Singing Greek Prayers for Greek Learning

'Kumbaya' is that old campfire song that has been sung so much that it tends to usher forth groans. But many Papua New Guineans also know the song, at least in the pidgin version. And so we sing it in Greek as a prayer at least a couple times a day to let Jesus know that his presence is welcome in our study of Greek. He is Lord of the beginning, middle and end, just as we started singing from Revelation 1:8 on the first day of class. And so we also invite Jesus to come and be present with us in our study of Greek:

ἔρχου ὧδε κύριε, (3x)
ὦ Ἰησοῦ κύριε

Come here Lord, (3x)
Oh, Jesus Lord.

Having the guitar close by to sing these songs is a good tool for when we need to maintain our focus on learning Greek as a spiritual discipline. It can be easily forgotten when we're learning to recognize and write a new alphabet, forcing our tongues to make new sound sequences, and trying to distinguish between all those little diacritical marks that we see in the text.

Greek Diphthongs, Diacritics and Punctuation

Here's the next Greek lesson for those who mastered the alphabet...

1. Greek includes these diphthongs (two vowels that make one sound). Notice that four of them have Upsilon as the second vowel and four of them have Iota as the second vowel:

 αυ     αι

 ου     οι

 ευ     ει

 ηυ     υι

2. Greek has these improper diphthongs (a small iota written under α, η, or ω). We can remember which vowels can have a iota subscript by noticing that it is only the three vowels that have some kind of dent or open area at the bottom of the vowel. All the other vowels have rounded bottoms.

 ᾳ  ῃ  ῳ

3. The Greek letter gamma (γ) is pronounced as /n/ or /ng/ (called a 'gamma nasal') when it comes before other velar letters (made with the back of the tongue touching the top of the mouth):

γ is pronounced  /n/  or  /ng/  before κ, χ, ξ, or another γ

αγκα = angka
αγχα = angkha
αγξα = angxa
αγγα = angga

4. Greek includes these other diacritical marks:

 Accents:
  ά    (acute accent)
  ὰ    (grave accent)
  α` or ᾶ   (circumflex accent)

 Accents with breathing marks:
            smooth  rough
  acute       ἄ       ἅ
  grave       ἂ       ἃ
  circumflex  ἆ       ἇ

 Apostrophe: ’
  (δι’  αὐτοῦ'  from   διά  αὐτοῦ,  'through him')

When a preposition ends with a vowel and the next word begins with a vowel, the final vowel of the first word drops out and is marked with an ’ apostrophe. This is similar to English contractions (I am becomes I’m, and we are becomes we’re )

 Diaeresis: αϊ

(two dots over the second vowel to show that this is NOT a  diphthong producing a single sound, e.g. Ἠσαϊας, Isaiah)

5. Greek includes some punctuation marks that differ from English:

            Greek  English
 Comma:     λόγος,  word,
 Full stop: λόγος.  word.
 Colon:     λόγος•  word;
 Question:  λόγος;  word?

.

Researching God's Word, My Sometimes Idol

From my last post, I must recognize that I need to be the learner just as much as the teacher regarding this call from Scott Hafemann that I passed on to my students:

I would like you to think about Greek as loving the Lord with your mind in the same way that you engage in loving the Lord with your heart and your soul and your strength in all the other pursuits of your life.

Oh, how often I need to hear this in my own daily ministry routine. It's ironic that I can be so deep into God's word—preparing for a translation session, a teaching assignment, or delving into a biblical research interest—and yet I can easily approach God's word as a work project devoid of any real relationship with God.

I'm not talking about reading the Bible as a task to be checked off. No, for me it's that I too often fall in love with the practice of the reading the word instead of loving the Presence of the Word who can speak into every minute of my life. I love my work, and I enjoy the flowers alongside of the road. But I can get so engrossed in the details of the exegetical pathway that I lose sight of the journey's destination. In this sense, even my time in God's word can become an idol. It reminds me of something that my first undergraduate Bible teacher, Carl Schultz, used to say at Houghton College:

Make sure that in your exegesis you do not exit Jesus.

