Encouragement to dig: Koine Greek

I am writing this article to encourage people to dig into the original Greek text of the New Testament. This is not modern Greek, but Koine Greek, the "common" = "κοινη" Greek language that came about as a result of the massive conquests of the Greek empire under Alexander the Great in 336-323 BC, and remained a common language for roughly another six to seven centuries, until the mid-300's AD.

More than occasionally, this is very helpful in gaining insight into exactly what the text of the Word of God says, as well as clearing up misunderstandings that come from simple limitations in translation. It isn't possible in every instance to have a perfect translation; sometimes no corresponding word exists in the target language, or the grammar doesn't have a one to one correspondence.

Let's start with an attitude check: If you are one of those people who scorns the idea that anybody should have to go into the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek to read and study the Bible, and think that anybody who does so is being over-analytical, presumptuous, or whatever, then you have, in principle, just eliminated all translations of the Bible, because a translation can't even exist without someone going into the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts and translating it! By reading a translation, you therefore implicitly endorse someone diligently digging into every word and phrase of the original language to translate it.

Or, if you are one of those people who think that such a thing would be too complicated, or beyond your mental abilities, let me assure you that Koine Greek is much simpler, less ambiguous, and less loaded with variations, exceptions, and idiosyncrasies than, especially, the English language. In fact, Greek is easy, besides the fact that it is just another language. If you can manage to learn English, you shouldn't have a problem with Koine Greek, in particular. At about 40 words per page and about 800 pages, I would estimate that my my small, compact, paperback American Heritage Dictionary has about 32,000 English word definitions. The Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, is cited as having 171,476 English words. Yet James Strong's Concordance lists only 5415 Greek words in the New Testament. Charles Van der Pool supplemented this with some more, but not many more, to cover the corresponding Koine Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, even though the Old Testament is about four times the size of the New Testament. By contrast, the Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek-English Lexicon, which covers all classical Greek literature, lists 119553 entries. This shows the simplicity of the Koine Greek New Testament scriptures as compared with all other Greek literature.

Combined with the Koine Greek grammar, it is far simpler, more explicit, and more concise than English, with all the English variables, exceptions, and nuances. The Koine Greek is what linguists would describe as a "fusional" "synthetic" language, which largely combines morphemes (the smallest unit of meaning in a language), "synthesizing" words by "fusing" the morphemes together. In addition, it has a rigid system of declension and verb conjugation (i.e. the inflections at the end of the words that define case, tense, person, number, etc.), making it much more specific and explicit than English. Many words are compounds which "fuse" simpler words and morphemes, including ad hoc constructions by the authors. So, the "5415" Strong's entries is already a number that is much greater than the number of words that you would actually need to understand the meaning of.

Koine Greek itself ("koine" means "common" in Greek) was the Greek that was commonized as a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great of the Greek Empire in the 4th century BC. It became the lingua franca (a language systematically accepted) in the whole geographical region of interest (Middle East, Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, near-Asia), so was explicit and unambiguous, for the sake of commerce and so on. That remained so for about 6-7 centuries, with the New Testament scriptures falling squarely in the middle of that time period. It actually lacks the literary expressiveness of other forms of Greek that coexisted and which were used by the literary elite for philosophy, fiction, poetry, drama, and so on, because it was the language of the common man, for common business purposes and clear, unambiguous communication across the region.

Although no language follows a completely rigid set of definitions and algorithm, as we have created in the sciences and in engineering, computer programming languages being a good example (being a career computer engineer, I know this well), still, Koine Greek is very straightforward, unambiguious, and explicit, especially when compared to English. You've heard the colloquialism, "It's all Greek to me." That's really an unfair statement. You should rather say, with that kind of resignation, "It's all English to me." It is amazing to see God's providence in the Koine Greek language, such that the common man can easily and unambiguously understand the scriptures at face value.

The Koine Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament Hebrew in the second century BC was the main translation of the common people during New Testament times, and is most often what is quoted in the New Testament, especially by the apostle Paul, since he was apostle to the Gentiles, many of whom did not read or speak Hebrew. The Old Testament Hebrew was limited to those who learned it in the synagogues, mainly Jews and Hebrew scholars. The people in the geographical areas in and around Judea and Samaria spoke Aramaic, ever since the historic conquest and exile of Israel/Samaria by the Assyrians, and the conquest and exile of Judah by the Babylonians, both hundreds of years before New Testament times.

The beauty of the Koine Greek is therefore that it lends itself to a mostly mechanical approach to translation, so that we are afforded a minimal dependence on scholars and their scholarship.

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, the next question is whether all the translations are indeed good enough. Well, obviously, they are almost completely good enough, because we are all doing quite well with them, with very few issues or controversies. And you can compare one to another and see that they say pretty much the same thing. However, in a few cases where things don't sound quite right, or where there is controversy over the meaning of something, and the context still doesn't make it clear, and you hear the sound of sacred cows mooing, then there is good reason to look back at the original text to see what it precisely says.

Some people in these cases instead turn to comparing translation after translation, someone's highly recommended paraphrase, or commentaries, "study Bibles," and such. But if there is an inconsistency, then you are just searching out and comparing men's opinions at this point. You would do better to look into what the original writer wrote and decide for yourself.

I have seen countless cases of preachers, teachers, writers, and others, even in prominent positions of leadership, zoom into a small English phrase or even a word in an English translation and make profound statements concerning doctrine and practice based upon that translated snippet. Then, I have looked it up in the original text and found out that they were basing their point on a fallacy, because the English was ambiguous or not quite true to the original.

