Pastors or Scholars?

When I was accepted to Covenant Seminary, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I had been told by many people that it was a great school.  Every Covenant graduate that I met was extremely happy about the time they spent here.  When my wife and I visited the seminary, we came away very impressed.  Instead of "selling" the school during our admissions interview we were advised to confirm our calling to ministry before we decided to come.  In spite of these great endorsements, however, one never is quite sure if a move halfway across the country is really ever a great idea.  I have been here for about six months, and the question "was it worth it?" has been met by an emphatic, "YES!"  I am quite sure that God led me to the right seminary.


There are plenty of seminaries that will give you a good education.  Covenant is no exception.  A quick browse through the faculty shows degrees from Harvard, Princeton, Cambridge, and so forth.  This is not exceptional.   Our professors write articles for journals, have books published, and speak at conferences.  In class we interact with the thoughts and writings of important Christian thinkers and ideas.  We talk about accusativus cum infinitivo in Greek, about Schleiermacher in systematic theology, about critical realism and speech-act theory in our hermeneutics class, and about Aristotle's "On Rhetoric" in homiletics.  All seminaries do these things.  With all of this academic rigor in any seminary curriculum, it is little wonder that many people jokingly call seminary a cemetery.  In fact, Google returned 3.7million hits in 0.36 seconds for the phrase "seminary cemetery."


This, though, is far from the case here at Covenant.  While Dr. Bayer did strongly hint at the existence of a cemetery on campus for students who died learning Greek (a situation that he made sound quite common), Covenant has been a place where one not only grows in knowledge, but in love and faith as well.  At our orientation we were told that the seminary's pedagogical goal was not to put facts in our heads (though they certainly do), but to make us closer to Jesus.  One imagines that many seminaries say this, but here, they mean it.  


Every class in every course is designed to help us not only know about God, but to show us why and how to love Him.  Our professors demonstrate this love of God everyday.  They preach the Gospel to us and show us how to help others understand it.  This is not just something they know in the abstract, it is something they believe and trust in.  Just this past week three professors in different classes were brought to the point of tears when talking about the beauty of the Gospel.  It is real and it is powerful.


The Gospel should change us.  It should change how we view God, of course, but also impact how we love other Christians, our neighbor, and the creation.  Here, at Covenant, one catches a glimpse of what lives transformed by the Gospel really look like in an educational setting.  Here is a community where the Gospel is the center and the effects are pervasive.  I am very thankful that I was led to this place, and I pray that my life will exemplify the change wrought in me by the Gospel.  If it is reflected in me even half as powerfully as it is reflected in my professors then the seminary will have met it's goal: producing people who love Jesus more.

"Cor meum tibi offero, Domine, prompte et sincere."

The Story of Christianity (2 vols.) by Justo Gonzalez

The two volume Church History by Justo Gonzalez is a great introduction to Church History.  These thick volumes (each over 500 pages) serve as a very good orientation to the two thousand years that have transpired since the resurrection of Jesus.  After a short orientation to first century Palestine, Gonzalez moves on to the church in Jerusalem, and does not stop until the conclusion of volume two with a discussion of the church in the world today.


One of the things that the reader will come to appreciate about these books is the concerted effort on the part of the author to show not only the breadth, but the depth of the Christian story.  Gonzalez draws attention to the life of the average believer in the early church, the development of Christianity in  places outside of the empire in the early centuries of the church, and the contribution of more remote remnants of Christianity in places like Egypt and Ethiopia.  To be sure, much of the ink used in these volumes describes Western History, but that is because most of the History of the Church took place in that region or under its influence.  Throughout the book, though, wherever something is happening outside of Western Europe, or among minorities, Gonzalez calls attention to it.


Despite the length of these volumes, it still reads as a fairly high level overview.  It is rare that any one theologian gets more than a few pages.  Augustine, for instance, who is very significant, has a relatively long section of 12 pages.  One must remember that this is an overview and introduction.  It is not likely that the average reader would want or expect much more than this.  This book is here to orient you in the history of the Church.


Included in these volumes are maps and pictures which prove helpful.  For those whose interest is piqued, the end of most chapters contain sometimes lengthy bibliographies which guide you towards further investigation.  Also quite helpful are the time-lines at the beginning of each book and the beginning of each chapter.  These help you to quickly grasp where you are in human history should you decide to read a specific chapter out of order.


