Bible Study Greek

When the angel tells Mary that she will have a baby, the angel concludes that no single word of God will fail. But what wouldn't fail, the word or what the word refers to?

We all recognize that there is not necessarily a Greek word behind every English word. Sometimes they are implied by another Greek word, or sometimes they are necessary so the translation does not miscommunicate. When Paul says that we are not to look after our own interests in Phil 2:4, does he really mean that?

Sometimes a Bible translator must alter the order of the Greek phrases so the English isn't confusing or miscommunicates. A good example is in 1 Thess 2:14. The majority of even the formal equivalent translations alter the phrase order, which illustrates why formal equivalent translations are not always transparent to the Greek.

This is a common question. People think the Greek New Testament says "brother," and translators therefore add to the Bible when they say "brother and sister." The fact of the matter is that the word "brother' is English, and the New Testament is written in Greek and says ἀδελφός. So the Bible, technically, does not say "brother." The real question is, what does ἀδελφός refer to and how do you convey the meaning in your culture?

Imperfects can be tricky to translate. Do you let the meaning of the word carry the aspect, is it a plain continuous idea, or one of the specialized uses of the imperfect such as the inceptive? Such is the challenge of translating imperfects.

Is there a difference in saying that John has no greater joy than hearing his children are walking “in the truth,” or walking “in truth”? If the Greek article in not in the prepositional phrase, then why do most English translations include it?

We will look at two passages that have the same Greek construction, οὐ μή and an aorist subjunctive verb, and in one passage you can bring the force of the double negation into English using "never," and on one you can't.

Was the prisoner’s name “Jesus Barabbas,” or just “Barabbas”? Why are the translations different, and why did the NIV change his name from the 1984 to the 2011 editions?

Sometimes the meaning of a verb is sufficiently imperfective (continuous) that you don't need to make it explicit in your translation, although at times you still should. Is there a difference between Jesus "continuing to grow" and Jesus "grew up"?

A simple but great example of the differences between formal, dynamic, and natural language translations, and why we should not reference a church by it's pastor's name