In a funny example of this, more than once I have heard an exposition of Matt 24:12, where the KJV says "...the love of many shall wax cold," where they launch into a discussion about wax and candle making and such, how it applies to people becoming callous of heart. But neither the word "wax" nor anything like it is even in the original text! It was simply the case of an archaic English use of the word "wax" some four hundred years ago.

Keep in mind that it is a universal rule among all orthodox Christian groups that only the original manuscripts in the original languages written by the original authors are God-breathed and infallible. The translations, as good as most of them are, are not infallible.

Nor is it even possible to have a perfect translation. Again, sometimes no corresponding word exists in the target language, or the grammar doesn't have a one to one correspondence." What is the translator to do? Well, he does the best he feels he can. There is just no such thing as a "word for word, literal translation," one that is completely "faithful to the original text." It is just not possible. Then the devil, who is the author of confusion, can step in and capitalize on the fact that the translation doesn't exactly say or express what the original does, and create a tradition of man based on a simple language ambiguity that exists in the target language, not the original.

Then the next question that comes up is about who is qualified to look at the original text. Some have the idea that you need to be a professional scholar who has graduated with a doctorate from an accredited university or theological seminary.

But let's think about this. While it is true that you are expected to have a degree in mechanical engineering to design an automobile, or comprehensive technical vocational training and credentials to run an automobile repair shop, you don't need any of those credentials to work on your own car, or your friend's car, for that matter. And you can you do a perfectly good job if you look up the information, get the right tools, and put your mind and diligence to the task.

So then, if I am going to purchase a complete Bible translation, I would like to know that the translators have the schooling, credentials, and experience to do the whole job. After all, I'm going to read the translation with the assumption that it's going to be accurate, by and large. Just as you buy an automobile and assume that everything is going to work when you drive it out of the dealership, because those who made it are assumed to be expertly competent.

However, even "experts" can be wrong or make mistakes. Your automobile may be subject to a major recall when it is discovered that something wasn't designed correctly, or some defective parts made their way into production.

If I just want to find out what a small phrase of the Bible means, then I ought to be able to look into it myself and figure it out. I might also "ask Garth," or someone like that, who's accumulated more experience "working on cars," so to speak, than I, while making sure to check to see if what "Garth" says makes sense. After all, "Garth" was a career professional "electrical/computer engineer," not a career professional Greek scholar and Bible translator, right? [Note: I am using a hypothetical illustration; I actually have very little experience with cars. Please don't call me about your car problem.]

Just as any of you can look up a particular car problem on the web, or buy a service manual, and fix any particular thing, or seek to understand how any particular thing works, for yourself, so it is with the Bible. It may take you far longer than the "experts," and you may not be able to design a car or run an automobile repair shop, but you can do any particular task if you put your mind to it. You've got the same brain as anyone else. It may take longer, and you may not make a career out of it, but you can accomplish the task with some digging for yourself and the right tools.

Koine Greek is easier than working on your car. There is one lexicon (the collection of root words) and one grammar (the mechanics of inflecting them and putting them together to convey the language). It is as if there was only one automobile service manual and one set of parts and tools for "a car," or that we were considering only one make/model of "car."

What I'm trying to persuade people to do is look into the original text for themselves. This has become quite a lot easier in the last decade or so, with all the online resources and computer software that you can run on your desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or smart phone, a lot of it free.

Even in the secular world, due to the information, resources, and tools now available, people are taking more and more responsibility for informed decision making. Medical and other health care options, legal matters, financial investment options, the purchase of specialized products, and many other things are being researched by individual consumers, rather than just relying on a "professional expert" to make the decision for them.

Here's what I'm seeing: Many of us are concerned with getting back to the Bible, reading every word, believing every word, understanding who we are in Christ, and doing what the Word says. But the written Word was not written in English; it was written in Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek. So, to go back to the source, you really have to go back to the original languages. Many "sacred cows" feed on English translational ambiguities. Often you can destroy them just by wielding the weapon of the original text. For example, I did this with traditions associated with "gifts of the Spirit", "prayer", and "church," to name a few of the many articles I have now written clarifying Bible issues that have been muddied by traditional English language translation issues and doctrinal bias.

Most Bible translators are part of the mainstream institutions of religion and are schooled in many traditions of men. It should come as no surprise that Bible translations carry a little bit of bias or neglect here and there corresponding to that. I say "a little bit," because the way that the accuracy of God's Word has been preserved, even through translations, and even despite the agendas and failings of men, is truly amazing. From the Bishops' Bible based KJV of the oppressive, Anglican Catholic Church of England with its pope-like head-of-church monarch kings, to the modern translations with their liberal, ecumenical, compromising theologians, to even the NWT of the Jehovah's Witnesses, who represent a complete counterfeit of the Christian faith, it is truly amazing how clear, concise, and unambiguous the translations still are despite it all, equipping the seeker of truth to understand and do the work of the gospel.

That is not to say that one translation is as good as another, or that there aren't better or worse translations out there (I would certainly never recommend the NWT!). However, if we want to really want to get back to "reading every word and believing every word," then we should be willing to undertake to examine the original words and the original grammar, and not blindly trust that the words and rendering of any particular translation or translator is infallible. If you are in a position of teaching and leadership, then it is definitely your responsibility to have a working knowledge of the original scriptures, at least in that you have the tools to translate any scripture for yourself.

The sufficiency of studying the original language

Every language consists of a "lexicon," which is a list of all the root words in the language, and a "grammar," which is the set of rules by which these words are inflected and arranged to convey thoughts.

