One can more fully embrace the vast wisdom of God with a knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew languages with which God communicated to mankind!

Table of Contents

IN DEFENSE OF LEARNING GREEK 1

Fundamentalists Improperly Frown on the Greek 2

Fundamentalist's Need of Greek Studies 3

The Linguistic Advantage 5

Scholarship Advantage 8

Conclusion 11

NOTES 12

BIBLIOGRAPHY 13

IN DEFENSE OF LEARNING GREEK

A pastor can more fully embrace the vast wisdom of God with a knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew languages with which God communicated to mankind! He can also more fully appreciate the travesty done to our Bibles by the 'modern scholars' of the Westcott and Hort only ilk. Further, the attacks against fundamental Christianity and orthodox doctrines are no longer primarily done in our mother tongue of English, they are done with a misrepresentation of what the Bible supposedly says in it's mother tongue. A Baptist preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ should therefore be about learning Greek and Hebrew, and Landmark Baptist College should have a Greek and Hebrew department developing a strong language curriculum for that process.

Learning anything about linguistics is an essential help for a good communicator. A pastor is to be a good communicator. Learning the linguistics that God used is the more valuable for one who is to stand in a pulpit and say “Thus saith the Lord.” Gaussen reminds that: “Learning is a doorkeeper who conducts you to the temple of the Scriptures. Never forget then, that she is not the God, and her house is not the temple.¹” Proverbs 9 says “Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: “ Those seven pillars were hewn in Hebrew and Greek.

From 13th Century BC "Linear B" Greek, through the "Classical Greek" of Homer's 8th century, and Plato's 4th century, up to the “Konie Greek”, or common man's Greek, of the Bible the Greek language is a marvelous form of language, capable of exact expression and subtle nuances. Christ came when the fullness of time was here (Gal 4:4), and the universal language

used to capture and record and preach his arrival and the New Testament he came to offer, was Koine Greek². Every Christian can benefit from the study of this language.

Under educated, underfunded and underestimated British missionary William Carey without even a high school education, taught himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French and Dutch and started over 100 Christians Schools in India! He was called 'the greatest linguist ever'³ and he had no Seminary Greek department to spur him into his studies. If the words of God are important, they are important in the language in which he provided them to man, and no matter the education, funding, or estimation of a Baptist preacher of the gospel, he should be about the study of God's language. Landmark Baptist College has the attention of the whole world when it comes to the defense of the King James Bible and the TR. It should be using that attention to develop a powerful linguistics department that would encourage students to pursue the valuable study of the Greek and Hebrew languages. Such study requires a discipline, and for any non-Careys such discipline comes from undergraduate and graduate requirements being held high enough to require the Greek and Hebrew Biblical languages.

Fundamentalists Improperly Frown on the Greek

Today, some nervously trained in King James Only controversy repeat with Dr. Sam Gipp “If the AV1611 is the perfect, preserved word of God, there is no need 'to go to the Greek.⁴' This comment was prompted after a word search using the Strong's Greek numbering system revealed several different translations of a common Greek word. The 'knee jerk' paranoia to separate from any Baptist preacher that might use the Greek language is ignorant, dangerous, and prevalent. There have been some one year Greek students who disparagingly use the cliché, 'a better translation of the Greek would be ...' but that is no cause for fundamentalists to flee from the Greek language, and mock or scorn those who would take up it's study.

Proverbs 3:19 says “The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.” Understanding is lifted to a higher plane by studying the Greek and Hebrew languages of the Bible. Although many a modernist and hood winked evangelical has used their Greek studies to slam the Authorized Version of the English Bible, their misleading is not initiated nor even aggravated by their studies of the Bible languages. Indeed the salvation from their error may come from such a study. Instead of castigating those who would use the Greek and Hebrew language in their studies and understanding of the Scriptures, Daystar publishing and their sort, might investigate the real issues of where a person stands on the verbal, plenary, inerrant, infallible, inspiration of Scripture. Some fundamentalists are forwarding a misplaced paranoia that anyone who knows or uses Greek or Hebrew are enemies of King James Only issue, and that is an altogether inappropriate and dangerous litmus test.

