Bible Study Greek

It is a constant temptation to think that we are our own, that we are in charge of our own lives. But for Christians, we belong to him, and when we walk, even then He directs our steps. This is what the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism is all about.

Is 1 Corinthians 13 really a parenthetical “love chapter”? Or is it powerful, rhetorical language reflecting Paul's frustration with the Corinthian church? And how do we translate the figure of speech when Paul says that in the bookkeeping of love, past wrongs are not recorded?

Titus 3:3 paints a pretty dark picture of who we were before Christ. It may seem like a small point, but does Paul say we were “detestable,” or both being hated and hating others”? Either way, do we really believe this? The ramifications for evangelism are significant.

Concordance is the practice of using the same English word to translate the same Greek or Hebrew word. At times it can help, and at other times it is poor English style and can actually get in the way of understanding the passage. Here is a Hebrew and a Greek example.

When you want to emphasize a word, you push it forward in Greek word order. But what exactly is Greek word order?

Jesus' ambiguous answer to Judas' question about not being the betrayer is very clever. Judas knows that Jesus knows, and Jesus is giving him one last chance to change his mind by answering in such a way that the other disciples would not understand.

I received an email about what could be the weirdest misuse of the aorist tense I have ever seen. They claimed that the aorist “having followed” in Matthew 19:28 describes a once for action that was eternally binding, and therefore Judas will be in heaven judging the twelve tribes of Israel. How do people come up with these things, and what lack of humility allows someone to make a claim about Greek that no grammar or commentary would allow?

Because Greek is an inflected language, words that go together don't have to be next to each other. It can make translation a little challenging, though, when you start reordering words and phrases to make sense in English.

In English, if we have Phrase A, Phrase B, and Phrase C, normal rules of grammar mean that Phrase C is related to Phrase B, and Phrase B is related to Phrase A. But that's not the way it is with Greek; Phrase C can go back to Phrase A. Romans 8:20 is a good example.

Sometimes just a little tweaking can make a helpful difference in a translation. In Romans 5:11 we can see how the CSB handles the article to reference back to a previous verse.