I think he was talking about a certain brand of scholars who tend to divorce the divine Jesus from the biblical text. But the warning applies equally well to my pursuit of biblical scholarship without it being a spiritual discipline offered in love to God.

When the study of God's word lacks devotion to God himself, it could be an idol for me. Do I love my academic discipline more than my Lord and my God?
μὴ γένοιτο. May it never be!

But he gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

James 4.6-8

Lord, give me your grace each day to draw near to you, and won't you arouse me from my spiritual wandering when I simply follow the daily grind?

Meaning of ψιλον

The question came up in class about whether the letters of the Greek alphabet had meanings like so many of the Hebrew letters do. It's clear that Omicron and Omega are related 'o' vowels as we can tell when Omicron gets lengthened to Omega in subjunctive forms. The very names of these vowels mean "small 'o'" (o-micron) and "big 'o'" (o-mega).

We also know that epsilon and eta are related in the same manner. So my students wanted to know the meaning of ψιλον found in Epsilon and Upsilon. Although Eta (as the long 'e' vowel) relates to Epsilon in the same way that Omega relates to Omicron, they do not correspond in the meaning of their names the same way that Omega and Omicron do. It is not 'e-micron' and 'e-mega'! So does the 'ta' have a meaning in the vowel Eta?

And what does ψιλον mean? I have seen suggestions of 'plain', 'bare', 'simple', and 'strait'. But that also raises the question of the Upsilon. What was the corresponding non-plain, non-bare, non-simple, or non-strait u vowel earlier in the history of the Greek language? It was the Digamma. Both Upsilon and Digamma derived from the Phoenecian letter Waw. Linguistically, that the /u/ sound would be related to the /w/ sound makes perfect sense.

Knowing a little bit of this Greek language history helps us with Koine Greek. Why doesn't the verb ἀκούω contract? The Upsilon has replaced an earlier Digamma. Why doesn't the verb καλέω lengthen its contract vowel? A Digamma had formerly followed the Epsilon (examples from William Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek, 1993, pp. 134, 160).

But can anyone clarify the meaning of ψιλον and tell us what its corresponding non-ψιλον vowel means?

Luther and Hafemann on Studying Greek

When I first found out that I would be teaching the introductory New Testament Greek course to national Bible translators and pastors in Papua New Guinea this month, I had to write my former Greek teacher, Scott Hafemann, right away. He was the first one who ever thought I would be doing this. Back when I was taking his classes for the Wheaton College Graduate School in 1998-99, I knew I was studying Greek so I could be a better qualified advisor to national Bible translators. But he was confident that I would be training mother tongue translators to use the Greek text for themselves.

So when I wrote to Scott with the news, he immediately made available to me the CD for his soon-to-be-released online course for distance learning through the Semlink Office at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

In the first lesson on the CD, Hafemann reminded me of a quote from Martin Luther that he had recited for us in class in 1999. Luther talks about how important the study of Greek is…

Insofar as we love the gospel, to that same extent, let us study the ancient tongues. And let us notice that without the knowledge of languages we can scarcely preserve the gospel. Languages are the sheath which hides the sword of the Spirit, they are the chest in which this jewel is enclosed, the goblet holding this draught. Where the languages are studied, the proclamation will be fresh and powerful, the scriptures will be searched, and the faith will be constantly rediscovered through ever new words and deeds.

I explained Luther's images of the sheath, the chest, and the goblet so that my English-as-a-second-language students could fully grasp the word pictures. Papua New Guineans frequently use 'tok piksa' in their daily conversations. Judging from the nods and groans that accompanied the teaching, I believe Luther's message spoke powerfully to the students. One student even came and asked for the quote after class. He got the following quote from Hafemann as a bonus.

Echoing Luther in his online course, Hafemann states:

Our study of the Greek language is not an end in itself, but we study Greek for the sake of knowing scripture, and we know scripture for the sake of understanding God’s self-revelation to us, and we want to understand God’s self-revelation to us that we might live in relationship with him. So Greek for the sake of scripture, scripture for the sake of knowing the Lord, and knowing the Lord for the sake of living in relationship with him. Greek and the gospel: inextricably linked...