Fundamentalist's Need of Greek Studies

Why then, should a Baptist preacher learn Greek and why should Landmark Baptist College have a Greek department? In favor of the study of Greek several have previously answered well. A.T. Robertson begins this answer with an apt description favoring the language itself:

"The most perfect vehicle of human speech thus far devised by man is the Greek, English comes next, but Greek outranks it. ... The cultural and spiritual worth of the Greek N.T. Is beyond all computation. In the Renaissance the world woke up with the Greek Testament in its hands. It still stands before the open pages of this greatest of all books in wonder and rapture as the pages continue to reveal God in the face of Jesus Christ.⁵"

Men of old had a grand appreciation of the value of learning and Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) expands this answer for the advantage of Greek in his pre-King James work "Proper Godly Education of Youth":

"Languages are Gifts of the Holy Ghost Once a young man is instructed in the soul virtue which is formed by faith, it follows that he will regulate himself and richly adorn himself from within: for only he whose whole life is ordered finds it easy to give help and counsel to others.

"But a man cannot rightly order his own soul unless he exercises himself day and night in the Word of God. He can do that most readily if he is well versed in such languages as Hebrew and Greek, for a right understanding of the Old Testament is difficult without the one, and a right understanding of the New is equally difficult without the other.

"But we are instructing those who have already learned the rudiments, and everywhere Latin has the priority. In these circumstances I do not think that Latin should be altogether neglected. For an understanding of Holy Scripture it is of less value than Hebrew and Greek, but for other purposes it is just as useful. And it often happens that we have to do the business of Christ amongst those who speak Latin. No Christian should use these languages simply for his own profit or pleasure: for languages are gifts of the Holy Ghost.

“After Latin we should apply ourselves to Greek. We should do this for the sake of the New Testament, as I have said already. And if I may say so, to the best of my knowledge the Greeks have always handled the doctrine of Christ better than the Latins. For that reason we should always direct our young men to this source. But in respect of Greek as well as Latin we should take care to garrison our souls with innocence and faith, for in these tongues there are many things which we learn only to our hurt: wantonness, ambition, violence, cunning, vain philosophy and the like. But the soul ... Can steer sagely past all these if it is only forewarned, that is, if at the first sound of the voices it pays heed to the warning" Hear this in order to shun and not to receive.

“I put Hebrew last because Latin is in general use and Greek follows conveniently. Otherwise I would willingly have given Hebrew precedence, for in many places even amongst the Greeks, those who are ignorant of Hebrew forms of speech have great difficulty in attempting to draw out the true sense of Scripture. But it is not my purpose to speak exhaustibly of these languages.

“If a man would penetrate to the heavenly wisdom, with which no earthly wisdom ought rightly to be considered, let alone compared, it is with such arms that he must be equipped. And even then he must still approach with a humble and thirsting spirit.⁶"

Only an emphasis on English or Spanish can be added to Zwingli's enthusiasm, perhaps to the de-emphasis of the Latin. On English because of the persistent attack of the modernists on the authenticity and superiority of the King James Bible, because the extensive study tools available for English Bible study, and because of the great care of God to preserve verbal plenary inspiration in the Authorized Version of the Bible. On Spanish because of the power of the Spanish language which parallels the Greek form, (while the English parallels the Hebrew form) and also because of the current lack of an accurate Spanish Bible⁷. Because modernist's critical errors have invaded every Spanish Bible, and every modern English Bible, the studies of the original languages and the original texts is the more vital. The hypercritical Nestle Aland Greek text which mirrors the inflammatory critical Greek work of Bishop Westcott and Professor Hort also needs to be exposed for the gnostic Alexandrian work that it is. This will be done by Bible Believers who know and trust the real Words of God in the languages they were given in.

The Linguistic Advantage

In defending the doctrines and Words of God the use of the Greek and the Hebrew has always been of paramount importance and value. Those gifted in the languages are always better equip to refute the apostasy of the day whether it be the gnostics of 2^nd and 3^rd century, the errant Augustinian theology of the 4^th through 15^th or the modernist and universalist of these last 4. Notice the strong reliance on the languages used by champions of the truth who are contending for the faith today.

In his book “The Lord God Hath Spoken”, “Introduction: Inerrancy and the Text of the KJV”, Dr. Strause uses his excellent Greek background to point out 3 powerful errors of the Critical Text:

“The CT is laden with major philosophical difficulty; its Greek text records at least three errors which in turn undermines the doctrine of inerrancy.

