October 2, 2007
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It’s all Greek to me!
Whenever I tell somebody that I am taking Biblical Greek at seminary, I get one of two responses. One, a sort of awed/impressed expression, followed by, “That’s cool.” The other response is more of an almost-appalled “why-in-the-world-would-you-do-that-for?” (Are you stupid?) Basically, they think I’m crazy. Of course, no matter what the initial expression or reaction, it is always followed by the joke, “Well, it’s all Greek to me!”
I suppose both of these reactions are warranted (except for the trite and trying joke). I came into my first Greek class with much fear and trepidation — very worried that I would not be able to grasp the language. After the first class and the first week of studying, I felt so much more confidence. I walked into my second class feeling pretty optimistic. (I love this class. Wow, this is fun, learning and decoding a new language.) But by the time I left that second class, I was quite despondent. My professor loaded up the content with which we were required to grasp for the following week, and I felt weak-kneed and wobbly. At that point, I too would’ve given myself that dirty look of, “Why in the world would you go and study Greek? Crazy fool!!!”
The overwhelm-ed feeling paralyzed me from my Greek studies all weekend… until today when I got my Greek New Testament from Amazon. As I was holding the book, I formulated a goal — wouldn’t it be so cool to be able to have my Quiet Time with the Lord in the Greek New Testament? Yes! That would be cool. Just the possibility of understanding another facet of God by reading the NT the way the early believers did has inspired me again. I suppose every time I get discouraged, I can bring to mind this vision. [ I'm such an N.
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Comments (7)
Of all my friends who have gone through a similar process of yours, they’ve all expressed their frustration with Greek/Hebrew but when they were done, it was like…so cool!
Best of luck to you, it’s really cool to learn something like that!
i think it’s WAY COOL that you’re taking Greek. Now I have someone to turn to whenever I have questions about some difficult passages.
Its very cool, but lots of people would wonder about it if you were to continue past this class. One of my co-workers is “fluent” in Greek, he actually taught a class while he was living in Greece! haha.. anyway, he doesn’t really have opportunities to use it, but I guess is obsessed with Greek literature.
haha. there’s nothing wrong with obsession with something good, eh?
actually, i have to take a few Greek classes. this is just the first quarter.
re: kanfood — i better study hard if i am to be a resource for you as well as me!
(which i would gladly do)
I’ve been getting that lame joke too. I was feeling so behind that I thought I should drop the class because I wouldn’t be able to handle it with work and everything. But when we were doing group work, I realized that everyone else was feeling just as frustrated and that I’m not any worse than anyone else. For some reason, that made me feel better.
hiya