This is great two volume set, and well worth the time if you have any interest in Church History.  They are not perfect volumes (for instance, Gonzalez slightly misunderstands Luther's theology), but as an overview, they are great.  Both volumes read very well and integrate the Christian story into the larger political and historical narratives of the day.  The indexes and tables of contents are very useful if you want to brush up on a specific subject, like, say, German Pietism.  It is a useful and readable history, and as a bonus, it has a quite attractive cover that looks great on a bookshelf.  

"Cor meum tibi offero, Domine, prompte et sincere."

The Anonymous Pastor

Before I came to Covenant Seminary, I took a couple of Church History classes through the seminary's distance education program.  They were great classes taught by professor emeratis Dr. Calhoun.  These lectures are available on Covenant Seminary's World-wide Classroom, and I highly recommend them.

As we got to the end of Reformation and Modern Church history, we spent some time reflecting on the history we studied. Over the centuries, there were many famous and important pastors and theologians who helped to shape and protect our faith.  Men like Ignatius, Irenaeus, Origen, Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, Augustine, Chrysostom, and Benedict (all from the first five centuries after Christ) are just some of the names of pastors that we know and respect down to this day.  But as Dr. Calhoun pointed out in his lecture, all these names, all of the many people mentioned in our text that we used, are just a tiny fraction of the men who served as pastors and elders in the church.  

For every famous pastor or theologian that we know about, there are thousands who remain anonymous.  The strength of the church is not found in the preaching of Chrysostom, Wycliffe, and Baxter, but in the untold number of men who have humbly worked each Sunday to bring God’s Word to their congregations. We must thank God for the Whitefields and Wesleys, but we must remember that it is a fully acceptable and wonderful calling to be an anonymous, faithful pastor.  To be one of the unnamed thousands who humbly preach each week. 

I know full well that I am not endowed with the gifts of these great men of the faith.  I am certain that I will not be well known in my day, let alone in history.  But if that were to be my goal, I could not be a faithful minister of the Word.  If it were my goal to be the next great world-famous pastor, I would not be able to preach the Gospel of grace.  My arrogance and ambition would get in the way.  The great men of Church History came by greatness quite by accident.  Some loathed the prominence that they found.  John Calvin, for instance, asked that he be buried in anonymous grave.  He was concerned that his fame would detract from the Gospel.  That he is remembered at all is likely quite a disappointment to him.

That is the sort of pastor that I want to be.  Anonymous, not famous.  Faithful to the Word.  One of the anonymous thousands who keep the Gospel flame burning bright for generations. 

"Cor meum tibi offero, Domine, prompte et sincere."

A Worthy Investment?

Eighteen of the 103 credits in the M.Div program at Covenant Seminary are language courses.  This number increases to Thirty-nine credits when you count the exegetical coursework.  That means a full 38% of the time and money spent on seminary is time spent either learning or using Greek and Hebrew.

That sort of expense of resources and time has lead some to question the value of spending so many credits learning the Bible's original languages.  Seminaries could get people out into the work of doing ministry much more quickly if the workload in Greek and Hebrew were lightened.  Some argue that the time invested in dead languages would be better spent in counseling or other church ministry courses.  After all, our English Bibles are outstanding, and programs like Bibleworks and Logos make research in the original languages much simpler.

To be straightforward with my position, I do think it is worth the time and effort.  I also know that it is not fun, especially in the beginning.  What follows is my assessment of the benefit that learning the original languages holds for pastors.   I am in no way seeking to condemn any pastor who does not know Greek.  I am also aware that, down the road, I too may be one of the majority that loses the languages after seminary.  Please do not think this is condemnatory.  I am merely explaining why I think it is a beneficial endeavor, and why those of us who are non-ordained members of the church should encourage our elders to make sure that our pastors have the time and means to study their Bibles in as much depth as they are able.

For those of us in Presbyterian churches, there is a confessional basis for these classes.  "The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which, at the time of the writing of it, was most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and, by His singular care and providence, kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentical; so as, in all controversies of religion, the Church is finally to appeal unto them."  Thus begins Chapter 1 section 8 of the Westminster Confession (the second half of which was quoted in my previous post).  What the Confession is explaining is that in theological disagreements it is the Greek* text to which we must appeal.  Some would say that with the lexica and software programs available one needn't know Greek in order to appeal it.  But in Greek, as with all languages, meaning is found context.  If our pastors do not know Greek syntax and structure (those issues that the advanced Greek classes deal with), then our church councils are at the mercy of theologians and academics instead of elders and pastors.


