The physician has to study chemistry and physiology. Other men may or may not. The lawyer has to study his Blackstone. The preacher has to know his Bible or the people suffer the consequences of his ignorance, as in the case of the physician or the lawyer. The extreme in each instance is the quack who plays on the ignorance and prejudice of the public. It is true that the minister can learn a deal about his Bible from the English versions, many of which are excellent. There is no excuse for any one to be ignorant of his English Bible, which has laid the foundations of our modern civilization. But the preacher lays claim to a superior knowledge of the New Testament. He undertakes to expound the message of the gospel to people who have access to English translations, and many of these are his equal in general culture and mental ability. If he is to maintain the interest of such hearers, he must give them what they do not easily get by their own reading. It is not too much to say that, however loyal laymen are to the pulpit, they yet consider it a piece of presumption for the preacher to take up the time of the audience with ill-digested thoughts. The beaten oil is none too good for any audience. Now the preacher can never get away from the fact that the New Testament was written in the Greek language in the first century A.D. The only way for him to become an expert in this literature of which he is an exponent by profession is to know it in the original. (A.T. Robertson, The Minister and His Greek New Testament 80-81)
The Minister as Specialist
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– Not showing off, but I did well in Greek and Hebrew. I am more used to the Greek side of it and still use it extensively in my weekly (and private) studies. It is rich beyond compare. This is one of the things I thank God for as I look back on my years at Princeton Seminary. They taught me, in spite of themselves, how to read and study scripture. — Cannot get enough!
Thanks for this post. I am in agreement with its affirmation.
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Smythe Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 7:13 am
Ross,
You ought to be commended. I’ve spoken with a number of seminary grads who have all but lost their knowledge of the Greek. And I’ve even offered Greek materials (at no cost) to many Word preachers, but only one has taken up the offer. As Robertson writes elsewhere in his book, reading through the Word in the Greek not only helps us understand the Word itself, but is also a boon to critical thinking. Personally, I think if more of the Word guys studied the Greek we wouldn’t have a lot of the exegetical problems that we see today.
BTW, I’m still trying to figure out the background color on these replies.
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I just now noticed your reply here. Thanks. For some reason it did not reach my email.
I appreciate your encouragement.
When Sheila and I are doing devotions together, she’ll ask, “What word is this translated from?” So we look up the passage and I get a handle on the vocabulary there and this helps me to keep it my Greek active and my Greek New Testament within reach.
My Greek professor at Westminster College urged us to take our Greek New Testament to church and simply follow along when the pastor read out of the New Testament so that we could get used to making the connection between the English and the Greek on the page.
Blessings on the day.
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