A Reason to Learn Biblical Greek (4): Because it's hard!

Why do people climb Mount Everest? It’s not because it’s relaxing. So many people have died trying to climb that mountain—it couldn’t possibly be a relaxing experience. It’s not because it will get them fame and notoriety—go ahead, try to name five people who have finished that climb…I’ll wait.

They do it because it’s hard.

The difficulty of a task is more often than not why we do something. No one runs a marathon because it’s easy. No run gets a PhD because it’s easy. No one goes to the moon because it’s easy. We do those things, as President Kennedy once said, “…because they are hard.”

The same can be said for learning biblical Greek. Why in the world would anyone want to learn Greek? Because it’s hard.

There’s nothing particularly easy about learning the Greek of the New Testament. You have thousands of words to memorize. You have grammar to learn; grammar that’s often different from the grammar that’s natural to you. You have paradigms to memorize and put into practice. We’re talking over 30 grammar paradigms that don’t just need to be understood, but need to be memorized cold. You have to then deal with all those places in the Greek New Testament where the rules you learned get changed because, as with all languages, rules are made to be broken!

But, as it is with climbing a mountain, running a marathon, or even going to the moon, the task is worth it. And it’s worth it not because it will get you fame and notoriety—if that’s what you’re looking for in Greek, you might as well go climb a mountain.

No, it’s worth it because God has called us to work, and work hard as we work, and to learn biblical Greek is hard work.

So, why not go for it?

If you’re interested in learning biblical Greek and you’d like some help along the way, please email me at kevindavis1986@gmail.com. I’d be happy to discuss with you some different teaching options that will help you get into the Greek of the New Testament!