are incredibly important for proper interpretation of the text and preparation of a sermon. And they are drilled into our heads when we take the biblical languages—even if we forget them later.
So, students and pastors should be encouraged. There are good reasons to think you can retain your knowledge of the languages, if your role as “minister of the Word” is properly understood. But, even if you don’t, many of the benefits still remain.
William Duncan says
As Followers of Christ we are dependent upon his plan for the shepherding of his flock. I am a sheep, though an old sheep. As a lamb I was very impressed with a shepherd who could speak the languages of the bible. In my mind it gave him authority. I was an expert in my field as he was in his. I had skills that made me better at my job and he better at his. As an old sheep I am less impressed by the shepherd’s command of the languages but still require his command, if for no other reason that it sets him apart. However my advice to a new shepherd is never try to wow the flock with your knowledge. Too much use of your archaic tongue can get old. Remember knowledge can puff up.
Qin Liu says
Sometimes i think it is not just about the language; it is the perseverance that was aquired and reinforced throughout the learning process.
Elizabeth Korasare says
I have been given a lot of insights through the reading of this article. I understand that ‘ to be a minister of God is to be a minister of His WORD, and it must dwell in us richly, but that we can teach and exhort one another with all wisdom. (paraphrased). it can only be rich when it is learnt and interpreted from its root. Thanks. God bless you for the words of wisdom.
Qin Liu/born in Nanjing says
Believe it or not, I lost interest in a lot of other things after I found joy in these archaic words.
I have spent the past two summers exploring Greek, Hebrew and now Latin and “delectatur a ό λογος” (excuse me for the mixture of Latin and Greek).
I was encouraged by a professor from Austria who teaches these three languages in Beijing throughout his life.
He never got married and helping students learn these languages seems to be his mission. The hunger for the closeness to be with God from the souls in China are never satisfied. Learning these things is a way to express their desire to be with God.
Etiam, anecdotally, a majority of people I know have been leaving off to the next stage of their life and I found myself alone with the pain of separation of different sorts. An older couple who were leaving Shanghai for America a year ago left me with a stack of books. I picked up the Hebrew ones and thereby my journey began. The wife decided to leave me the study notes of systematic theology from his husband while he was in seminary decades ago. With the trust and love they entrusted, I felt charged with responsibilities to grow.
Each learning process starts with a lot of anxieties and yet excitement, since all these three languages were new to me. Everything starts with zero. Having heard some appalling approaches to interpreting the Bible from different people and the courses from seminaries of different denominations, I know I do not want to just “kiss the bride(groom) through a veil” anymore. (I quote from Keith Campbell, an academic missionary once in Shanghai when he was talking about the book of revelation). I want to find out by myself. This is what motivates me. Without a growing discernment, how can we bring the gospel and the redemptive narrative to the world and the disoriented with precision? We need to be guarded in our faith( the word Dr. William Craig often uses) against misleading hermeneutics. The best way to start is to read the Bible for ourselves in the original languages and stop feeding on the sermons every Sunday and delegating our relationship with Jesus Christ to our pastors. Are we not priests ourselves to those in the darkness? Without a firm foundation in biblical languages, all the works from the research of the seminarians can only be read in English.
I have never been to a seminary. Never sure will I ever be. For those who have privilege to study under the pastors, behold, I hope you will cherish the opportunities to consider each word carefully. See to it you do not depict a God that causes disillusionment in the minds of God’s sheep or extinguish the fire for Jesus in their hearts. Preach the God crucifixus. My hearts are broken for you, my brethren.
Gratia cum omnibus, qui diligunt Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum in incorruptione.
Sola Dei Gloria
Aaron says
As a bi vocational minister who works 60 hours a week between the church and my secular vocation, in addition to having a wife and family, I agree with your assessment of the issue. Full time ministers who let these things slip by the way side are simply lazy, or cowards, or both. Lazy in that they do not want to take the effort to maintain and excel in the area of specialty which their profession demands. Cowards because many of them will not stand up to the deacon or elder board or whomever and make the case that their duties leave sufficient time for them to do these things.
For myself, I never had a chance from the get go. While I excel (for some reason) with english, I seem to have a mental block with regard to learning other languages, which I have tried to acquire several times including 6 years of greek and hebrew via my collegiate and seminary training. I never got Hebrew, and was never very good at all with Greek, and it was simply impossible due to time constraints that I retain the language long after seminary.
However, what I did retain and remember well was syntax and linguistic usages and structures that were commonly used in Hebrew and in Greek. I couldn’t translate a chapter of the New Testament if you put a gun to my head, but I remember how they wrote, the sorts of structures that you would find, and how word connects to word, and thought to thought. I was already attuned to textual issues in exegesis before I took these language courses, but my studies reinforced this tendency, and ensured that I would never approach any part of the word without recognizing the many things I DID retain from my studies, even if only subconsciously.
nanoo says
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I am going to recommend this site!
Douglas T. Burgos Jr. says
This is excellent! I think a pastor that is not aware of his highest priority in the ministry is guilty of “dereliction of duty”.