Should Pastors Value Biblical Languages

Being both a student majoring in Classics and an intern at Riverpark Bible Church, I have grown in the awareness of how valuable Biblical Languages are for the pastoral ministry. The pastors at Rivierpark vary in their expertise of Greek and Hebrew. They range from not having a slight clue how to approach the languages and others hold them to be foundational in forming every sermon. Regardless of their experience with languages, the pastors have proved to be the salt of the earth; truth preserving men. I have been shaped to appreciate their love for the truth from scripture; their frivolous efforts to make much of God and disclose to men their current state before God. The pastors have a strong passion to defend the Christian faith from divisive heresies that leak into a congregation by men who, as Christ puts it, “are dressed in sheep’s clothing.” Such men make every effort to steal the sheep from the shepherds flock with lies and poisonous pretend-truths. Being under our pastoral teaching and spending countless hours in their offices throughout the past fall 2010 semester, I have learned that our pastors spend an inexpressible amount of hours in the study of God’s word, theology, and various evangelical books. They teach these truths at church meetings, counseling session, while disciple-ing faithful men, with their own families, and, sarcastically speaking, even while they dream. In light of their Berean-like efforts, a number of them still lack what I have come to believe a crucial skill for the pastoral ministry, namely a thorough understanding of the Greek and Hebrew. The goal is not to say that every pastor should become an expert in Biblical languages, I am aware that some value its significance but have not cut out the time for its exhaustive study, rather the wish is to raise its level of value and necessity in serving Christ’s Bride, the Church.

Some say, because ministers lack such expertise, they are sure to stunt the success of their ministry if not collapse in failure. Ponder Heinrich Bitzer’s thesis:

“The more a theologian detaches himself from the basic Hebrew and Greek text of Holy Scripture, the more he detaches himself from the source of real theology! And real theology is the foundation of a fruitful and blessed ministry!”

If the success of the ministry is dependent on theology and theology is dependent on the languages then it’s a matter of time for churches that do not have such roots in the languages to encounter turbulence amidst their ministry. Dr. John MacArthur has titled this very turbulence as the “Truth War,” a matter of fact, from the Fall of Adam until now the Truth War has been endlessly raging. So as a pastor, are you reclining in the middle of a battle-field or are you equipping yourself with the very tools necessary to make much of God. Regardless of your activity, God will, as the Prophet Malachi says, “from the rising of the sun to its setting make his name great among the nations.” God is serious about his Glory; now the question which must be answered is, “Are you?”

Study Biblical Languages

The study of Greek or any language equips a Pastor with linguistic skills and sharpens his understanding to know how the English language works. Although many students in U.S. Schools go through an intensive study of English grammar in the 7^th and 8^th grade, they soon forget because usually we learn language by practicing it, not dicing it up into their detailed functions. So the detailed functions like syntax, sentence structure, grammatical rules, or more simply how and why words relate to one another in a sentence are crucially important for a pastor to communicate truth in its most clear sense. If there would be any area a man is ignorant in the field of language, it is grammar. Rarely do you see people prefer reading grammar books as they would romance novels or the 2^nd century’s best seller Harry Potter Series. In order to convey and even learn the argument of a particular passage, one needs to identify the various parts and functions of a sentence. How verbs relate to other parts of speech. Note that there are eight parts of speech in the English language: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, and prepositions. How is a pastor expected to be faithful to his exegesis when he can’t identify the definition of all eight parts of speech in his own tongue? J. Gresham Machen, a notable Biblical Language scholar once commented,

“…it might possibly be contended that an acquaintance with Greek and Latin is really necessary to acquaintance with the mother tongue, which is obviously so important for getting on in the world.”

Therefore, Biblical languages are valuable because they widen our capacity to be articulate in our very own tongue. The Church, the body of Christ, the bride deserves it. We shall commit to serving her in every way, even in the exhaustive hours of learning the rules of grammar and language. In so doing may we say “not to us, not to us, but to Your name be the glory” so that some may be saved and sanctified!