Quote:
Originally Posted by Singrkel
I guess for clarity I will explain myself. When I presented my Pastor with the hair/skirt issue, he told me that you can't use what the guy on actseighteen says because he uses the wrong translation, ie feminine and masculine. He says unless you understand the greek language, you shouldn't use strong's because you can twist things around to mean something that it's not. My husband and I are just more confused now than ever. Some people say one thing, and some people say another thing. How do I know who's got it right? If my mind can be changed from something that I once believed so strongly in, how do I know which side is right? When I used to pray or study this, it all just made sense. Now when I pray, I feel something totally different. I feel like I'm being torn in two. I just cried so hard all the way home from church last night. I keep trying not to think about this or talk about it, but I can't. I feel like I'm going to crack! My husband is a 5th generation pentecostal, and he's just as lost as I am....
|
I've studied Greek on and off for several years now, but am not an expert in Greek, certainly not to the point that I'd feel comfortable giving all the rules and breakdown of when to use masculine/feminine etc.
But I will say this. With all due respect to your pastor, I've studied enough of it to know to know that you dont need to "know the Greek language" as he pastor says,
to do word studies in Greek and understand what the precise meaning of a word is.
Pastors and preachers do it all the time, without "knowing the language", as do many laypeople.
If you choose to learn the Greek language, it'll takes years of study. But it doesn't take that long, with the right resources, to accurately study out and nail down the proper meaning of a word from the original language in their specific verse context.
If you'd like to assemble a mini-library of Greek/word-study tools, I'd recommend Strong's,Vine's expository dictionary og NT words, and a separate Greek-English concordance & Greek lexicon as a good starting point.
If you want to go heavy duty, I'd recommend to start with .. "Basic Greek in 30 minutes a day" by James Found; Interlinear Greek-English New Testament by George Ricker Berry, and New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the New Testament by CL Rogers. (But start off slowly, though, before you go buying up a bunch of books. Its a mistake to buy too many books too soon.)
Also
Greek Tutor is a great home-study software program that you might be able to get fairly cheap on Amazon, or Ebay as I did.
(these resources I've mentioned above are also on my
Amazon.com review page, if you want to look into them more)
---
But like I said, don't be intimidated or discouraged by what anyone has to say about the matter. Start with a good lexicon and you'll be well on your way. All the best.
Hybrid Mode
