Is there value in learning Biblical Hebrew? (part 1)

The spring term has been super busy, so we've been delinquent in keeping up our blog. I've been wanting to blog about a 4-week intensive Hebrew class at Westminster Seminary during January. So after much delay, here it is!

13 weeks were compressed into 4. Winter Hebrew was no joke. We were expected the clear the decks (of any work or ministry commitments) to focus on the class. The mid-term for the course has been described as the most difficult test at Westminster. Winter Hebrew is like full-time job where your employer expects you to work nights and weekends to meet a deadline because your project and your job depended on it.

Our professor told us a story about a guy who was a student during the Vietnam war. Full-time students were exempt from the military draft. Mid-way through the course, though, the student decided that he had enough. He dropped the class, enlisted, and then shipped off Vietnam. Apparently he thought the jungles of Vietnam were more bearable than Winter Hebrew.

It's kind of a funny story- well funny now that we're actually done. But it does raise some questions. Why would anyone subject themselves to 4 weeks of pain? Or to ask a slightly different question, "Why go through the trouble of learning Biblical Hebrew (or Greek)?" Aren't English translations good enough?

It is true that our Bible translations are sufficient for us to know God and His plan of salvation. The Westminster Confession captures this thought rather well:

Everything God wants you to know for His own glory, your salvation, faith and life, is either given directly or indirectly by Scripture....those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly given in scripture that no special training is needed to know what they are (paraphrased from Chapter 1, "Of The Holy Scripture")

I'm not advocating that everyone in the church must to devote years of their life learning Greek (the original language of the New Testament) or Hebrew (the original language of the Old Testament). Yet, I want to present a few reasons why studying the original languages is valuable and important for the body of Christ. I want to try and make a case for why there should be at least one person in your church (probably the pastor) who should know Greek and Hebrew.

Here are 3 reasons I'm going to give :

1. AMBIGUITY IN THE ORIGINAL TEXT. For instance, if you pick up the NIV and ESV (which are both faithful translations of the text), you'll notice some differences. As we've discovered, doing a translation means doing an interpretation. Different translations exist for different reasons. Some translations like the NIV do larger chunks of scripture at a time ("ideas") and aim for readability. Others like the NASB try to do smaller chunks ("word-for-word") and try to remain closer to the original text. Others like the ESV try to do something in between. These are broad generalizations, but you get the idea.

One is not necessary "better" or "worse" than another. By attempting a word-for-word translation, NASB or ESV has to do some awkward gymnastics to stick to its goal. Therefore, it's often less readable or clear than the NIV, which does more paraphrasing.

2. LOST IN TRANSLATION. Because languages are not identical to one another, things are lost in translation.

3. SUPREMACY AND PRIORITY OF GOD'S WORD. Imagine that you were given an important document- maybe a treaty between two countries, a crucial business contract, or a letter from a dear friend. But, it's written in a different language. Depending on how important it is and how much precision you need, you may not be content with a translation. In the same way, the words of eternal life found in God's eternal word may place a burden of responsibility upon some people to learn the original Biblical languages.

In my next post, I'll try to flesh out these reasons some more by going into some more technical details