10b But we urge you, brothers, to do this [love one another] more and more, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed, 12 so that you may live properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. 1 Thessalonians 4:10b-12 (ESV) In the 1360s, John Wyclif, morning …
The phrase “born-again Christian” has become almost cliché. Yet seen through a key Greek word in a dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus, this common phrase can be clothed anew in meaningful truth. The word at issue is ἄνωθεν anothen “from above.” The word is formed from ἄνω “above” + -θεν, a suffix denoting origin of …
Born Again or From Above? A Two-Pronged Question Read More »
The thrice-repeated question “Lovest thou me?” Jesus posed to Peter after His resurrection as recorded in John 21:15–17 (KJV) actually shrouds a scene at the heart of a tragedy. Looking at the Greek text clarifies the situation. Jesus asks Peter, ἀγαπᾷς με; agapas me? “Do you love me?” He asks this question twice, both times …
First-century Greek speakers didn’t pronounce words like most modern seminarians are taught to pronounce them. While today’s budding Greek scholars are taught to pronounce the letter ƞ (eta) like the final vowel sound in “obey,” it actually was pronounced like the vowel sound in “feet.” Contemporary students are taught to pronounce the letter ω (omega) …
Imagine a man, his name is Samuel. He is a scribe. The year is AD 1008 and he sits, day after day, in Fustat, now part of modern-day Cairo, painstakingly copying text onto pages of parchment. The manuscript he is creating must be of the highest possible quality — it is the Hebrew Bible, and …
Tapping into Modern Greek can shed light on the New Testament text in sundry ways. An example is the words King Agrippa directed at Paul before the Sanhedrin according to Acts 26:28. Agrippa’s expression, the essence of which is preserved in Modern Greek, is idiomatic in nature. Thus a technical analysis of the type of …