It's Greek to me!

An issue that often crops up is whether seminaries should require students to learn Greek and Hebrew. On a related note is the level of proficiency in Greek and Hebrew we should expect from pastors. I’ll just make a few observations:

i) Some people have a tremendous natural facility for languages. Two people who come to mind are Cyrus Gordon and D. S. Margoliouth. They seem to sponge up languages pretty effortlessly.

I had an aunt who knew about 10 languages. She once mentioned to me that African click languages have three different clicks, which she proceeded to demonstrate. This is the despair of most folks. She just had a great ear.

On a related note, some linguists have a knack for decrypting ancient languages.

ii) Then you have a guy like F. F. Bruce. I think he was so good with foreign languages, not because he had a specific linguistic facility, but because he had a photographic memory. With a photographic memory, it was child’s play for him to acquire reading proficiency in ancient (and modern European) languages.

My father had a college prof. who seemed to have total recall. The professor would make small talk with his students. Ask about their family. Next time he spoke with them he picked up right where he left off, without missing a beat. Remembered the names of the third cousin of so-and-so. 

I had a grandmother who played bridge every week. The next day she’d phone a friend and do blow-by-blow replay of every hand that was played.

One of my grandfathers had a friend with a remarkable memory. When the car was stopped at an RR crossing, his friend would watch all the freight cars go by, then tell my grandfather what was in every freight car based on the numerical codes on the side of each freight car.

The late Paul Woolley, church historian at Westminster, used to memorize train schedules just for the heck of it. 

iii) Then you have people like E. J. Young and R. D. Wilson who could read 30-40 languages, not because they have exceptional linguistic facility, but because they were extremely diligent.

iv) Then you have people who are very good at Greek or Hebrew. They concentrate on one language.

vi) NT scholars need to be proficient in Hebrew while OT scholars need to be proficient in Greek. But due to specialization, OT scholars generally know Hebrew better than Greek while NT scholars generally know Greek better than Hebrew.

vii) Bible scholars vary greatly in their philological expertise.

viii) I think we need to have realistic expectations for ministers. In fact, it can be counterproductive to expect too much. Ironically, a pastor is apt to make exegetical mistakes if he puts too much emphasis on Greek and Hebrew when he lacks the necessary expertise.

As a rule, I think we should set the bar lower. Here are two things it would be good for pastors to aim for:

a) Being able to read a few chapters a day in the Greek NT, Hebrew OT, and LXX.

b) Knowing enough Greek and Hebrew that they can follow the explanation when a commentator analyses a Greek or Hebrew construction.

ix) In addition, you can be a great scholar, but a terrible communicator. A great scholar, but an awful pastor.