We say that "all scripture is God-breathed" (2 Tim 3:16). There are some who say that you need to study historical culture and contexts, the writings of "early church fathers," and so on, to fully understand the scriptures. But this is not what the scriptures say, nor is it reasonable.

This is not what the scriptures say, because 2 Tim 3:16 says "All scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." It does not say "all scripture, understood in the light of [insert extra-biblical references]..."

Nor is it reasonable, because then the extra-biblical references would have to be either called out or included in the canon of the Bible, and the Bible would be restricted to those scholars who studied and understood ancient history and culture. Once again, understanding the scriptures would be relegated and restricted to the elite.

Now, this does not mean that history and cultural understanding are not helpful. It is just that they are not required. And sometimes they can be distractions.

Take the "camel through the eye of a needle" illustration of Jesus in Matt 19:23-26, Mark 10:24-25, and Luke 18:24-25. Jesus said that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." Now, some have pointed out that the "eye of the needle" was a gate in Jerusalem, which would allow a person to go through to find refuge in the city at any hour of the day or night, but was not big enough for him to take his camel loaded with all his baggage and worldly possessions. That is very interesting. It adds historical context, culture, and a picture to Jesus' illustration. On the other hand, that story seems to to have originated at least 800 years, perhaps as late as even 1400 years after the time of Christ, with no ancient evidence that such a gate in Jerusalem ever existed in the first place! And if it never existed, then we are left with Jesus' words. But Jesus' words are good enough!

The scriptures are sufficient. We just need to translate them.

When you see an English word in a Bible translation, one thing you will want to do is find out what the corresponding Greek word is. Then you can look it up in a Greek dictionary to find out what it means.

Additionally, if the word is repeatedly used in the New Testament, you can use a concordance or computer search tool to find out all the places it is used. This will teach you what it means from multiply different contexts.

This second way of researching the meaning is often overlooked, but it is potentially more powerful, because it is the way you learned your first, best, and strongest language, not in a college or seminary, but when you were 2 years old, identifying and associating words in contexts to learn the meanings.

The next thing is the grammar, which consists of the rules about how a series of words are put together to convey a collective thought. This is systematic and fairly mechanical.

Here you need to get an interlinear or other tool that shows the grammatical parsing. Obviously, you need to brush up on your grammar facts (starting with the English grammar that you learned in school!) and learn a few additional grammatical terms associated with the Koine Greek language that do not apply to the English language.

Once you look up the word definitions and the grammar of a scripture passage, then you will find out what the passage is meaning to say, even if it can't exactly be translated into English using exact English words and proper English grammar. But be careful that you don't read the original with an English language mindset!

In addition to the lexicon and grammar, there are differences in how thoughts are expressed. But they will be obvious. For example, the Greek word αυτος, from which we get the English prefix "auto," meant "same" or "self," just as it now does in the English word prefixes ("autobiography," "automobile," "automatic," etc.). But Greek has no third person personal pronoun. So, where we would use the third person pronoun, they use αυτος, "same." For example, back then I would have said "If a man studies the scriptures diligently, the same will be blessed." This would more naturally be rendered in English as "If a man studies the scriptures diligently, he will be blessed."

Another example would be the Koine Greek scripture's repeated reference to "the God." Okay, let me, for just the duration of this paragraph, not automatically capitalize "God," or rather, "god," and try this again. You'll see why shortly: Another example would be the Koine Greek scripture's repeated reference to "the god." Why the definite article "the" before "god" in the Koine Greek scriptures? This is actually yet another anomaly in the English language and modern cultural/religious tradition, not Koine Greek! As an illustration, if I said I had "a cat" for a house pet, that would be using the indefinite article "a." Then I could refer to "the cat" in conversation, using the definite article "the" to refer to that specific cat that I had already referenced, not any unspecific cat. But if I just talked about "cat" it would not make sense, unless "cat" was the cat's actual name or title, in which I would capitalize it and refer to it as "Cat" (grammatically, a "proper noun"). In our culture we refer to "God" with a capital "G" in English, which is a name/title. We have given "the god of Abraham/Isaac/Jacob" a name and title, "God." But the name/title of the god of Abraham/Isaac/Jacob in the Hebrew scriptures is יהוה (the "tetragrammaton" YHWH, usually pronounced "Yahweh," or the more customary English version, "Jehovah"). So, now you should be beginning to see that the Koine Greek scriptures are actually dealing with it in a more logical, grammatical fashion, whereas it is an idiosyncrasy in English and modern usage. There are many "gods" referred to in scripture, but they are talking about "the god" of Abraham/Isaac/Jacob, who created the universe, whose name and/or title was not "God."

Like many other things, you learn by doing. So, just step out in faith and do it!

Koine Greek verb grammar issues:

The biggest issue I see facing us is not word definitions, but verb forms. I've found this to be one of the biggest stumbling blocks, because the set of verb forms in Koine Greek don't have a one to one correspondence to the set of verb forms in English.

Here are a couple of charts to illustrate the difference, comparing the English verb "loose" with the corresponding Greek verb "_λυ__" ("_lu__"), in all their respective verb conjugations:

https://www.wiebefamily.org/English-Greek_verbcharts.htm

As you can see, the Greek has a set of verb forms, and the English has a set of verb forms. They don't completely match.

If it was the case that we were translating from English into Koine Greek, we would have trouble making a distinction between the simple and continuous (progressive) forms, perfect vs. past, and so on. I would not be able to easily say "I will have done this" in Koine Greek, for example, because there is no future perfect tense in Koine Greek.

