Done with Greek (the class, that is)

Ahhhhh.....

Can you feel it? The lightness of step. The carefree look to the horizon. The wind at your back. The whistle on your lips. The smile at rush-hour traffic. The emptiness of thought.

Three quarters, 30 weeks - all done! The final wasn't too bad, and I am so glad it's finished. This last weekend did me in, so I was ready to put my lexicon and grammar on the "courses finished" book shelf.

Now, I have to figure out ways to keep all of it from completely leaving my memory. I know some (ok, maybe a lot) will, but I've already purchased this and this to help. In fact, one of my upcoming new spiritual practices (which I'm going to write about in the near future) is continuing to expand my knowledge of the language so that I can read the NT in Greek.

I'm so glad I decided to take this 3-quarter series. I had difficulty deciding to spend three of my nine electives on a language, especially without knowing what lay ahead of me after this degree. And to be perfectly honest, the overriding initial reason was to meet a language requirement in most doctoral programs - something I'm considering in the distant future. But once we started, and especially in this last quarter where so much came together in our translations, I got hooked. Besides, I met and became friends with four great people in the class!

Greek is a beautiful language, and it's filled with subtlety which is often hard to translate into English. So, I now completely agree with what I had heard from several people and seminaries: if you really want to study the New Testament, do so in Greek. For old(er) dogs like me, it can be trying to learn another language - but it's worth it!

Greeked out

Last night I finished translating 1 John 1-3. Whew! It was a busy, Greeked out weekend, let me tell ya! Now I need to get to that exegetical paper of 1 John 3:11-18. I hope to finish that this weekend while we're in the mountains for Memorial Day, and then all that's left is studying for the final exam on June 3rd. When I have a little more time, I'll post my translation of 1 John 1-3.

Other random thoughts on a Monday night:

• My new Dell Vostro 1400 laptop is awesome!
• Carolyn has two more days to pull up her grades...
• Today was our summer icebreaker - it reached 103 today (and so it begins)
  
• I can't wait for this weekend in Pinetop!
• My allergies were horrible today
• My 2003 Mazda Protege 5 is about to pass the 100,000 mile mark (and last week I got 33mpg)
  
• Interesting words here from Alice Cooper
  

Greek mid-term tonight

Tonight is our mid-term on participles, subjunctive mood, and translations. I had a good study session last night with Dan which helped. A few more flash card reviews over dinner will hopefully put me in a good mindset. Only 4 more class meetings after tonight! And I haven't started my exegetical paper yet...hmmm...

Other random thoughts this Tuesday morning:

• My wife graduates in 10 days!
• I'm taking the summer off from classes.
• I'm starting to think seriously (i.e., daydreaming) about our cruise vacation in June.
• Why are there so many choices of carpet?
• New couches arrive Friday.
• Carolyn is reading a book on her own.
• My new laptop is just a few days away.
• I'm trying to select summer reading material. Any suggestions?

"Not doing the truth"

As I've said before, we are translating 1 John 1-3 in Greek. Verse 6 in chapter 1 uses an interesting form of the Greek verb ποιέω. A general-use translation of this verb is "I do" or "I make." But here is how it is used in verse 6:

Εαν ειπωμεν οτι κοινωνιαν εχομεν μετ αυτου και εν τω σκοτια περιπατωμεν, ψευδομεθα και ου ποιουμεν την αληθειαν·

(I intentionally left out all accents and breathing marks - they're too hard in this font.)
The straight translation is this:

If - we say - that - fellowship - we have - with - him - and - in - the - darkness - we live, - we are lying - and - not - we do - the - truth.

Or, maybe something like this:

If we say that we have fellowship with him (referring to Jesus) and yet we live in the darkness, we are lying and we are not doing the truth.

What an interesting way to say this! If we claim that we have fellowship or community with Jesus, and yet we continue to walk in the darkness, we are actually lying and not doing the truth. My BDAG lexicon has about 2 1/2 pages about ποιέω - it's actually a quite popular verb. Mounce says it's used 568 times! The generalized definition for ποιέω in BDAG says this:

A multivalent term, often without pointed semantic significance, used in reference to a broad range of activity involving such matters as bringing something into being, bringing something to pass, or simply interacting in some way with a variety of entities.

The specific BDAG reference to 1 John 1:6 says "do, practice, live the truth."

So, if we claim to follow Jesus but live a life that does not reflect that following, we're lying to ourselves and those around us, and we are not living truthful lives. We are not bringing about the truth of Jesus. We are, in a way, holding back the truth. We are not "doing" the truth.

Speaking of poetry...

"For we are God's poetry..." (see this post)

I just noticed that a blog called Poem of the Week is one of Blogger's Blogs of Note. Check it out if you're curious about being a poem spoken by God...

This quarter in Greek

Well this 3rd and final quarter of Greek should be very interesting. We have a few more chapters in our beginning grammar to cover, more vocabulary to learn, as well as tackling some more advanced topics in our intermediate grammar.

Besides all of that, we will be translating 1 John 1-3 and each of us will pick a section from these chapters and write a 5-page exegetical paper on that section. For mine, I have chosen 1 John 3:11-18, primarily because 1 John 3:18 is one of my favorite verses (in bold below). Here's the NIV version:

This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

So it will be quite the fun and challenging quarter. But I look forward to truly diving into this...

Something cool in Greek

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Eph 2:10)

Dane pointed out something very cool about this verse last night. The first part of this verse in Greek is αυτου γαρ εσμεν ποιημα, which literally translated means "His for we are workmanship" or "For we are his workmanship."

Two things are interesting here. First is the placement of "his" as the first word. This is emphatic positioning, emphasizing that first and foremost, we are "his."

Secondly, the 4th Greek word, pronounced "poi-ee-ma," is frequently translated as "workmanship" (NIV, NASB, KJV, NKJV, ESV) along with "handiwork" (Amplifed), and "masterpiece" (NLT). But, what English word does this sound like?

Poem.

So, in a sense, we are God's poetry. To me, words like "workmanship" or "handiwork" sound more like something made by a worker. Poetry, on the other hand, is something beautiful spoken by an artist.

The next time you feel down on yourself, remember that you are God's poetry, beautifully spoken into existence by the artistic Creator of the universe.

Cool, huh?