Principle 3
HERMENEUTICS
PRINCIPLE 3
Stress the Priority of the Original Languages
The New Testament was written in the Greek language. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, with a few sections in Aramaic. The best way to study the Bible, as it was written. would be to read it in its original languages. But most of us don’t know Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic, so what do we do?
Even people who don’t know those languages can still apply the principle of stressing the priority of the original languages. Many aids are available today to help us with the original languages. All kinds of Bible study aids are available online, and there’s a list of recommended word study aids at the end of this course. These aids include lexicons, Bible dictionaries, and word study books. Many Bible commentaries will also refer back to the original languages for insight.
Stressing the priority of the original languages means that we study both the vocabulary (words) and grammar (sentence structure) of the languages. Let’s take a few examples to see how word studies from the original language help us with vocabulary.
Galatians 6:2 and 6:5
Here’s how Galatians 6:2 and 6:5 appear in the King James Version of the Bible: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (v2). For every man shall bear his own burden” (v5). We should bear one another’s burdens, yet everyone should bear their own burdens? Is this a contradiction in the Bible?
To analyze this verse, we can use one of our word study aids to look up the word “burden.” There we find that several different Greek words are translated into our one English word, “burden.” One Greek word, baros, denotes something heavy, like a piano. Baros is the word used in Galatians 6:2, and it means that we should help our brothers and sisters with the difficult troubles and trials that are too heavy for them to bear alone.
A second word that’s translated “burden” is the Greek word phortion. This word refers to responsibility, not weight. Phortion is the Greek word found in Galatians 6:5. It teaches that we should fulfill our personal responsibilities as we live our Christian lives. So with the original language in mind, we could paraphrase these verses this way:
“Help those who are weighted down with excessive burdens” (v 2).
“Each person should bear his or her own normal load of responsibility” (v 5).
Psalm 16:10
“For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave.”
Psalm 16 is one of the Messianic psalms. Both Paul and Peter quoted from this chapter to refer to Jesus Christ, the Messiah (Acts 2:27 and 13:35). We understand how the second part of the verse relates to Jesus, since His body did not decay. But how does the first part relate to Christ? The King James Version reads, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”
If you don’t do a word study on the Hebrew word that is translated “hell,” you might think that Jesus went to hell between His death and resurrection. However, a word study reveals that the Hebrew word that is translated as “hell” in Psalm 16:10 is a place called sheol. In Acts 2:27 it is called hades. Sheol and hades are not hell. Neither is sheol or hades the Lake of Fire, nor are they the gehenna of the New Testament. Sheol or hades refer to “the place of the grave,” or “the realm of the dead.” If we practice good hermeneutics, we won’t use this Scripture to teach that Jesus went to hell between His death and resurrection.
Word Fallacies
Another way to give priority to the words of the original languages is to look out for word fallacies. A word fallacy is a false notion of the meaning of a word. Let’s look at some varieties of word fallacies:
1. Be careful about trying to figure out the meaning of the original word from the construction of the word in English.
Example: Atonement
What does the word atonement mean? Some well-meaning preachers say it means “at-one-ment.” That is, when we are reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ, we are no longer separated from God. We are “at one” with Him. But is that a good interpretation of the word atonement? No. We must be careful interpreters, because “at-one-ment” is not the meaning of atonement.
Although it’s true that we’re reconciled to God and brought into a relationship with Him because of Christ’s work on the cross, that’s not the meaning of the word atonement. When we do a proper word study, we see that the Hebrew word for atonement actually means “to cover.” In the Old Testament sacrificial system, when the blood of the sacrifice was placed on the Mercy Seat on the Day of Atonement, the sins of the people were covered until the coming of the Lamb of God.
2. Be careful about reading back the meaning of an English word into the original Hebrew or Greek word.
Example: Romans 1:16 - “I am not ashamed of the gospel of wrist, for it is the power of God for salvation…”
Preachers have been known to give a sermonette like this: “Do you see the word ‘power’? Our English word ‘power’ is translated from the Greek word dunamis, and the word dunamis is the origin of our English word dynamite. The gospel is the God’s dynamite. It has explosive power!”
This sounds good, but it’s based on a word fallacy. Although we get the word dynamite from the Greek word dunamis, we can’t take the English word dynamite and read it back into the original text. Paul was not referring to dynamite when he wrote this passage!
3. Be careful about giving an original compound word the meaning of its two parts.
Example: The English language has compound words that have no connection with the meaning of their two parts.
Consider the word “butterfly.” The meaning of this word is not a combination of the meanings of the words “butter” and “fly”!
The same is true in Greek. In John 3:16, Jesus Christ is called the “only begotten Son” of God. The phrase “only begotten” is from the Greek word monogenes. Mono means “only” and genes means “begotten.” But the term “begotten” here does not imply birth or beginning. It means that God the Son has a one-of-a-kind, intimate relationship with God the Father - a relationship that is absolutely unique. (Compare Hebrews 11:17, where this word speaks of Isaac’s special relationship with his father.) Jesus Christ, God the Son, has always existed. He was not created or begotten. Don’t commit a word fallacy here, as the cults do, and conclude that Jesus Christ, God the Son, is a created being.
Another good way to stress the priority of the original languages is to refer to multiple and reliable translations such as the King James Version (KJV), New King James Version (NKJV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), and the English Standard Version (ESV). Ans as new translations of the Bible become available, we recommend using word-for-word translations for studies, rather than paraphrases.
John 14:2 is a good example of checking different translations. The KJV reads, “In My Father’s house are many mansions.” The NASB says “dwelling places.” We get a more balanced view of what Jesus was teaching when we look at more than one translation. He wasn’t teaching that we’ll all have elaborate mansions, like millionaires. His point is that we’ll all be at Home together, like a joyful family reunion. Heaven will be one big happy family of God, with a place for all believers.
Besides stressing correct word translations, we should also do proper grammatical studies. This gives priority to the structure or grammar of the original language: parts of speech, sentence structure, noun-verb agreement, etc. A knowledge of grammar is useful as we seek to give priority to the original languages. Let’s look at a couple of quick examples where a grammar study helps with interpretation.
1 Timothy 6:21
“May God’s grace be with you all.”
The apostle Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, but he ended it with a blessing: “May God’s grace be with you all.” To whom was he speaking? Just to Timothy, or to others also? By doing a grammatical study we learn that the Greek word translated as “you” is a plural word. This verse could be translated: “Grace be with y’all!” So we see that this was not just a private letter to Timothy; it’s directed to a wider audience. Timothy was to share it with all the believers at Ephesus, and we can benefit from its teachings today.
Matthew 22:31-32
“But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead—haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead.”
In this passage, Jesus was debating with the Sadducees, a religious group that did not believe in the resurrection of the body. Jesus quoted Exodus 3:6, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Jesus was emphasizing grammar here. The verb is not past tense. He did not say, “I was the God of Abraham.” Rather, it’s present tense: “I am.” Abraham is still in existence. He will be resurrected, and God’s covenant with him will be fulfilled. The Lord Jesus Himself gave priority to the grammar of the original languages.