It’s a spiritual discipline. Learning Greek is not simply an academic exercise. It’s a calling and it’s a privilege. It is a spiritual exercise like any other spiritual exercise, whether it’s prayer, fasting, worship. I would like you to think about Greek as loving the Lord with your mind in the same way that you engage in loving the Lord with your heart and your soul and your strength in all the other pursuits of your life.

That is what I am asking my Greek students to do here in PNG. Throughout the 6 hours that we have together each day, we intersperse the lectures and group activities with prayer, singing, Christian greetings, and lessons from God's word that illustrate the Greek material. They are used to hearing explanations of God's word through two or three subsequent translations, and they said "maybe something has gone missing." So they are motivated to learn Greek so they can really hear God's message to them and live in relationship with him.

Learning Greek is a Spiritual Discipline

My passion for Greek was ignited in 1998 when I started graduate school at Wheaton College and took classes from Dr. Scott Hafemann. His teaching was a model for academic rigor that is not divorced from a life of faith lived in service for others. His challenge was that the study of Greek not simply be an academic exercise, but a spiritual discipline in which we love God with our minds (cf. Mark 12.30). This was a challenge I needed to hear.

So, this is how I seek to teach my intensive introductory New Testament Greek course to Papua New Guineans this month. One of the things we are doing as we learn Greek is to learn Greek scripture songs.

We started with the alphabet. In Revelation 1.8 we read that "Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the one who was, and is, and is to come, the ruler over all things." So Jesus used the Greek alphabet to explain his sovereignty. He is ruler of all. And that means he is ruler over this Greek course. An intensive NT Greek course that meets for 6 hours a day for 6 weeks is difficult! But Jesus is ruler of this course as well.

So the first song we learned goes like this:

Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon,
Zeta, eta, theta, iota,
Kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron,
Pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon,
Phi, chi, psi, omega,
Ἰησοῦς ἐστίν τὸ Ἄλφα καὶ τὸ Ὦ
(Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega)

It sure is pretty powerful to hear a room full of Papua New Guineans belting this out full voice on the first day of class. Although it seems a little bit like 1st grade with the alphabet in big letters up on the wall across the length of the room, it's not just an academic exercise. Even the foundational lesson on the alphabet is a spiritual discipline of singing praise to Jesus as Lord.

Greek Alphabet and Pronunciation

This was covered today during the first day of class.

For those of you who would say that Greek is "Greek to me," here's a lesson for you...

1. Here is the Greek alphabet in capital letters and lower case letters with their names:

Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ
Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω

α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ
μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω

alpha beta gamma delta epsilon zeta eta theta iota kappa lambda mu nu xi omicron pi rho sigma tau upsilon phi chi psi omega

2. These Greek letters look similar to Latin letters and also represent similar sounds:

α β δ ε ι κ ο ς τ υ
alpha beta delta epsilon iota kappa omicron sigma tau upsilon

3. These Greek letters look like Latin letters but represent different sounds:

η (ēta) is not 'n'. The Greek letter η makes an /e/ sound, transliterated as ē.

ν (nu) is not 'v'. The Greek letter ν makes an /n/ sound.

ρ (rho) is not 'p'. The Greek letter ρ makes an /r/ sound.

χ (chi) is not 'x'. The Greek letter χ makes a /kh/ sound, transliterated as 'ch'.

ω (ōmega) is not 'w'. The letter ω makes an /o/ sound, transliterated as ō.

4. These Greek letters are transliterated with two letters:

θ = th
ξ = ks, xs, or x
φ = ph, pronounced /f/
χ = ch, pronounced /kh/
ψ = ps

5. The Greek letter sigma is written differently when it appears at the end of words:

σεισμός, seismos, 'shaking, earthquake'
σής, sēs, 'moth'
σιτιστός, sitistos, 'fattened'

6. Greek vowels and ρ (rho) must have breathing marks ( ̔ or ̓ ) if they begin a word:

ἀ, a (smooth breathing)
ἁ, ha (rough breathing – makes 'h' sound)

ῥ (rho) and ὑ (upsilon) always have rough breathing when they begin a word.

7. Greek has two sets of vowels that relate to one another:

ω (ō mega) is the long form of ο (o micron)
η (ēta) is the long form of ε (epsilon)