But our problem isn't communicating English writings to Koine Greek readers. Our problem is Koine Greek being communicated to us as English readers.

The biggest single disconnect comes with the Koine Greek aorist tense.

Bible issues often come up about when something was accomplished, past, present, or future, when reading the English translations. In the New Testament teaching of the new man, we learn about believing God's word as truth, as fact, and understanding who we are in Christ, as truth, as fact, the promises that simply apply to us as believers, without action on our part to accomplish them.

The good news is that Koine Greek can communicate this beautifully. The bad news is that English cannot.

The biggest missing piece in English is the aorist tense. It is all over the New Testament Koine Greek, the most fundamental of Greek tenses, so it is really important to understand it.

The Koine Greek indefinite, aorist verb tense specifies fact rather than act, what timelessly and indefinitely just "is" rather than something happening on a timeline. Nor does it communicate anything about the completion of an action. We don't have an explicit way of writing that verb tense in English, either with verb endings (-s, -ed, -ing, etc.) or with helper verbs (has-, will-, etc.) So, we can't translate it very easily, or at least not unambiguously. But it conveys that something just is, or that it has happened or happens as a matter of "fact," without trying to communicate when, or whether it is completed. Even if the verb represents an action, the aorist communicates the fact of the action, rather than the time that the action occurred or its completion. Context and lexical verb meaning then make the usage obvious.

If I were to say "I play the piano," then according to the rules of English grammar, that would be a simple present tense. But if I tell you "I play the piano" while I am sitting at the computer typing at a computer keyboard, or while we are somewhere just having a conversation about music, you would implicitly understand it as the aorist, that "I am a piano player," as a matter of fact, not action on a time line.

In English, you need context to understand the difference between English simple present tense "I play the piano" and the implied aorist "I play the piano." In Koine Greek, you don't, because it is explicitly spelled a certain way to denote it.

Or, if in English you say "My boss says I can't be late to work," then the verb "says" in that sentence may be English present tense according to the rules of English grammar, but it's not really either past, present, or future tense. I don't assume that your boss is literally "saying" anything right now. We don't even know where he is. Maybe he is taking a nap right now and isn't even awake. Nor are you trying to convey to me "when" he said it. It is a statement of fact that you are conveying to me, that according to the declaration of your boss you must not be late for work.

Take 1 John 1:9, for example. See 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins" analysis. This snippet of scripture communicates that if we are acknowledging that we have sinned, then pardon and cleansing apply to us. But I have to paraphrase it, as I just did, to communicate it. I cannot translate it. If I try to translate it using English verb grammar, then there will be a question about "when" we get pardoned and cleansed, and then people start thinking that we have to "confess" something to somebody to get it. In the extreme, you end up at the confessional in front of a Roman Catholic Priest in a Roman Catholic mass. But that's not what the verse means, either grammatically or in the context of what the apostle John wrote.

"Aorist" was the ancient Greeks' definition for the verb tense, and not a modern scholar's definition (see LSJ "ἀόριστ-ος," definition II.3.). The word "aorist" is from Greek α-οριστος, transliterated "a-oristos," where "a" = "without," and "oristos" = "defined boundary." Strong's G3724 ("οριζω") is the verb form used in α-οριζω, transliterated "a-[h]orizo." We get the English transliteration "horizon" from this Greek word (without the "a-"). A "horizon" is a fixed boundary that can be viewed a reference point. "A-orist" has no reference point. It is indefinite.

Many translators routinely translate the aorist as the English present perfect ("has ___-ed") or simple past tense ("___-ed"), because that conveys the sense of something having been accomplished (the "done deal" aspect of it). But this falls very short of the goal.

You see the dilemma. There is no good way to translate it into English. And that is why it is valuable to be able to look at the Greek text and recognize when a verb is rendered in the aorist.

The aorist tense is actually very prevalent in the New Testament scriptures, mainly because it is the normal way stories are told.

Consider the following two accounts in modern English:

"I went to the store and noticed a man there who looked lost. I asked him what the problem was. He said that he needed some money to buy some food. I gave him some money, and he said, 'Wow! Thanks!'"

"So, I go to the store, and I notice a man there who looks lost. So, I ask him what the problem is, and he says he needs money to buy some food. So, I give him some money, and he says, 'Wow! Thanks!'"

Notice that in the second account I appear to be using English simple present tense for all the verbs. But the listener would understand that it all happened in the past. The reason I might choose to communicate it the second way is because I am less interested in reciting a historical account, and more interested in conveying the facts of the events.

In the New Testament Greek, the second way is the normal way of telling a story or recounting a series of events in the past. But you see that it isn't a matter of describing when the action or events occurred. We all know that they happened as a sequence of events in the past. The Koine aorist is simply used to express the events as a series of "facts."

Now, all that said, there is another matter contributing to some confusion, and that is that in modern Greek the aorist tense is normally used as equivalent to the simple past tense. But now we are considering the Greek language 2000 years later. It may have evolved to that, due to centuries of Latin and European language influence, but it wasn't that way originally. 2000 years is a long time for language to evolve. Consider the English text of the King James Version of the Bible, to see how English has changed in just a few hundred years. In fact, the popular "KJV" is actually the 1769 "Oxford" edition/revision by Benjamin Blayney, which was based on the "Cambridge" edition by Francis Sawyer Parris (1760), and includes some 24,000 changes and corrections to the original 1611 King James Bible, mostly to update the archaic language and word spellings, to be more understandable to those reading the Bible in the 18th century. If you were to get a hold of a copy of the 1611 King James Bible, which is 400 years old, then you would find it even harder to read. William Tyndale's English translation of the 1530's is even more awkward, and John Wycliffe's English translation of the 1380's even more so. So, why would we consider using the modern Greek language as any kind of reference point?

