Lesson 5 | Vocab
Three Bad Options
You just made it through the longest and most information-packed lesson in this course! Things get easier from here as we tie up some loose ends regarding verbs and then help you start to understand cantillation marks. Thus there is still time for the whirlwind of verbs to settle in your mind.
But to get there, you will need to press on and fully engage in all the practice the coming lessons afford. And to do that, you will need your motivations renewed. It is our hope that the following insightful quotation helps you toward that end.
[Think] through the options available for a minister not versed in the original languages. When ministers are inadequately prepared in the original languages they are given only three options. First, they can become experts in note taking and cataloging the opinions of others, relying upon their favorite commentators or siding with whatever position is expedient to them. Second, they can refuse to make a decision and simply present all the options without taking a stand. Or, finally, ministers without proficiency in the original languages can just ignore the difficult issues in a text.
Obviously none of these options is acceptable for a minister who is teaching people the very Word of God. If seminaries are training ministers to understand God’s Word and accurately teach it to others, then the only course of action is to teach students the Biblical languages in order that they might walk the steps of the commentators and translators so as to appropriately evaluate their work. This gives the students freedom from being enslaved to the opinions of others and puts them in a position to wrestle directly with the text of Scripture through the aid of the Holy Spirit.
—Peter Goeman, ”The Reformers and the Original Languages,” The Master's Seminary Journal, Spring 2017, 13.