Tied closely to this is the idea of what a pastor should do, or rather, should be.  He should be an expert in his field.  I doubt anyone would want to go to a medical doctor who did not attend medical school, even if he appealed to the wide and useful knowledge base available.  "Look, I didn't go to med. school, but between wikipedia and web m.d., I'm pretty sure we can fix your tendinitis."  That would not be confidence inspiring. I don't mean to say that pastors who do not use Greek every week aren't experts, but I know that these men did learn the languages at some point.  Medical doctors won't remember everything they learned in med. school.  Needless to say, they learned enough to allow them to practice medicine well.  We should expect no less of our pastors, and part of that process is learning the original languages.

A third reason that Greek and Hebrew are important is exegesis.  Our English Bibles sometimes make exegetical decisions for us.  Take something like "the love of God" (ἡ αγαπη του θεου).  This phrase shows up often in 1 John.  Usually, the ESV translates this phrase as "the love of God."  The NIV sometimes translates it as "God's love."  The question in these texts, though, is whether John means our love for God or God's love for us (an objective or subjective genitive, to be precise).  The NIV editors believe it to be subjective, and so they translate it that way, but the Greek is ambiguous at this point leaving us to use the larger context to figure it out.

Another good example is 2 John 6.  In the ESV, "And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it."  The NIV translates it this way, "And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love."  Notice the difference?  The NIV defines "it."  In Greek, it is a feminine singluar pronoun, which in this passage can refer to "love," "commandment," or "truth."  If a pastor were to forgo learning and using Greek, he would likely assume that John is referring to love, but this may not be the case.  Knowing Greek does not give you all the answers, but it does lead you to ask the right questions.  If a pastor doesn't know Greek, he will always have to rely on the work of others as a primary, not secondary, source.

Another aspect in which an education in the original languages is valuable is that it makes us slow down.  This was a point that Dr. Agan made in class.  We are too good at English.  We can breeze through a text rather quickly and not see the little things.  In reading a second language we tend to read more carefully and precisely.  Another thing that happens in our first language is that we fail to stop and think about the tiny details.  For instance, sometimes there is one English word for a few Greek words, or vice versa.  In Greek if we are reading and see two different words for the verb "to see" in one paragraph, we might just slow down and ask why.

Yet one more reason that learning Greek, and learning it well, is a worthwhile undertaking is that it helps pastors understand the text in such a way that they need not appeal to their knowledge of Greek to make their point.  This may sound odd at first, but I think it is true.  If you know and understand the language, you can probably find a translation that emphasizes whatever nuance you are hoping to draw out.  If you don't have a good grasp of what is happening in a text in it's original language, you are more likely to quote a lexicon to make your point.  This can make your sermon sound too "heady" or, worse, cause people to think that they need to know Greek to understand the Bible.  To put it another way, I have heard it said that if you know something really well, you will be able to explain it in a simple way that a child can understand.  With a good understanding of what is happening in the Greek, a simple explanation in English will be sufficient and transparent in a sermon while concurrently delivering the nuance of the Greek text.

Finally, the more a pastor uses the Greek, the better he will be at it.  If our pastors don't learn Greek (and Hebrew) they won't use it.  If they do not receive a good background for it in seminary, they will rarely gain this on their own later.  A foreign language is a lot of work, and if one doesn't consistently use and practice it, it will continue to be hard.  When it remains hard it won't be used.  Software programs don't make the work easier.  It is much easier to know the language and use the tools as a help in answering exegetical questions or looking up similar grammatical constructions.  Using these tools to look up every tense and all of the uses of the dative is a task that will be far to burdensome for any pastor to bear.  Only in learning the language well enough to read it on one's own (or with the use of a good reader's Bible) will allow a pastor to keep his language skills in the midst of all of his other responsibilities.

In short, I think it is imperative that those of us who are training for the pastoral ministry should at least learn the languages well, even if, as pastors (myself likely included down the road), we don't use it on a daily basis.  While all of a pastor's duties are important, none are more so than knowing his Bible.  The best way to know any written work is knowing it in its original language.  It is hard.  I know it is hard.  My Greek grammar that has found itself tossed on the floor at times knows it is hard, but it is oh so rewarding.  The effort, the time, the expense that is spent learning these languages in seminary will be rewarded, over and over, down the road.  We must trust the wisdom of our father's in the faith who taught these languages before our time.  We must take it upon ourselves to teach and be taught them in the future, for God's glory and the church's good.

