By Rev. Dr. Mark Birkholz, Faith Lutheran Church, Oak Lawn, Illinois
The New Testament was originally written in Greek. Many words and phrases that we use in church, such as Christ (“anointed one”), Angel (“messenger”), and Kyrie Eleison (“Lord, have mercy”) come from Greek as well. But because Greek uses a different alphabet and is no longer spoken today in the same way as it was in biblical times, it can seem difficult to learn.
On Saturday, March 9, 2019, over 50 people from a dozen NID congregations met at Faith, Oak Lawn to learn a bit of biblical Greek. The seminar was led by Pastor Mark Birkholz, who has a doctorate in New Testament Theology, and has taught at both Concordia University Chicago and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
The morning began with a brief history of the Greek language and an explanation of how English and Greek come from the same family of languages. Next, the Greek alphabet was introduced, and attendees learned to pronounce Greek words.
Most of the day was spent learning important Greek words for understanding the New Testament. Participants learned basic words for “God” and “human,” as well as more technical theological terms, such as “adiaphora,” “homoousios,” and “antilegomena.” They learned the background for words like “hypocrite,” which originally referred to an actor, and “evangelical,” which means “good news.” All in all, over 100 Greek words were discussed.
Attendees also learned the Lord’s Prayer in Greek and studied several Bible verses that used the words they learned. They also saw examples of what early New Testament manuscripts would have looked like.
Participants were excited to learn the language of the New Testament and to begin to read and translate the text from the original language for themselves. They saw how biblical Greek is not just for pastors and scholars, but that everyone can learn a bit of this ancient language.