There is another unfortunate issue that comes into play here, and that is that the reformation-era English translators did not really know Koine Greek very well, as it is now better understood. If they were educated, they did learn and know Latin, and they had the Latin Vulgate translation of the scriptures. But Latin doesn't have an aorist tense, either. So, they read the Koine Greek with their Latin/English grammatical understanding, and created the first English translations accordingly. These early English translations formed a strong tradition of those to follow, with translators continuing to mentally grasp at Latin/English grammatical paradigms. And again, if the reformation-era translators studied what was then "modern" Greek, either through the contemporary Greek literature of the day, or by traveling to Greece, they would have been exposing themselves to the the beginnings of the same modern Greek of today, which replaced Medieval/Byzantine Greek, which replaced Koine Greek.

All this serves as an explanation for why it is not uncommon for Greek professors to instruct Bible translators to just render the Greek aorist in English simple past tense as a default (and then make up horribly complicated rules and formulas about when not to). The New Testament is full of stories told in the aorist, and those stories were testimonies of past, completed events. It flows most naturally in English to recite these narrations in the past tense, as is proper in English. And the modern Greeks do use aorist verb conjugation to express past tense. However, if you look into it, you will find that there is inconsistency and debate among scholars about how best to translate the aorist tense from biblical Greek. Rendering the Koine Greek aorist as English past tense may be an easy way out, but it is sorely lacking.

Yet I have proven many times, internally and contextually, what I am saying here. For example, in 1 Peter 2:24 "fact" not "past tense", I documented that the Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures in use in biblical times (the Septuagint) renders the well-known Isaiah 53:5 verb "heal" as aorist, for which we recite "by his stripes we are healed." It would not make any sense to render that as past tense on a timeline ("by his stripes we were healed"), since Isaiah was writing many hundreds of years before the time of Christ.

In Acts 2:38 "baptism" analysis I quoted Acts 2:38 where the commands by Peter to "repent" and "be baptized" are in the aorist tense (imperative mood). You cannot command anyone to do anything in the past!

In 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins" analysis the aorist verbs "pardon" and "cleanse" cannot be past tense, because they are conditional upon us "avowing our sins" in the present tense!

My favorite illustrative verse, showing the necessity for understanding grammar, and not just word definitions, has become Col 1:23, citing,

"the gospel, which ye have heard, which was preached to every creature which is under heaven" (KJV).

Once you get a hold of this concept, then a lot of scripture that seems awkward or even contradictory in the English because of a perceived "action in time" factor becomes straightforward and simple. The aorist tense just states the fact of something, rather than action in time.

For example, Eph 1 contains a long series of aorists, declaring our state, rather than when a thing happened. They are:

1:3 "bless"
1:4 "choose"
1:5 "predefine"
1:6 "grace"
1:8 "lavish"
1:9 "know-ize"
1:10 "head-up"
1:11 "allot"
1:11 "predefine"
1:13 "hear"
1:13 "believe"
1:13 "seal"
1:15 "hear"
1:20 "operate"
1:20 "rouse"
1:20 "seat"
1:22 "subject"
1:22 "give"

Read the following, thinking "state" rather than "action in time," where I take the NASB'95 text and modify/highlight the aorist verbs: (remember my illustration "I play the piano")

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who bless us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He choose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predefine us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely grace us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavish us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He know-ize us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him

At this point, you can see that the "predestination," "sovereignty of God," Calvinistic sacred cow proof-texting of this just dissolves, because it is based on an English translation deficiency, and not on the actual scripture. The actual scripture in Eph 1 communicates eternal truths that apply to us, without any reference to a timeline.

Or, likewise, take Romans 8:29-30, another favorite of Calvinists. I'll I reword it in the same way to highlight the aorist verbs:

29 For those whom He foreknow, He also predefine to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predefine, He also call; and these whom He call, He also justify; and these whom He justify, He also glorify.

29 For those whom He foreknows, He also predefines to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predefines, He also calls; and these whom He calls, He also justifies; and these whom He justifies, He also glorifies.

One way to re-word the Greek aorist is to paraphrase by changing the aorist verb to a noun form and then preceding it with the English intransitive verb "to be."

For example, "I play the piano" can be paraphrased "I am a piano player." The verb is "am" and the noun is "player." If your boss says that you can't be late to work, we'd say that "your boss's statement is that you can't..." "Says" (verb) becomes a "statement" (noun). In Eph 1, we don't ask "when" God has blessed or is going to bless us, but we say "the blessing of God applies to us." In both Isa 53:5 (Greek Septuagint) and 1 Pet 2:24, "heal" is aorist. So, we say "we are healed" (the nown "healed," not the English present verb tense "are healed," and not English simple past tense "were healed," and not the English present perfect tense "have been healed"). In Rom 8:29, God "has foreknowledge" of us. In 1 John 1:9, "pardon" and "cleansing" are ours (change to the noun form of the verbs "pardon" and "cleanse").

Getting a hold of this is important, for the the New Testament Koine Greek is equipped to elegantly and succinctly describe the revelation and teaching of the new man, which includes many promises of who we are in Christ and where we are positioned. English as a language is not as adequate to do this in translation, and the inadequacy of the language translation can actually be capitalized upon to create sacred cow doctrines.

