It’s Greek to Me – 5 Minutes with Douglas Huffman

In the new issue of Credo Magazine,“Born Again: God’s Sovereign Grace in the Miracle of Regeneration,” we interviewed Douglas S. Huffman about the importance of learning Greek in order to study the New Testament and what advice he would give to pastors looking to utilize Greek in their sermon preparation. Huffman is Professor of Biblical & Theological Studies as well as Associate Dean in the division of Biblical and Theological Studies at Biola University. He is the author of The Handy Guide to NT Greek: Grammar, Syntax, and Diagramming (The Handy Guide Series) (Greek Edition). Here is what he had to say:

You have taught Greek for many years now. Tell us, why is it so important to learn Greek, especially if we want to understand what the New Testament says?

Let me say first that there is nothing magical about the Greek language. Greek has been around for thousands of years and has gone through various developmental periods–from the ancient classical Greek of Homer’s day to the modern day Greek spoken today. Scholars call the Greek of the first century “Koine” Greek, meaning it was the “common” international language of the day. The New Testament was written in this “common,” every-day, first-century language (the same language they used to write their letters, legal documents, and grocery lists!).

Now, having said that, let me answer your question. Reading the New Testament in Greek will not give you magical access to the “real” meaning of God’s Word. But there is a noticeable and appreciable difference between reading in English and reading in Greek. The difference is analogous to watching a movie in black-and-white and watching the same movie in high-definition color: it is the same movie and the same storyline and the same message, but there are some things about the story and the message that are helped and augmented and advanced more quickly when you see it in color. That is what happens when you read the New Testament in Greek.

So, for example, when you examine the story of the transfiguration in Luke 9:28-36, you read about Jesus on a mountain, glowing in appearance, and talking with Moses and Elijah. Only Luke mentions the topic of that conversation, and in English translations it reads something like, “they spoke of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem” (v. 31). It seems clear enough and, with some advanced knowledge of the Jesus story, we know that he is to die and rise again and ascend to heaven at Jerusalem. But if you read this passage in Greek, you will notice that the word for “departure” in Luke 9:31 is ἔξοδος (“exodus”). Luke says that Jesus was glowing and talking on a mountain with Moses about leading an exodus! The quintessential rescue event of the Old Testament to get people to the Holy Land was really just a picture of the ultimate rescue event that would be accomplished there. Reading in Greek gives us quick access to that kind of “color,” which is easily missed when reading in English.

Can Greek make a difference for the average pastor when it comes to sermon preparation?

My goals for The Handy Guide to New Testament Greek were threefold: a) to summarize all the salient points of two years of language study in 100 pages, b) to do this in a helpful and accessible format, and c) to introduce phrase diagramming, which makes it possible to get a sermon or lesson outline faster out of the Greek text than you can out of the English text. In addition to the “color” of reading in Greek (or as part of that “color”), it is this third goal that motivates my teaching of Greek.

You see, English translations do not typically tolerate the long sentences in which the New Testament was written using Greek. So, one long sentence in Greek (with one main thought and three supporting thoughts) will be translated into English with four separate sentences that each look like a separate main thought. While this makes for simpler English reading, there might be some question as to which of those four English sentences is really the main thought of the passage. Reading in Greek (and diagraming the author’s thoughts as expressed in the Greek) helps the pastor see which of the four English sentences represents the main thought and how the other three sentences support that main thought. Thus, familiarity with the Greek of this passage quickly gives the pastor a confident, three-part sermon around the one main theme.

For our readers who are just beginning to learn Greek, which book in the New Testament do you recommend they begin with?

The Gospels of Mark and John and the letter of 1 John are common New Testament books for beginning level Greek readers. Their vocabulary and writing styles are generally beginner-friendly.

This brings to mind another difference between reading in Greek and reading in English: English translations tend to smooth out the styles of the various New Testament writers, but reading in Greek gives you a greater appreciation for the individual methods and emphases of the different authors.

Thinking back on your own experience learning Greek over the years, what advice can you give to those who have taken Greek but now want to maintain that knowledge and improve upon it in the midst of life’s responsibilities?

There is nothing that works as well as the practice of everyday use. And perhaps more than that, it is not a matter of pastors adding separate Greek review sessions to their already busy schedules (although that certainly may be a necessary place to begin for some). Rather, pastors should seek to do their current work utilizing Greek. They already prepare sermons: so they can make use of the Greek (or Hebrew for the OT) when they do. They already open their Bibles and dig into commentaries to answer theological questions for parishioners: so they can make use of the Greek New Testament when they do so. And there are a lot of useful tools available to help pastors bridge the gap. The Handy Guide to New Testament Greek is meant to be one such useful tool.

Read other interviews in the new issue of Credo Magazine:

 

To view the Magazine as a PDF

Born Again: God’s Sovereign Grace in the Miracle of Regeneration

While doctrines such as election, justification, and sanctification typically receive all of the attention in theological conversations, the doctrine of regeneration is often forgotten. Yet, it is this doctrine that undergirds the entire order of salvation. It is the initiatory change in regeneration that results in everything else, from faith and repentance to justification, sanctification, and perseverance. All of these other doctrines owe their existence to that first moment when God breaths new spiritual life into the sinner’s dead corpse.

Regeneration, or the new birth, was certainly important to Jesus. In John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless he is born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God! Jesus goes on to highlight the sovereignty of the Spirit in the new birth as well, comparing him to the wind which blows wherever it pleases. This reminds us that since Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus there has been a long history of debate over exactly what it means to be “born again,” a debate that has preoccupied the best theological minds, including Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, the Synod of Dort, John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, and many, many others. The key questions in this controversial matter are these: Does God work alone (monergism) to create new spiritual life in depraved sinners, or does God and man cooperate with one another (synergism), man having the final say in whether God’s grace will be accepted or rejected? Also, does regeneration precede and cause conversion (faith and repentance), or is the Spirit’s supernatural work in regeneration conditioned upon man’s will to believe? We believe Scripture overwhelmingly supports the former. Anything else would compromise the sovereignty of God and rob him of his glory in salvation.

Join us in this issue as we explore the doctrine of regeneration, a doctrine so important that Jesus himself felt it was the first thing he needed to address on that dark night when Nicodemus approached him with the most piercing of spiritual questions.

Contributors include Matthew Barrett, Thomas Nettles, Jonathan Leeman, Douglas Sweeney, Leonardo De Chirico, Andy Naselli, and Tom Ascol.

Matthew Barrett, Executive Editor