“The first error is a historical error. In Matt. 1:7, 10, the CT opts for an erroneous reading which substitutes for the two kings of Asa and Amon in Christ's kingly lineage the psalmist Asaph and the prophet Amos. Metzger speaks for the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (UBSGNT) committee, initially emphasizing their apostasy. He unashamedly declares, “Since, however, the evangelist may have derived material for the genealogy, not from the Old Testament directly, but from subsequent genealogical lists, in which the erroneous spelling occurred, the Committee saw no reason to adopt what appears to be a scribal emendation [Asa and Amon].⁸”

“The second error is a scientific error. In Luke 23:45, the CT uses the variant eklipontos, “was eclipsed,” instead of the TR reading eskotisthe, “was darkened.” It would have been a scientific impossibility for the sun to have been eclipsed during the Passover since the moon was full.

“The third error contradicts Christ. In John 7:8, the Lord Jesus states that He is not going to the feast and then He goes to the feast. The CT uses the negatice ouk, “not,” instead of the TR reading oupo, “not yet.” Jesus obviously was stating that he was “not yet” going to the feast.

“These three errors, a historical error, a scientific error and a Christ-contradicting error, demonstrate that the textual critics of the Greek edition have a very low view of inspiration and inerrancy, and they also prove that they cannot be trusted with God's inerrant Word. ... the TR is superior textually to the CT and MajT.⁹”

There is little question here of the power of Dr. Strauses arguments against the Critical Greek apostate text. The insight is that his extensive knowledge of the Greek language is the empowerment of the argument.

When defending God's accuracy in a 7 day creation account it is often a clarification of the very words of God in the Hebrew language that is most powerful, and most maligned by the infidels. This could be illustrated by the arguments of the late Dr. Morris of the Creation institute, but perhaps closer to home with an independent fundamentalist, Arv Edgeworth, defending truth, and contending for the faith, puts out a truth and science newsletter and in his March 2008 letter he writes this defense:

“As a follow-up to my last newsletter, I would like to add a few more comments concerning Genesis 1:1. Several pastors have contacted me about the dual ending to “shamayim,” translated “heaven” singular in the KJB. Some believe it should be “heavens” plural because of the ending. This same word is translated “heaven” singular over 225 times, even in the modern versions, just not in Genesis 1:1. There are a number of verses where it is translated singular and plural in the same verse (Deut. 10:14; Psalm 115:16; Isa 34:4, etc.) There are times when it is actually translated plural in the KJB, but singular in modern versions (2 Chron. 6:25 for example).¹⁰”

Arv could have argued his truth without going to a working knowledge of the Hebrew language, just because he stoutly believes in the translation work done by 47 genius scholars in 1611, but his clearer presentation against skeptics who think themselves scholars of the Hebrew language, is better attained with this working knowledge of Hebrew. When the gainsayers of the truth know the languages, the defenders of the truth need to know it better.

The false cults and isms are using the current ignorance of the languages to twist the Word of God and promote their own disbelief. In a recent encounter with a charismatic dismissing the rapture of the Church, he insisted that “in the Greek, 'en nefelaiv' does not really mean in the clouds, and 'eiv aera' does not really mean 'in the air'.” A good trust in the the King James translators would certainly keep one from his error, but it did not refute his error. The realization that there was another present who knew Greek, completely overwhelmed his false and shallow accusation. Charismatics and JWs both try for this false appeal to the languages. A recent letter received from a missionary asked for some help in Greek and read as follows:

A Jehova's (false) witness was talking to a lady my wife has been working with. He had a copy of a page of a Greek/Spanish interlinear Bible. The page was the first chapter + of the Gospel of John, but specifically for v. 1. He was using it to show this lady that when the NT refers to Jehova God, it uses theoV and when it refers to "the Word was God" that that "God" is theoS and shouldn't be capitalized (attacking Christ's Deity). I don't find any reference of this in my Strong's--in English or in Spanish. Admittedly, he did not know from what Greek text his copied page was from. Is this something from the Nestle's text (isn't that the false one used a lot today?) I know that this JW is wrong, but I want to prove it to this lady Biblically--and I think she doesn't believe him. I also don't find this theov word in the concordance. Is this even a word in Greek? Any info would be a help. Thanks

This JW onslaught against truth cannot be remedied with the use of a Strong's concordance and its Greek dictionary; it requires a working knowledge of the Greek language. Even a 'C' student in Greek will find great value in this rudimentary linguistic expertise. There is a need for Pastors and Missionaries who have completed at least a year of Greek and Hebrew, and some upcoming Dr. Waites and Dr. Strouses, strong independent fundamental Baptists, who can hold their own amongst scholarly modernists and mislead Critical Text evangelicals are ever needed..

