Bible Study Greek

One of the more common constructions in Greek is the appositional construction. It is often downplayed in first–year Greek, but it is quite common. There are also two types of appositional constructions, the Simple Apposition and the Genitive of Apposition. The difference between the two is nuanced but important. We will be looking at three verses, Ephesians 1:1, 1 John 1:3, and Romans 4:11.

Sometimes first year teachers simplify the dative and have you use the one keyword “to.” This works until “to” makes no sense. I am thinking that it is better from day one to keep five basic definitions of the dative in mind. It's not that hard.

Sometimes translators have to make a decision; sometimes there is no ambiguous option. In 2 Cor 4:6, is the gospel glorious or is the gospel about the glory of Christ? It is one or the other, not both.

Why do translations all say that Jesus gave up “his” spirit when the Greek behind “his” is the definite article, “the”? This is a good example of why knowing a little Greek may not always be helpful and why I wrote Greek for the Rest of Us.

Paul uses a grammatical device called “epexegetical” to explain what the “mystery” is. There are several ways of doing this, but in Ephesians 3:6 he uses an epexegetical infinitive to show that Jews and Gentiles alike are fellow heirs.

We teach students to translate ἐάν as if, but often in a third-class conditional sentence doing so misleads. Sometimes "if" brings in an element of conditionality that was never intended by the speaker/writer."

What does it mean to "quench the Spirit"? Do you use the word "quench" other than to quench your thirst? Do you quench a candle? Satan's fiery arrows?

There are a few places where the order of Greek words is really significant, and Paul's instructions for communion are one of those places. If you know the Greek, you will know how to read 1 Corinthians 11:24–26 publically.

There is a thin line between translation and commentary. All Greek and Hebrew sentences need some level of interpretation to make sense in English, but sometimes translators go past that line and become commentators. Here are a couple examples.

Adverbial participles are capable of a wide range of meanings, and the translator has to use context to make a decision. In addition, Eph 2:1–7 is one long sentence, and sometimes subjects and verbs need to be moved around as the sentence is broken down into more manageable chunks.