For example, all the "sovereignty of God" Calvinistic arguments about predestination just dissolve, because the text in Eph 1 or Rom 8 does not say "when," but declare what simply "is" as a fact, without regard to "when." It is only by using the ambiguity of the English language that you can proof-text the sacred cows of modern Calvinism.

Or, for example, 1 John 1:9 does not lead you either to the confessional in a Roman Catholic mass, or to any Protestant substitute for it, such that "if you confess, then God will pardon and cleanse you".

Or, for example, Acts 2:38 commands in the aorist imperative to have a change of mind and instead be in the state of being immersed into pardon of sins, addressing those who were previously immersed into the Law of Moses and were in a state of crucifying Jesus (even if they didn't actually take part in the mob scene in Pilate's court, shouting "crucify him!"). Peter said, "You crucify (aorist) him." They responded, "What should we be doing (present tense)?" Peter responded "Repent (aorist) and let be immersed (aorist) into pardon of sins."

For a more thorough and detailed treatment of the aorist problem, see ERRANT AORIST INTERPRETERS, an article by Charles R. Smith in the Grace Theological Journal 2.2 (Fall 1981), p. 205-226.

Two other verb tenses that can pose problems in translation (though not as much as the aorist tense does) are the perfect and imperfect tenses.

The perfect tense denotes completion of an action. This implies that the action started sometime in the past and is no longer happening in the present. This translates nicely to the English present perfect tense: "has/have + [verb]+ed." In my "play the piano" example, the form would be "I have played the piano."

The imperfect tense, Koine Greek παρατατικος (LSJ "παρατατικός", "paratatikos") denotes an incomplete action. This implies that the action started sometime in the past, but that it did not complete. This presents an ambiguity when translating to English, because either the English past progressive/continuous "was/were + [verb]+ing" or the English present perfect continuous "has/have been [verb]+ing" could be used. In my "play the piano" example, that might be "I was playing the piano" or "I have been playing the piano," respectively. Unfortunately, this too is usually rendered in the English simple past tense.

So, now we have the obvious contradiction that both the Koine Greek aorist tense and the Koine Greek imperfect tense get rendered in the English simple past tense, though they are different, and this despite that the Koine Greek has no "past tense"!

A good example to illustrate the imperfect paradigm (pun intended) is John 1:1

εν αρχη ην ο λογος και ο λογος ην προς τον θεον και θεος ην ο λογος

en arche en ho logos kai ho logos en pros ton theon kai theos en ho logos

in origin was the word and the word was toward the god and god was the word

Also, the last clause "and god was the word" is so awkward that the word order is reversed in every translation to make it sound right in English, even though the verb is intransitive, and could be written that way. Therefore, every translation reads "and the Word was God."

The issue is that the intransitive verb "to be/exist" is in the imperfect tense. So, if we substitute the English past progressive/continuous tense "has been being," it all makes sense:

in origin has been being the word and the word has been being toward the god and god has been being the word

But, alas, this is considered too awkward in English, so translators use "was" and switch the order of "God" and "Word" in the last clause.

The other Koine Greek tenses, the present, future, and pluperfect, map well to the English present, future, and past perfect tenses, respectively, although there is no distinction in the Koine Greek between the simple and progressive/continuous versions of these, as there is in English.

Another issue is not with verb tense, but verb voice.

In English, we have the active voice (acts upon) and the passive voice (is acted upon). In Koine Greek, there is another voice, the middle voice, which means that something acts upon such as to be acted upon. This can be a moot point, a subtle point, or an important point, depending on the word and context used.

For example, in Luke 22:29

καγω διατιθεμαι υμιν καθως διεθετο μοι ο πατηρ μου βασιλειαν

kago diatithemai umin kathos dietheto moi o pater mou basileian

And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.

and-I am-covenanting [present, middle] to-you(plural) as-accordingly the father of-me covenants [aorist, middle] kingdom to me

So, you see that understanding both the verb tenses and the verb voices gives greater meaning to this statement of Jesus, which is a statement about the New Covenant, not merely "appointing" a "kingdom" unto his disciples.

Another issue is with verb mood.

Koine Greek has five moods:

• Indicative: indicates (normal action/fact stated)
• Imperative: "must" (command)
• Subjunctive: "may/should/would" (option/desire/hope/expectation)
• Optative: "might" (remote possibility)
• Infinitive: unspecific, in principle ("to" + verb, same as English)

Another issue is with the imperative mood in the third person.

In English, the imperative mood is always only in the second person. In other words, the one-word sentence, "Go." has the implied pronoun "you" before it: "[You] Go." In English, taking that pronoun away changes it from present indicative ("You go.") to present imperative ("Go.") However, in Koine Greek, the imperative mood is designated by an inflection (verb conjugation) that can also be in the third person, which cannot be translated easily into English: "[He/she/it/they] Go." The best we can do is add the phrase "Let it be...," as in, "Let it be gone." But that isn't quite right, either, because "gone" is not present tense, and the verb "let" is added. So, the bottom line is that you just have to internalize the Koine Greek sense of it. I documented in What is "prayer" according to the scriptures?, that this, in conjunction with the understanding of what the word προσευχη, traditionally translated "prayer" in English, means, adds to the understanding of what has become known as the "Lord's Prayer," for example, with its imperatives in the third person.

