Beware of English-Only Bible Study
ἔλεγε γὰρ ἐν ἐαυτῆ, Ἐὰν μόνον ἅψωμαι τοῦ ἱματίου αὑτοῦ, σωθήσομαι.
—ΚΑΤΑ ΜΑΤΘΑΙΟΝ 9:21 [i]
For she said within herself, “If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole”.
—Matthew 9:21 [ii]
Last class, we noted that, in John 14:15, Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” We agreed that we were unable to either do what He says, or keep His commandments, until we know what He actually said and what He actually commanded. Understanding General Principle Number 1—a translation is NOT the Word of God—we knew that we couldn’t really be sure what He said and what He commanded, unless we consult the original Word of God: the Greek New Testament.
We also noted that, because of the greater degree of nuance and complexity of the Greek language, and the resultant need for translators to compromise for the sake of readability, none of our word-for-word English translations can ever transmit the full meaning of the original text. This means that, if we form our understanding of Scripture from the English Bible only, then errors in our theology and doctrine are inevitable. This gives us our second General Principle of the course: Beware of English-Only Bible Study.
To demonstrate this point, let’s do a word study.
The Whole Thing
I ended up doing this same study one morning while reading J. Freeman’s Manners and Customs of the Bible. On page 345, under the heading 652, FRINGES, Freeman first cites Matthew 9:20…
And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment.
…then writes the following commentary:
According to the Mosaic law every Jew was obliged to wear a fringe or tassel at each of the four corners of the outer garment, one thread of each tassel to be deep blue. These tassels were to be to them a perpetual reminder of the law of God, and of their duty to keep it. See Num. 15:38-39; Deut. 22:12. This was the “hem” which the poor woman touched, supposing there was some peculiar virtue in it. So the people of Gennesaret brought their sick to Christ for a similar purpose. See Mark 6:56, where the same word in the original, κρασπεδον, is rendered "border." The Pharisees prided themselves greatly on these tassels, considering them as marks of special sanctity in the wearers, and therefore sought to enlarge their size. See Matt. 23:5.[iii]
Right; first teaching point: Books such as Freeman’s are the sorts of extra-Biblical publications that can be of tremendous help to our study with the Greek NT. Since language and culture are inextricably linked; to study one is to study the other. A modern student of the Bible is at a distinct disadvantage if he knows nothing of the customs, manners and mores of the 1st Century. These books help to lessen that disadvantage.
As an aside, it’s also interesting to note that the author assumes the reader will be familiar enough with Greek that he prints the word κρασπεδον in Greek script, rather than transliterate it as a modern publication would do. He (and the original publishers) could afford to make such assumptions in 1875 when the book was first published; Greek and Latin were mandatory subjects in school then.
The first thing to note is that κρασπεδον was translated into two different English words: “hem” and “border”. Not such a big deal, but still slightly problematic because the English word “border” can mean any kind of border—particularly of geographical areas—whereas κρασπεδον only means the border of a garment.[1]
Of course, however annoying this misguided translation might be, it isn’t going to affect our understanding of the Bible overly much. But noting the translation “error” caused me to look more closely at the meaning of the Scriptures around the word κρασπεδον. I saw that they were concerned with the ideas of healing and faith—or, in other words, the doctrine of Faith Healing. In fact, a large component of our understanding of this doctrine is hinged around these verses; particularly with regards to the word “whole”, as in the phrase “your faith has made you whole”. I decided to look closer…
Let’s turn to the following verses with the word “whole” in them:
Mark 4:1 “…and the whole multitude was by the see…”
Greek word: πᾶς [Strong’s 3956], all, any, every
Rev 16:14 “…and of the whole world…”
Greek word: ὁλος [Strong’s 3650], whole, entire
Matt 9:12 (& Mar 2:17) “They that be whole need not…”
Greek word: ἱσχύω [Strong’s 2480], to have force, power
Matt 12:13 “…it was restored whole, like as…”
Greek word: ὑγιής [Strong’s 5199], healthy, sound (in body)
Now, let’s look at the verses concerned with touching Jesus’ hem and being made whole.
Matt 9:21 “…I shall be whole.”
Matt 9:22 “…thy faith hath made thee whole…”
Mark 5:28 “…I shall be whole.”
Mark 13:13 “…the same shall be saved…”
Greek word: σώζω [Strong’s 4982], to save, keep safe, rescue
Remember the acrostic ΙΧΘΥΣ—Ιησους Χριστος Θεος Υιος Σωτηρ (Jesus Christ God Son Saviour)? Notice the word for saviour; it is a form of the word σώζω.
Now look at Mark 5:34:
And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτῆ· θυγάτηρ, ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέ σε· ὕπαγε εἰς εἰρήνην, καὶ ἴσθι ὑγιὴς ἀπὸ τῆς μάστιγός σου.
Note: Salvation and physical healing are two different operations. The Lord first tells the woman that her faith saved her, not that it healed her—yes, she was healed, but not because of her faith. The Lord then tells the woman, “Now that you are saved and healed, go in peace and be physically restored from your plague” (the word “plague” here is actually “scourge”—which suggests punishment or torture); I think He’s telling her she can now go and rejoin society; she can have her life back!
You see, the woman would have been suffering 12 years of social ostracism because of her ailment—Jewish women were considered unclean during menstruation and had to live separated from their families and communities. When they were finished, they were obliged to make a sin offering and a burnt offering in the temple (see Lev 15:19-30 & 20:18; Ezek 18:5-6).
So, can you see where the details of our doctrine of Faith Healing might be fine-tuned through studying the GNT? Would you go so far as to say that the English translation is something of an obstacle to true understanding?
In any case, it is to the believer’s advantage to have enough familiarity with NT Greek in order to avoid those, ahem, misunderstandings. And thanks to the multiplicity of study aids available today, there is no need to be fluent in Greek to do this. The proper application of a minimum of language knowledge is all that’s required.
[1] The Greek word for geographical border is μεθόριος.
[i] All Greek citations from THE NEW TESTAMENT IN GREEK ACCORDING TO THE TEXT FOLLOWED IN THE AUTHORISED VERSION TOGETHER WITH THE VARIATIONS ADOPTED IN THE REVISED VERSION, edited by F.H.A. Scrivener; CAMBRIDGE: At the University Press 1949.
[ii] Whilst all English Bible verses are taken from the King James Version, modern punctuation and quotation markings will often be used where appropriate without reference (I.e. Capitalization after question marks; double inverted commas on opening quotes, then single inverted commas for internal quotations.).
[iii] Bible Manners and Customs, James M. Freeman, NEW JERSEY, Logos International, reprinted 1972 from original printing of Nelson and Philips, NEW YORK. All Roman numeral references have been anglicised.
