what the Greek really means

It's one of the most dreaded phrases we as teachers/pastors/ministers can utter. "What the Greek word _____ really means is..." I'm sure those of us who are regular church goers have heard some variation on this phrase many times. Here are a few reasons why it's a bad idea to utter those words:

(side note: I will mostly write about the NT and Greek for a couple reasons. One is that I have mostly studied Greek, so I'm closer to that topic. The second is that I don't find the problems I will explain below to happen as much with Hebrew and the OT. I'm not sure why this is the case.)

1. Most likely, we're wrong:

And if we're not completely wrong, we're at the very least slightly off. Koine Greek (or NT Greek) was not a magical, beautiful, robust language. It was the language of the people. Koine means "common." It was common Greek. When we say how rich and deep each and every word actually is, we're misunderstanding the fact that this language is not necessarily a deep and rich language.

Think about this: We all know about the word "agape." We've heard that it means "unconditional love," or something like that. But when you start to read the NT, you realize that the NT writers used agape all the time. It was the normal word for love. It didn't have any deep and magical meaning. It just meant "love." Now the NT writers used agape in a lot of different ways; sometimes to indicate the love God has for people, and other times to indicate the kind of love the Pharisees had for themselves.

If you think about it, agape functions just like the English word "love." People love their spouses, their jobs, their cars, their American Idols, their parents, and so on. It doesn't mean much without the context.

2. When we say "What the Greek really means..." most often what we really are saying is, "What the dictionary says..."

A great example of this that I've heard is that the Greek word for "believe" in the NT really means, "to trust in, rely on, and cling to." As if the author knew when he or she wrote "pisteuo" that the word was pregnant with such deep and rich meaning. But if we just bust open an English dictionary, we can learn that the definition for believe can be any of those things. So we're really not expressing what the Greek means as much as we are expressing what the English definition of a given word actually is. No Greek needed there.

I think the problem comes when we don't have enough knowledge of Greek to do a proper word study. We simply open a basic lexicon and list of the various definitions of a Greek word. That's not exactly how it works. In other words, we can't just open up a Greek lexicon, look up "pneuma," read off the definitions of "spirit, wind, breath, etc." and claim we've done a word study. Furthermore, we can't then take those definitions and say the Greek word pneuma really means "spirit, wind, breath, etc." The author may not (and most likely did not) have all of the definitions in mind when he or she used the word.

Think about how frustrating it would be to have someone pick apart one of your emails like this. To a friend, you might write something like, "I'm scared I might lose my job this week." Should your friend bust open the dictionary and read all of the definitions for "scared" in order to properly understand your feelings? Wouldn't that most likely lead him or her down the wrong road when considering the intended meaning behind what you wrote? Think about it...

3. We remove the text from the people:

When we utter the words, "What the Greek really means" in a sermon or teaching, one of the things we are communicating is, "The English doesn't cut it. You have to be able to read the Greek to really understand what's going on here." Think about the kind of frustration that would cause someone. It could have devastating effects to regularly hear that you can't truly understand what's going in the Bible on unless you read Greek. Suddenly the text doesn't seem as accessible as it did before. In order to really "get it," you have to know what the Greek really means.

4. It makes the English versions seem unreliable:

If we keep harping on the idea that the English translation of the Bible is incomplete, we start to develop in people a mistrust of the various versions of the Bible. If we're always saying certain words really mean something other than what a person's English translation uses, we may be cultivating something in the people who hear us that is not healthy.

English translations, by and large, do a good job at translating what is a pretty complicated language and subject matter. I say Greek is complicated more because it is a dead language that no one speaks anymore. This makes it a bit challenging because we can't consult a native speaker to help us with what we've translated. So in the end, most translations do a good job communicating the ideas behind the text. Sure, they could have chosen different definitions for some words, but the spirit of what was written survives.

5. We put ourselves in an undeserved position of authority:

We are the ones who can really know what the Bible means. We know Greek, and since you can only understand what the Bible is really saying by reading the Greek, you must come to us in order to get to the bottom of scripture.

Sure, I might be overstating it a little, but I'm not that far off. If I'm a pastor who is regularly saying, "What the Greek really means...", I'm presenting myself as a type of authority in this area. In other words, I'm saying, "I know Greek. That's why I can know what the Bible really means." And to take it a little further, "You don't know Greek. Come to me, and I'll tell you what the Bible really means."

Add to this the fact that most people can't really check what we're saying to see if it's true. If I say the Greek word means something, who's going to challenge me on that? Most will take it as gospel. That's a bad thing. I'm placing myself and my words in a position of authority that is above criticism. Bad news for any person in a power position over others.

The boring stuff of Greek:

Here's an interesting thought: The title of my little blog is "grapso skubalon." The first word means, essentially "to write." The second word is a crass way of saying "dung." Nothing too enlightening there. But I purposely put the first word in the future tense. My original thought was to title the blog, "I will write crap."

Here's where it gets interesting - The tense of the word "grapso" can be future (as I originally intended it), or the tense can be subjunctive (exactly the same form), which would change the translation to "I might write crap." Small difference, but kind of a big one. And the kicker is that the only way to tell what form I was using is by context. Since there is no context, it could go either way.

And that's the boring stuff of Greek. Did I intend the sentence to be future or subjunctive? Do I think I will always write crap, or do I think I might write crap at some point, but I might not? Big difference...

Note this: it's a long way from saying, "What the Greek really means..." Not to mention, it's a lot more boring too. People get excited about the perceived "magic" of the Greek language. In reality, Greek word studies can be boring and uninformative.

So when you feel yourself about to say those dreaded words, "What the Greek really means...," bite your tongue and express your thought without appealing to the Greek.

*These guys say it much more gracious than I am saying it.