The verbal grammar is only one component of understanding the original Koine Greek text, but I have found it to be the most important. By comparison, for example, Koine Greek nouns only have five cases: nominative (subject), accusative (object), genitive (directed from something), dative (directed to something), and vocative (addressing the thing). And there are many other things, as well, that you learn as you go. But again, the additional features simplify things and make the meanings more explicit, rather than more ambiguous, which is much more of a problem in English.

John 3:16 examples in translation history, highlighting verb tenses

Tyndale translated from the original Greek.

The English translations that followed drew heavily upon Tyndale's.

Here is the progression for the often-quoted John 3:16:

"οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλ’ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον"
(John 3:16, NA28 Greek)

• "ηγαπησεν" = aorist "love"
• "εδωκεν" = aorist "give"
• "πιστευων" = present "believe"
• "αποληται" = aorist (middle) "perish"
• "εχη" = present "have"

• "dilexit" = perfect
• "daret" = present
• "credit" = present
• "pereat" = perfect
• "habeat" = present

• "louede" = past
• "ȝaf" = past
• "bileueth" = present
• "perische" = present
• "haue" = present

• "loveth" = present
• "hath geven" = present perfect
• "beleve" = present
• "perisshe" = present
• "have" = present

• "loued" = past
• "hath giuen" = present perfect
• "beleeueth" = present
• "perish" = present
• "haue" = present

• "loued" = past
• "gaue" = past
• "beleeueth" = present
• "perish" = present
• "haue" = present

• "loved" = past
• "gave" = past
• "believeth" = present
• "perish" = present
• "have" = present

"For God so loves the world that He gives His only-begotten Son, that whoever is believing in Him should not perish, but may be having everlasting life."
(John 3:16, my own best attempt)

• "loves" = present (hopefully understood as aorist)
• "gives" = present (hopefully understood as aorist)
• "is believing" = present continuous (cannot be interpreted as aorist)
• "perish" = present (hopefully understood as aorist)
• "having" = "present continuous (cannot be interpreted as aorist)

Here you can see the translation attempts; it cannot be accurately translated, because the aorist cannot be accurately translated, because the English has no aorist verb tense. Yet you can also see that, in the case of this doctrinally important verse, the sense of the truth comes through regardless of which of the above translations you read.

Here's my paraphrase of what is being conveyed:

"Based on God's love for the world, his only-begotten son is given, so that whoever believes in him be not perishable, but have eternal life."
(John 3:16, my paraphrase)

In this case John 3:16 is understandable in each of the translations above, as well as in my paraphrase. That is the case with most scripture, despite the dilemma of the aorist tense, which is technically impossible to translate. But there are a few places where the English is not well enough defined to be clear. Yet even if it is "close enough," you will get an even clearer, more intimate idea of the thought conveyed if you look it up in the original Greek.

This may all seem awkward and a bit complicated at first, especially if you have forgotten even your English verb grammar that you learned in school, but once you get a hold of it, the scriptures become clearer and more simple in so many cases, instead of occasionally awkward, and sometimes even vexing.

It is important to keep in mind that English is not the language that defines the standard by which all other languages, including ancient languages that predated English, are to be judged! Let Koine Greek be Koine Greek, and understand the scriptures as the writer expressed them in his original language. Then, after that, see about translating into English, if need be. Don't make the mistake, as even many scholars have, of first analyzing the Greek text in light of English language (or perhaps Latin) paradigms, then translating into a corresponding English rendering, then supposing that the original text can be understood by that English rendering and its associated English language (or Latin) paradigm.

The pitfalls of relying on "scholarly" expositors, Thayer's, Vine's, etc.

Here is an example where I documented how one can be led astray by "scholarly" expositors. No one is above being challenged, and some cases it requires alertness and a measure of critical thinking skills, as my following article will illustrate:

https://www.wiebefamily.org/large_letters.htm:

Some online/computer study resources

My top Bible study resources (I intend to update this as time goes on):

Interlinear Bible Analyzer (ISA) free standalone software for Microsoft Windows, (also runs under WINE under Linux, or WINE with XQuartz on an Apple Mac). Install the program, then the CLV and Young's add-ons.

(Note: Please contact me to help you with this software. Many of the features are not obvious, and the user interface is a little bit awkward in places.)

https://www.scripture4all.org

https://interlinearbible.org

https://www.biblewebapp.com/study/ and
https://www.biblewebapp.com/reader/

https://www.wiebefamily.org/English-Greek_verbcharts.htm

https://apostolicbible.com/

https://biblehub.com/nas/matthew/1.htm

https://thebiblecorner.com/englishbibles/

https://www.studylight.org/desk/parallel.cgi

https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/

https://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/

https://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/lsj/lsj.html

https://philolog.us/

Mozilla Firefox web browser and/or Thunderbird e-mail client:

"Transliterator"

https://www.benya.com/transliterator/

Google Input Tools (by Google)

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-input-tools/mclkkofklkfljcocdinagocijmpgbhab

If you are running MacOS, go to System Preferences (such as from the Apple icon on the far left of the top menu bar), choose Language & Region, click on the "+" button, and add Ελληνικα (Greek). Then click on Keyboard Preferences in that same window, click Input Sources in the window for that, click the "+" button, and add the Greek keyboard. Then click "Shortcuts," click "Input Sources" and add a desired keyboard shortcut for "Select the previous input source." I use ⌘Space (the Command key + the space bar pressed simultaneously). Also you can check the checkbox for Show Input Menu in Menu Bar, which will let you switch by using an icon on the top desktop menu bar.

