Just a couple tidbits for you today.

I taught New Testament Survey up in Tacoma at Faith Seminary last week, and we concluded with Revelation. I don’t think that Revelation is necessarily sequential; I think it is more circular and so passages like Revelation 12 are important.

One of the debates in translation work is whether there is meaning in the form of a sentence. If one word is an infinitive, for example, and the next is a participle, does it matter?

This is one of the basic points we try to make in first year Greek, but in the rush to simplify the language sufficiently for a first year student, sometimes the subtly of this point is missed.

Colossians 2:8 is often misunderstood to say that all philosophy is bad and Christians should not engage in the discipline. It is a little thing in translation, but one word can carry a lot of meaning. The Greek is a tad difficult, so let me start with a slightly more wooden translation.

I received a somewhat distressing Facebook post the other day. On the one hand, you don’t know what a person’s motivations are. I hardly know my own. And you don’t know how a person uses words. But based on the words used, it was distressing to me.

As we know, Greek sentences can go on and on and on and …. Today’s English requires the sentences to be shorter, and so periodically translators put a period where there is none in Greek (so to speak), and supply a subject for the second part of the sentence.

One of the problems of memorizing word glosses in first year Greek is that it is possible to miss the richness of a word’s meaning, especially its breadth of meaning (“semantic range”).

I was looking through the LXX of Psalm 1, mulling over the NIV translation. Psalm 1:1 reads, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take (ἐν ὁδῷ ἁμαρτωλῶν οὐκ ἔστη) or sit in the company of mockers.”

In class the other day a student commented that the NIV had dropped out half a verse, Romans 8:2. My immediate reaction was to assume the student was correct, and I checked the textual notes to see the variants in the manuscripts. No, the Greek text was fine.

Someone just sent me the following. “I’m particularly interested in communicating Scripture in terms that the average person on the street can understand. So it bothers me that our translations are stuck on a fossilized word like ‘gospel,’ which means nothing to most people (and even many Christians!).

Does Paul really believe that “I have the right to do anything” ( 1 Cor 6:12)? Really? Anything?

Of course not. Paul does not have the right to sin. He doesn’t have the right to walk away from his ministry. So what is happening in v 12? And why does the NASB and KJV write, “All things are lawful for me” when we know they are not?

I was asked a question at SBL by a person whose son is in the military. He said that his son, and many of his military buddies, objected to a specific translation. Seeing as how my son just joined the Marines, I thought I should pay attention to what they were saying.

Having a great time at ETS/SBL in Baltimore. Always fun to see friends and make new ones. Talking with a guy at Accordance, and he had a good question.

Are you familiar with the grammatical category called the “instantaneous imperfect”? To any first year Greek student, this sounds like a contradiction. Isn’t the imperfect always, well, imperfective? Continuous?

Apparently not.

Matthew 5:2 says that Jesus “opened his mouth and taught them, saying” (καὶ ἀνοίξας τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ ἐδίδασκεν αὐτοὺς λέγων). If you were in a sarcastic mood you might respond, “How else would he teach? With a closed mouth?” This is why the NIV skips it entirely: “he began to teach them,” as well as most other translations (HCSB, NRSV, NET, NLT). They see it as unnecessarily redundant.

In this day and age, this is obviously a controversial verse, but it is chock full of interesting Greek tidbits, not the least of which is semantic range.

My pastor preaches out of the NIV 1984, and I tend to follow along in the 2011. Every once in a while I come across a significant change, and at first glance the passage Sunday looked like the NIV 2011 dropped out an entire phrase.

I saw some fascinating translation techniques used with Romans 2:28 and wanted to share them with you. In the process, I realized I had blogged on this passage four years ago, but I think it is still worth mentioning.

I heard my nephew preach this morning on Romans 13. It was fun watching him work to make the main point and not let politics deter people’s thinking. Authority structures are God-given and are to be obeyed — unless they “clearly” contradict God’s moral law.

If ever there were a word that cried out for a word study, it is “to know.” Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. I know (γινώσκω) my own and they know (γινώσκουσίν) me, just as the Father knows (γινώσκει) me and I know (γινώσκω) the Father”

Because English uses the same form, "you," for both singular and plural, it can make exegesis a little complicated at times. In some of these circumstances, you will find your English translation footnoting the fact that the "you" is singular or plural.

The ἐγώ εἰμι sayings in the gospel of John are famous. The phrase occurs 21 times. Jesus says that "I am" the Bread of Life (6:20, 35, 41, 48, 51), the Light of the World (8:12), the Gate (10:7, 9), the Good Shepherd (10:11, 14), the Resurrection and the Life (11:25), the Way (14:6), and the True Vine (15:1, 5).

I will be taking a short break from blogging to enjoy the rest of my summer, and get the new release of BiblicalTraining.org out the door. See you again on September 16.  —Bill

I just came back from a great week at Southern seminary in Louisville. It is the first time in many years I have taught the Pastorals from the Greek, so it was good to get back into the text.

(By the way, the students were great. Thanks guys for such an encouraging week.)

This is one of the more interesting words in Greek, partly because it is so hard to translate.

BDAG says μυριάς can mean, "a group/collective of 10,000, myriad," but it can also mean, "a very large number, not precisely defined, pl. myriads."

I found an interesting little example of the synoptic problem and harmonization. In Luke 8:18, Jesus says, "Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have ((ὃς ἂν μὴ ἔχῃ)), even what they think they have (ὃ δοκεῖ ἔχειν) will be taken from them" (NIV).

The angel tells Zechariah that his son, "is never to take wine (οἶνον) or other fermented drink (σίκερα)" (NIV). On this traditional reading of σίκερα, John was not allowed to drink any alcohlic beverage.

Most translations go this direction: "wine or liquor'" (NASB); "wine or strong drink" (ESV, NRSV, NET, KJV); "wine or other alcoholic drinks" (NLT).

I was asked this today.

Remember the adage: "Greek gives us the range of possibilities; context makes the determination."

Maybe "adage" is too strong, since I made it up; but I do say it a lot.

We had a good week working on the NIV in Switzerland; lots of ideas for future blogs. I also had one day afterwards to do a little more site-seeing with the family, and had a really cool experience I wanted to share. More about Greek next week.