Biblical Languages

 I had my first introduction to biblical languages in high school.  I took Latin in high school and then continued on in college. "Latin?" you say.  "No part of the Bible was originally written in Latin."  Of course, you would be right. But the translators of the King James version of the Bible drew heavily from the Latin Vulgate to create their English translation.  That is obvious to anyone who has read the Vulgate.  The translators even preserved much of the word order of the Vulgate, that sounds awkward in English but pretty normal in Latin. Plus, about 50% of English words have Latin roots.

In college I took my first class of Greek. I continued studying the Greek New Testament after college on my own.  The New Testament was originally written in Greek because, at that time, Greek was the "lingua franca" of the Roman Empire. When I first started to read the New Testament in Greek, I was surprised how much further it was from English than the Latin was. Not only is it written with a different alphabet, but there are fewer cognates and the structure of the Koine Greek language is more complex than Latin, and much more complex than English (e.g. each Greek verb has around 200 different forms). 

I have only just recently started to study Hebrew. I find it even more removed from English than Greek is. There is the different alphabet, and the reading right to left thing. Hebrew use of verbs is very different as well.  It doesn't have as many conjugations as Greek, but there are the Binyanim, which is a funky verb thing that we don't have in English or Greek. (Funky, but actually very cool!)  There are also fewer English words with Hebrew roots. 

So why is this important?  When two languages are alike it is easier to understand what the original author meant and transmit it into the new language.  When the languages are more dissimilar, more is left to the translator to interpret what the original author meant and render it into the new language. I guess where I am going with this is that there was a lot of interpretation that went into the translation of the Old Testament.  If we were to translate it word for word, it would sound very strange to our English ears. Even then it wouldn't be a "pure" translation, because word meanings are not equivalent.  Each word in each language has a cloud of meanings.  A translator has to use textural clues to pick which meaning to bring over into the translation.  For example, I have been memorizing Psalm 46:10 in Hebrew. It is a very famous verse that starts out "Be still, and know that I am God."  I had always thought that "Be still" meant "stop and reverently listen".  But my Hebrew dictionary app suggests it is more like "relax".  That really changes the meaning of the verse for me.

And this is why I am trying to learn Hebrew.