Scholarship Advantage

When considering what our Greek and Hebrew Bible has already been through it is negligent to abandon them in their original languages just because one has an equivalent in accuracy in the English language. The remarkable accuracy and preservation of our Bible is elaborated eloquently here by Dr. Paisley:

“When one thinks that the Bible has been copied during thirty centuries, as no book of man has ever been, or ever will be; that it was subjected to all the catastrophes and all the captivities of Israel; that it was transported seventy years to Babylon; that it has seen itself so often persecuted, or forgotten, or interdicted, or burnt, from the days of the Philistines to those of the Seleucidæ; -when one thinks that, since the time of Jesus Christ, it has had to traverse the first three centuries of the imperial persecutions, when persons found in possession of the holy books were thrown to the wild beasts; next the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries, when false hooks, false legends, and false decretals, were everywhere multiplied; the 10th century, when so few could read, even among princes; the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, when the use of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue was punished with death, and when the books of the ancient fathers were mutilated, when so many ancient traditions were garbled and falsified, even to the very acts of the emperors, and to those of the councils; - then we can perceive how necessary it was that the providence of God should have always put forth its mighty power, in order that, on the one hand, the Church of thee Jews should give us, in its integrity, that Word which records its revolts, which predicts its ruin, which describes Jesus Christ; and, on the other, that the Christian Churches (the most powerful of which, and the Roman sect in particular, interdicted the people from reading the sacred books, and substituted in so many ways the traditions of the middle ages for the Word of God) should nevertheless transmit to us, in all their purity, those Scriptures, which condemn all their traditions, their images, their dead languages, their absolution; their celibacy; which say, that Rome would be the seat of a terrible apostasy, where “the Man of Sin would be seen sitting as God in the temple of God, waging war on the saints, forbidding to marry, and to use meats which God hind created;” which say of images, “Thou shalt not bow down to them” - of unknown tongues, “Thou shalt not use them” - of the cup, “Drink ye all of it” - of the Virgin, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” - and of marriage, “It is honourable in all.¹¹”

“Now, although all the libraries in which ancient copies of the sacred books may be found, have been called upon to give their testimony; although the elucidations given by the fathers of all ages have been studied; although the Arabic, Syriac, Latin, Armenian, and Ethiopian versions leave been collated; although all the manuscripts of all countries and ages, from the third to the sixteenth century, have been collected and examined a thousand times over, by countless critics, who have eagerly sought out some new text, as the recompense and the glory of their wearisome watchings; although learned men, not content with the libraries of the West, have visited those of Russia, and carried their researches into the monasteries of Mont Athos, Turkish Asia, and Egypt, there to look for new instruments of the sacred text; - “Nothing has been discovered,” says a learned person, already quoted, “not even a single reading, that could throw doubt on any one of the passages before considered as certain. All the variantes, almost without exception, leave untouched the essential ideas of each phrase, and bear only on points of secondary importance;” such as the insertion or the omission of an adjective or a conjunction, the position of an adjective before or after its substantive, the greater or less exactness of a grammatical construction.

The continued accurate preservation of the Scriptures, in a day of the accurately printed page and computer distributions, is not likely dependent on a few independent fundamental Baptist preachers learning the Greek and Hebrew languages. But a Baptist appreciation of what is now available, and an articulated defense of these old paths might very well depend on such training. Landmark should have a Greek and Hebrew department because they have already proved consistent at sticking with the old paths concerning plenary inspiration, inerrancy, infallibility, and preservation of Scripture. The training in Greek delivered from Baptist Bible College and Seminary (BBS), Clarke Summit PA, was truly superb linguistically, but was pervasive in its attack of the TR, demand for the CT, and attitude that any first year Greek student could improve on the Authorized Version's translation. The bias was sickening and diabolical.

Landmark College could also easily install a directed studies Greek and Hebrew language curriculum to support hundreds of language hungry Baptist pastors and missionaries. The Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) says of their virtual Greek/Hebrew Online study programs:

“RTS Virtual's Approach to Languages: Our biblical language courses offer many advantages to students.

