The Bible was not written in English!
We mentioned in our previous article that the Bible can be a difficult book, linguistically, to understand. There are several obstacles. First, the most popular version of the Bible in America today, the King James Version (KJV), was translated in the 16th century and some of the language differences between then and today can be difficult to overcome. Also, it might seem odd to those who have only occasionally read through the Bible to learn that there are two entirely different languages that need to be sorted out when we delve into the depths of God’s Word. And for most of us they are neither common nor familiar languages. As we mentioned last time, the two languages are Hebrew; the language of the Old Testament, and Greek; the language of the New Testament.
It is becoming commonplace to disregard the KJV completely and rely on more modern translations because of the obstacle presented by the 16th century vocabulary. This approach to Bible study can present a number of difficulties on its own, one of which will be addressed directly in this article. And that is the simple fact that almost all of the Bible study tools that are available for us today have been designed to work with the King James Version, tools such as concordances, lexicons and dictionaries for example.
We might wonder “Is it really important for us to understand the original languages? Aren’t the English translations good enough?” Unfortunately, they are not; translating can be a tricky process that is vulnerable to personal agendas, as well as language barriers. Let me give you an example to show you what I mean.
In John 21 we are presented with the account of Jesus’ conversation with Peter on the shore of Galilee (called ‘Tiberius’ in verse 1). This is a very well known conversation, but perhaps there is more to what was said than what appears in the English translation. Consider verse 15 where Jesus says, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?” And then Peter answers “Yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee”. Now this interchange gets repeated two more times for a total of three times that Jesus asks “Do you love me?” and Peter answers “You know that I love you”. The obvious connection is to the three times that Peter denied Christ in the courtyard of the High Priest (John 18). And so this would appear to be an intentional effort on the part of the Lord to remind Peter about those three denials and to be sure that Peter had truly repented of them and could now affirm his love for Christ. But, as this conversation has been translated into English we miss so much of what is actually going on!
If we were to use a concordance to look up some of the key words in this conversation we would notice that there are two different Greek words translated as ‘love’ in these verses in John 21. The word ‘love’ in English conveys quite a wide spectrum of positive emotions. We say, “I’d ‘love’ a sandwich right now” to show that this is something we would really like to have. We say “I love my wife. I love my children. I love my parents.” But each one of those is different. The same word is used to convey many shades of the emotion and only the context defines what we really mean. But in the Greek text of John 21 there are two different words used that are translated as ‘love’. Peter used ‘phileo’ which is a companionship, a feeling of having much in common. This might make us think of ‘Philadelphia’, which means ‘the city of brotherly love’. The Lord used a different Greek word for love; ‘agape’ and this is the highest form of love as it is a self sacrificing love. This is the love that Jesus is speaking of in John 15, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Now let’s put the original Greek words back into John 21 and see how it reads. Verse 15, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you ‘agape’ me more than these?” “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I ‘phileo’ you.” See how Peter does not answer exactly as the Lord has asked? Jesus asked Peter if his love was of the highest, self sacrificing type. Peter was unwilling to say that it was. We should note here that in the upper room after eating the Passover meal when Jesus warned the disciples that they would all desert him, Peter said, “Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee” (Matthew 26). Peter announced to everyone that he was prepared to “lay down his life” as Jesus had spoken of in John 15. In John 21 Jesus asks “Do you ‘agape’ me?” and Peter can only say “Lord, you know I am your friend”.
In John 21 verse 16, the second time Jesus asks Peter “Do you love me?” his words are the same as in verse 15 and so are Peter’s. But in verse 17, the third time Jesus asks, he says, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you ‘phileo’ me?” Jesus in essence says, “Peter, are you really my friend?” and this causes Peter much sorrow. Because of his self doubt after denying Christ those three times he could no longer boast of ‘agape’ love for Christ, and now Jesus says, “Are you my friend Peter?” There was no malicious intent in the Lord’s questions, but there was a gentle remonstration for Peter’s hasty words in the upper room. You see, Jesus wasn’t taking Peter to task for his three denials; he was making a point about Peter’s need to be sincere in his words as they related to what he could actually perform.
All of the true beauty of this conversation and many of the links of ideas that come from elsewhere in the Gospels is lost in the English version of the record. But by looking at just a few key words in the original Greek language the record opens up for us. I have intended to demonstrate in this article the value of digging into the original languages for the sake of understanding the true meaning that can sometimes be hidden in the English translation. Next time we will present some practical exercises in using the various concordances. I hope your interest has been piqued!