*and Hebrew.  In this post I will mostly be writing about Greek, since I have yet to learn Hebrew

"Cor meum tibi offero, Domine, prompte et sincere."

The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition

I know full well that this book will be irrelevant to many who read this blog, but it is so helpful that I felt compelled to include it in my list of book reviews.  This is a very valuable tool, and one that, in the short week I have owned it, has helped me greatly.


So what, exactly, is it?  It as an edition of the New Testament based on the idea that reading a language is one of the best ways to learn it.  This edition uses the standard UBS4/NA27 text of the New Testament.  What makes this a reader's edition is what is below the text.  Any word occuring 30 times or fewer in the New Testament is defined.  Instead of giving the full range of meaning the UBSRE gives a gloss of what the editors feel is the most likely reading.  You would not want to do any exegetical with these definitions, but for reading the text this works rather well.  All odd verb forms (like strong aorists) are parsed with voice, tense, mood, person, number and lexical form.  Thus, a typical page looks something like this:  

This picture is of the bottom 2/3 of a page.  On a full page it is generally about 2/3 text, 1/3 tools.

What this edition lacks is any critical apparatus or cross-references, but there are other Greek New Testaments that give you that (NA27 probably the best).  This book's aim is not critical exegesis, it is extensive reading (ER).  I took a linguistics class at West Chester University and did a lot of work on ER.  The theory says that a reader in a second language that knows or has access to 90% of the vocabulary in a fairly long, continuous, and cohesive text will see great improvement in his language skills.  That is what makes the UBSRE such a great resource.


I have started using this little book on a daily basis, and I have already gotten a better feel for the language of the New Testament and how it works.  The tedium of switching from text to lexicon has disappeared and been replaced by the ability to read the text at length with little interruption.  This Greek New Testament does not suddenly make Greek easy, by any stretch of the imagination, but it does make the Greek text readable.  That is, after all, the goal.  Anyone who has worked through a beginning Greek grammar and wants to stay in the language should get this book.*

*The United Bible Society will be coming out with a 2nd edition of this book in the near future.  It will contain some cross-reference (most likely to direct quotations and allusions to the Old Testament) as well as limited apparatus.  This means that you can probably get this for a very cheap price (like I did).


"Cor meum tibi offero, Domine, prompte et sincere." 

Children of the Living God by Sinclair Ferguson

"Children of the Living God" is not a long book, in fact it is fairly short.  The books brevity disguises its profundity.  In 125 pages Dr. Ferguson takes us through the doctrine of adoption in a way that will leave few Christians unaffected.  Those who read this brief and thorough work will come away with a new appreciation of how the believer relates to God the Father.

The book begins with this thesis: "[God's relationship to us as our Father] is the way -- not the only way, but the fundamental way -- for the Christian to think about himself or herself" (Italics his).  A lofty claim, to be sure, but over nine chapters, he makes his case well.

Being a child of God was not something that I thought of very much as I grew up.  I prayed to God as Father, but never contemplated the ramifications of that truth for my life.  Dr. Ferguson explains the nature of relationship through a close look at what the Bible says about our New Birth and Adoption.  He expounds on what our  life in God's family is like, and what traits his children posses.  He talks about the freedom we experience as his children.  He then writes a profound chapter concerning Fatherly Discipline that, in itself, is worth the price of the book.

While this book is short, it is quite dense.  Dr. Ferguson, to his credit, uses a lot of Scripture.  He does not spend a lot of time on illustrations or stories.  This means that each paragraph is exposition or application with little time to catch ones breath.  The feeling that I had in reading this was an overwhelming sense of the truth that Dr. Ferguson was explaining coupled with the conviction that our relationship to God as children must impact us on a daily basis.

I have heard from a student at another seminary that she had to read this book during her first semester as well.  I am thankful that Dr. Douglas assigned it here at Covenant.  After I read this book I realized that I need to talk about this more.  Our standing with God as children is a marvelous, gracious truth that is too often acknowledged and passed over or even ignored completely.  I pray that I don't fall victim to that temptation, and Dr. Ferguson's book has done much to prevent that outcome.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!... Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."

-1 John 3:1-2

"Cor meum tibi offero, Domine, prompte et sincere."

