Biblical Languages

Dan Phillips over at pyromaniacs has written an interesting blog about Biblical languages and English translations. It is worth your time to read it.

I agree with most of what he is saying from my brief experience with translations. He argues that the translators take away some of the interpretation by the words that they render in English (we all come to scripture with certain presuppositions). I agree with that, but I wonder how else it can be done short of all Christians learning the languages.

I hope that everyone that is serious about studying the Bible will at least become "workable," as I call it, in the original Bible languages. I know that not everyone will be fluent in the languages, but I think we should at least be able to understand how the language works so that we can translate and do word studies with the help of some tools (dictionaries, BibleWorks, etc).

I say all this above but want to make very clear that overall I think we have good translations into English. Many Godly men way smarter than me have worked years on making that possible. I never want to come off as saying that all translations are bad, they aren't. But we should be careful and know what type of translation we are using, its intent, and pray earnestly that the Holy Spirit will illuminate it to us.--Dirk