Tomorrow a good friend of mine is out of town and he asked me to fill in for him in teaching the Greek class at the Master's College. I am excited.
As I was preparing for the course, read some of these quotes I came across. I am encouraged by these:
Martin Luther said: “The languages are the scabbard that contains the sword of the Spirit; they are the casket which contains the priceless jewels of antique thought; they are the vessel that holds the wine; And as the gospel says, they are the baskets in which the loaves and fishes are kept to feed the multitude…As dear as the gospel is to us all, let us as hard contend with its language”
John Piper says: “Weakness in Greek and Hebrew also gives rise to exegetical imprecision and carelessness. And exegetical imprecision is the mother of liberal theology."
George Whitefield said: “I now studied much, about 12 hours a day, chiefly Hebrew…and committed portions of the Hebrew OT to memory; and this I did with prayer, often falling on my knees… I looked up to the Lord even whilst turning over the leaves of my Hebrew dictionary."
Mr. Whitefield also said: “Though weak, I often spent 2 hours in my evening retirements and prayed over my Greek Testament”
Mr. Luther also said: “As dear as the gospel is to us all, let us as hard contend with its language.”
Lord willing, if I am a Pastor someday, I want to be like Knox, Zwingli, Calvin and Luther who were known for carrying the Hebrew Old Testament's and their Greek New Testament's with them. I want to be so familiar with these languages so that I can better understand the Word of God in the original language in which it was written.
Praise God for Greek and Hebrew. Praise God for the ability to learn and know and study and use these languages.
For Greek, I am happy with Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek.
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