Translating the Bible

It was not that long ago that I would joke about the abbreviation of the New International Version of the Bible (NIV) standing for "Nearly Inspired Version."  Funny, that, but I was certainly speaking from ignorance (and arrogance?).  The theory behind the joke is that the NIV's dynamic equivalent translation philosophy was by default inferior to the English Standard Version's (ESV)- aka "English Superior Version"- formal equivalence translation philosophy.  The first tries to capture idea for idea what the text says, while the latter tries to capture the meaning word for word.  What I've discovered in the last two weeks of translating 1 John is that these categories, while helpful, are not absolute, and the idea that the formally equivalent versions are always and in toto superior for every purpose is a fallacy.  (As an aside, I've not yet read any of the 2011 NIV, but that is somewhat beside the point).

During our two week class Dr. Agan tried to drill into our heads that the question, "What is the best version of the Bible?" should be met with the answer, "For what purpose?"  Are you hoping to look into the sentence structure of the Greek, but don't know Greek?  The NASB might be a good bet. Are you hoping to read the Bible publicly, but leave some exegetical questions ambiguous (perhaps ones you plan to address in Sunday School or a Bible study)?  Give the ESV a turn.  Do you want to have some insight into the differences in different Greek manuscripts, but don't know how to use the apparatus in a Greek text?  Try one of the two just mentioned and a NKJV.  Do you want to read large passages of Scripture and have more of the interpretive issues answered for you?  The NIV is great for that.

There are many other variables as well.  The sorts of questions that I just reviewed would likely be issues that a person who is a fairly serious student of the Bible might ask.  But different versions work well for different types of people.  The best version for Jr. High student is probably (though not necessarily) different from the version a college student would use.  A child will use a different version from her parents.  An older person, especially in the South, will likely prefer a KJV.

Jorge Luis Borges once quipped, "The original is unfaithful to the translation."  George Borrow said, "Translation is at best an echo."  The author Umberto Eco said of translation that "Translation is the art of failure."  What these men are getting at is that you always loose something in the translation.  If you a capture a verbs aspect well, you may loose its tense.  If you get its tense, you may loose mood.  When writing a simple translation (non-annotated) it is difficult to convey every single thing that the original says in every instance.  It just cannot be done.

But what is lost in translation?  Without getting into modern language theory, the simple answer is nuance.  It is like a piece of music.  Whoever can read music is able to play a song if they have a notes on a page.  Think of a hymnal.  It's just a key signature, notes, and words.  If you can read music, your in good shape.  But in truly excellent music played by competent musicians there will be more on the page than just notes.  The music contains something called dynamic marks.  These tell the musician or conductor how loudly to play, how quickly to play, and the style in which to play.  It is the nuance of the music.  This last bit is what is lost in translation.

Obviously, you can understand a piece of music without the dynamics.  Our English Bible's capture the meaning of the Bible, and capture it rather brilliantly.  In fact, this was one of the major themes of the Protestant Reformation.  In my own church's confession this is made explicit.  In Chapter 1 section 8 the Assembly at Westminster wrote, "...because these original tongues [languages] are not known to all the people of God, who have right unto, and interest in the Scriptures, and are commanded, in the fear of God, to read and search them, therefore they are to be translated into the vulgar [common] language of every nation unto which they come that, the Word of God dwelling plentifully in all, they may worship Him in an acceptable manner; and, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, may have hope."

We are fortunate to speak one of the world's most used languages.  The number and quality of our English language translations is enviable.  There have been many faithful and careful translators who have made the Bible accessible.  But if we do not understand how difficult it is to translate anything from one language to another, we will fail to be generous to these outstanding translations.  Some people fall into the arrogant, ignorant attitude that I embraced all too recently.  We as Christians should never give someone reason to doubt that the Bible they hold is the Word of God.  If they are using a faithful translation (which would exclude things like the New World Translation) we should encourage others to read it and receive the Spirit through it.

May we all take the advice of the childlike voice that lead to Augustine's conversion, "take up and read" in whichever version you prefer.

(In the next few days or so, I plan to look into this topic again, namely to evaluate the question, "should pastors take the time and money to learn the original languages if our English translations are so good?"  In that post I will write a few more details about how some of these Bibles translate the same Greek passage in different ways).

Some of the Bibles laying around the house: ESV, NEB, Living Bible, NASB, KJV, NKJV, NIV,  USB4, NA27

"Cor meum tibi offero, Domine, prompte et sincere."