If you are on an Android device (I am using Android 8.0.0), bring up the Settings app, then go to General Management, then Language and Input, then Language, and add Ελληνικα (Ελλαδα). I have installed the Swype keyboard (a separate app), and that changes back and forth by swiping from the swipe icon to the space bar.

If someone knows how to easily switch back and forth using Microsoft Windows, let me know.

If you have an Apple iOS device (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch),

Search "Greek and Hebrew Study Bible" on Apple iOS App Store

Or, from a web browser:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/greek-and-hebrew-study-bible/id428580762?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2

Search "Greek Interlinear Bible" on Apple iOS App Store

Or, from a web browser:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/greek-interlinear-bible/id520000138?mt=8

Search "Strong's KJV 2010" on Apple iOS App Store

Or, from a web browser:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/strongs-kjv-2010/id378966850?mt=8

Search "philolog.us" (LSJ) on Apple iOS App Store

Or, from a web browser:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/philolog.us/id622324932?mt=8

Search "grammatical aids" or "igrεεk" (note two epsilon "εε" characters)

Or, from a web browser:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/igreek-grammatical-aids-for/id598581405

The author of that app has an extensive collection of links to resources:

https://www.ntgreekresources.com/stuff/online-resources.html

Apple iOS Greek on-screen keyboard: Settings --> General --> Keyboard --> Keyboards --> Add New Keyboard --> Greek

(Then toggle on-screen keyboard between English and Greek using the little globe icon at the bottom left.)

If you have an Android device,

Search "Greek Interlinear Bible" on Google Play Store

Or, from a web browser:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=stefankmitph.kint&hl=en

Search "Greek Interlinear Bible" on Google Play Store

Or, from a web browser:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=stefankmitph.kint&hl=en

Search "philolog.us" (LSJ) on Google Play Store

Or, from a web browser:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.philolog.philologus&hl=en

An app version of Bible Hub can be located by searching "Bible Hub" on the Google Play Store

Or, from a web browser:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.biblehub.biblehubapp&hl=en

Also, I use Olive Tree Bible Software, which works on most platforms (Windows/Mac/iOS/Android, but not Linux), and has many advanced Hebrew/Greek resources, although they are very expensive. I have the BHS Hebrew with morphology, parsings, and lexicon, Septuagint Greek with morphology, parsings, and lexicon, NA27/NA28 with morphology, parsings, lexicon, and critical apparatus, Scriverner's Textus Receptus, Byzantine Greek Majority Text, Latin Vulgate, and both NASB and ESV with linked Strong's numbers and definitions, all on my pocket device. I'll just cite their main page, and not list all the links here, so as not to make this resource list too overwhelming:

https://www.olivetree.com

Also, I use the Logos Bible app, which works on most platforms (Windows/Mac/iOS/Android, but not Linux), and has many advanced Hebrew/Greek resources, although they are very expensive. I have the Liddell-Scott-Jones (LSJ) Greek-English Lexicon covering all Greek classical literature, and a number of non-Bible Greek texts for searching word usage in Greek.

https://www.logos.com

Comparing Olive Tree with Logos, Olive Tree software is substantially more powerful than Logos, with more software functionality and features. On the other hand, the available Bible/book/literature titles available in Logos is much more immense of a collection than that available with Olive Tree.

Greek Week webinar

On Dec. 12-16, 2016, I held a webinar that I entitled "Greek Week," a repeat of a live seminar done in March at JGLM headquarters in Texas for onsite DBI, which was at the request of Curry and Anthony. This is a fifteen-hour "lay" webinar that I devised to "kickstart" people in learning how to read the original Koine Greek texts. The only pre-requisite and memorization requirement for this is the Greek alphabet. My approach is very different than that of seminary academia. I first describe my lack of academic credentials and formal training as an object lesson to say, "If I can do it, so can you." Then, I review Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and English language and translation history. Then, I review English grammar. Then, I similarly cover Koine Greek grammar. Then, I introduce many online and computer tools available for research and analysis, as I cover a number of particular examples of translation issues that understanding the original Greek resolves, focusing on some hand-picked, troublesome scriptures that are sometimes misread to create sacred cow doctrines. All of these select examples are covered in my written articles, but in the webinar I focus on the mechanics of how to work the tools to research and analyze them. I demonstrate tools that work on the various computing platforms: Microsoft Windows desktop, Apple OS X desktop, Apple iOS devices, and Android devices.

Session 1 of 5 (3 hours)
Session 2 of 5 (3 hours)
Session 3 of 5 (3 hours)
Session 4 of 5 (3 hours)
Session 5 of 5 (3 hours)

The following web page has all five videos embedded in it, for convenience:

https://www.wiebefamily.org/Greek_Week.htm

Slides used in webinar: Greek_Week.pdf (you must memorize the Greek alphabet, shown on slide 50)

Scholars questioning any of my few instances of non-standard Koine Greek grammatical assertions that are contrary to the status quo, and requiring scholarly, credentialed academic verification, can refer to Grammar of the Greek New Testament in Light of Historical Research (PDF, 52 MB) by A.T. Robertson, which is conveniently accessible online in digitized form and also in the public domain. That work further references an immense collection of other scholarly works, too many for even that author to exhaustively list in his bibliography, which is 21 pages long. For a more thorough and detailed treatment of the aorist problem, see ERRANT AORIST INTERPRETERS, an article by Charles R. Smith in the Grace Theological Journal 2.2 (Fall 1981), p. 205-226, and The Abused Aorist by Frank Stagg in the Journal of Biblical Literature (1972), p.222-31.

I grant this work to the public domain.