* Become a better student and teacher of the Scriptures with a solid grasp of the original languages ... The Virtual Campus approach to teaching language uses textbooks and online material, practice exercises and exams, and online interaction with our instructors via web-conferencing. Students and professors from the RTS residential campuses agree that online language instruction can be just as effective as learning in a traditional classroom setting.¹²”

Such an online Greek and Hebrew capability is sorely needed amongst those who believe in the Bible as Dr. Carter does. Such a bold move is today required in fundamentalist circles who must get their linguistic training from compromised sources such as RTS, BBS, (above) or perhaps other non Baptists like Pensacola Christina College, or even stooping so low as to take languages from BJU.

Conclusion

The importance and need for Bible believing Baptists to learn the languages of God's word cannot be overemphasized. Learning any linguistics is a valuable tool to good communication and understanding, but learning the Greek and Hebrew of the Bible is essential to those who would effectively contend for the faith in this day. When the very words of God are continually under attack, the importance of referencing the very words that God used is essential. The insight into the accuracy, the plenary inspiration, the infallibility, the inerrancy and the preservation, that one can receive in the carefully directed study these languages is paramount. If there are not a few independent fundamental Baptist who will become expert, a staunch KJV only Baptist college that will undertake it's promotion, and the Holy Spirit of God that will intercede in our learning of Greek and Hebrew, fundamentalism may well go down the compromised evangelical trail of BJU.

NOTES

4 Daystar Publishing Manuscript Review Comments “If the AV1611 is the perfect, preserved word of God, there is no need 'to go to the Greek' – the author repeatedly 'goes to the Greek'. Does he really believe the Book?... We believe in the superiority of the King James and see no value in one man's limited opinion of the proper Greek translation against those of 47 men of much higher qualifications. This is not meant as an insult. We simple know that five different men can come up with five different changes to the King James using the SAME process in the SAME passage so we simply accept what was given in 1611. Thus, I fear that no matter what changes you may make to your manuscript it is most likely going to be rejected again. Nothing personal, just a different view of the Book....” Dr. Samuel C. Gipp, Ph. D. 2/10/007

6 Huldrych Zwingli, "On the Education of Youth" in Zwingli and Bullinger, The Library of Christian Classics: Ichthus Edition,

7 The RVG just released seems a highly commended solution to this dilemma, see www.rices4peru.com

8 B.M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary of the Greek New Testament (London: United Bible Societies, 1975), p.1. as quoted by Dr. Strouse, in “The Lord God Hath Spoken” p 17

10 Arv Edgeworth <aedgeworth@comcast.net> , Truth and Science Newsletter, Wed , 26 March, 2008, www.truthandscience.net, accessed March 2008

11 Gaussen, L, D.D., “THEOPNEUSTIA: THE PLENARY INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES” pp 170-171

12 http://virtual.rts.edu/site/virtual/promo/study_greek_hebrew_online.asp last accessed 04/01/08

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Edgeworth, Arv, “Truth and Science Newsletter”, Wed , 26 March, 2008, www.truthandscience.net, accessed March 2008

Gaussen, L. D.D., Theopneustia: The Plenary Inspiration of The Holy Scriptures, Converted to pdf format by Robert I Bradshaw, August 2004. http://www.biblcalstudies.org.uk Accessed Dec 2007.

Metzger, B.M., “A Textual Commentary of the Greek New Testament” (London: United Bible Societies, 1975)

Waite, Pastor D.A., Th.D., Ph.D., “Defending the King James Bible”, 3^rd Edition, The Bible for Today Press, Collingswood NJ

Zwingli, Huldrych, "On the Education of Youth" in Zwingli and Bullinger, The Library of Christian Classics: Ichthus Edition,

4Daystar Publishing Manuscript Review Comments “If the AV1611 is the perfect, preserved word of God, there is no need 'to go to the Greek' – the author repeatedly 'goes to the Greek'. Does he really believe the Book?... We believe in the superiority of the King James and see no value in one man's limited opinion of the proper Greek translation against those of 47 men of much higher qualifications. This is not meant as an insult. We simple know that five different men can come up with five different changes to the King James using the SAME process in the SAME passage so we simply accept what was given in 1611. Thus, I fear that no matter what changes you may make to your manuscript it is most likely going to be rejected again. Nothing personal, just a different view of the Book....” Dr. Samuel C. Gipp, Ph. D. 2/10/007

8B.M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary of the Greek New Testament (London: United Bible Societies, 1975), p.1. as quoted by Dr. Strouse, in “The Lord God Hath Spoken” p 17

10Arv Edgeworth <aedgeworth@comcast.net> , Truth and Science Newsletter, Wed , 26 March, 2008, www.truthandscience.net, accessed March 2008