Why the Study of the Bible’s Original Languages Is So Important
9th May 2024
The source of biblical theology comes from the biblical languages. So imperative is the study of the Bible’s original languages, that I will make this declaration: as soon as a Christian university or seminary gives up the necessary study of Hebrew and Greek, its theology will move from its foundations. The reason? If there is no original word from which our words come, then biblical theology can easily become a man-made theology.
Amen to that.
Brief example: Consider Ephesians 5:22, translated by the Authorized Version as “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as to the Lord.” Except that it doesn’t actually say that–Greek has a perfectly good word for ‘submit’, hupoballein, which is not used in this passage.
Greek doesn’t have separate specific words for ‘husband’ or ‘wife’; the term for ‘spouse’ is suzugos, and one adds ‘male’ or ‘female’ to specify which one. But suzugos isn’t used in this passage either. The actual words used are anEr (‘man’) and gunE (‘woman’), so it would apply to boyfriend/girlfriend (or ‘partner’) as readily as to a married couple.
The verb almost always translated as something like ‘submit’ is actually hupotassein, which is a technical military term used (for example) in indicating that soldiers are lining up in formation for battle behind their commander. So a better translation would be ‘Women, fall in behind your own men.’ Makes a bit of a difference, does it not?
But if you’re just reading a translation by people with a theological axe to grind, you lose any significant chance of truly understanding what is going on. Nuance matters. And if you don’t make an effort to understand the original language, you’ll miss it.
Translators lie as readily as politicians, and from the same motivation, an attitude of patronizing moral superiority. Resist them, steadfast in the faith.