Jesus Christ is building His Church. However, it’s important to remember that He is using human beings to carry out His will. Human beings, even saved ones, are flawed. Remember that five of the seven churches Jesus addressed in Revelation had some serious problems. The only two churches without major spiritual problems were those suffering persecution. Jesus called on all of the churches to “overcome” and “hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Fast forward two-thousand years and a majority of churches are still dealing with serious problems. They still need to “overcome” and “hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

The solution is to return to the Word of God and the God of the Word. As Jesus told Satan:

It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ Luke 4:4

Unfortunately, Christians are missing out on a lot of what God said because the people who are teaching them often teach God’s word “wrongly.” I use that term because of something Paul wrote Timothy:

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15

We looked at some of the reasons in the first part of our new series. If you haven’t read part one, I invite you to do that now.

Steps to Learning the Greek New Testament

Learning a foreign language is not easy. Learning an ancient foreign language may be even harder. You may wonder if there’s a way to better understand the meaning of New Testament Greek (Koine) without having to learn to read Greek. The answer is, yes, there is a way. We’ll call that Step One. I hope after going through the first step, you’ll want to dive into Step Two.

Step One

Most churches I attended as a young Christian used the King James Version of the Bible, so mentors recommended I purchase two books to begin my journey into the Koine Greek. One was Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. The other was Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words.

An “exhaustive” concordance is a way to find every use of an English word in the Bible. We didn’t have the Internet in the 70s, so I purchased the massive book and used it for decades until it finally fell apart. I now use a smaller “concise” copy of Strong’s. I also purchased a copy of Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible. Pastors I knew in the 70s used to say (tongue in cheek) that Young’s was for the “young” and Strong’s was for the “strong.” I found both of them helpful for Bible study. You can still purchase a printed copy of Strong’s or Young’s, but many people prefer to use online versions.

I recommend BibleHub and Blue Letter Bible as easy-to-use online tools, but you may find other online versions you prefer better. The main thing is find what works best for you. If you like to work with paper, buy a concordance for your Bible study library. If you like using online tools, find the one(s) that works for you.

While the “concordance” is an introduction to the Hebrew and Greek words used in translating the Bible, a “dictionary” takes you deeper into the original word and its meaning. I used Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, and Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies (Unabridged Edition) and Nelson’s Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament for Hebrew. Again, you can purchase these or other dictionaries in paper form or find them online at BibleHub, Blue Letter Bible, and other Internet locations.

I’m cautious about recommending commentaries on the Greek New Testament. I’m not against it, just cautious. When someone “comments” on a passage of Scripture, you are getting their viewpoint. They may be right, wrong, or somewhere in the middle. If you know a pastor or teacher who studies from the Greek and handles the Word of God correctly, ask them what commentaries on the Greek New Testament they use.

[One of the benefits to learning to read and study from the Greek is that you will be able to identify the pastors and teachers who handle the Word correctly. More on that later.]

I had the benefit of house-sitting for one of my mentors when he and his family traveled. He was an evangelist and Bible teacher. He had a very large personal library in his house, so I read a lot of books while I “house sat.” I read some of A.T. Robertson’s commentaries on the Greek New Testament, along with Greek commentaries by M.R. Vincent, J.B. Lightfoot, and others.

Dr. Hindson also recommended I purchase a set of books by Dr. Kenneth Wuest titled Word Studies in the Greek New Testament. Dr. Wuest was a professor of New Testament Greek at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and published more than a dozen books on the New Testament. I purchased those books in the early 1970s and still refer to Dr. Wuest’s insights to the Greek language for my own study.

I mention that series because you don’t need to know Greek to appreciate the insights Dr. Wuest shares from his commentaries. Dr. Wuest also included his translation of the Greek New Testament in the Word Studies series. That translation is known as Wuest – The New Testament: An Expanded Translation (WET).

Speaking of translations — be careful about what translation(s) you use. I say that for a couple of reasons.

  1. Some translations are better than others. Some do a pretty good job bringing over the meaning of the original languages of the Bible (Hebrew, Aramaic, Koine Greek). Some don’t. You can read more about that in this free eBook.
  2. Some translations include Bible study notes and articles that aren’t correct. Just because someone adds their comments to a translation (or paraphrase) of the Bible doesn’t make it right and something you should trust. The only parts of the Bible that are inspired by God are the verses in the Bible that are translated correctly. Comments and notes are not. Be cautious with those. They can lead readers away from the truth.

Next Time

I think that’s enough to get you started on your journey to better understanding the Greek New Testament. Even if you don’t go any further than what I’ve shared with you so far, you’ll be ahead of most other Christians in knowing how to study God’s Word correctly.

For those of you interested in learning how to study from the Greek New Testament, we’ll dip our toes into those waters in the next part of our special series.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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