It's all Greek to me

[carlos]

Last two weeks I have been traveling around Greece. Lots of interesting historical places as well as beautiful scenery, great food, nice weather, cheap prices...

 

When we visited Bethel in Athens, I asked our tour guide, Marcos, how much do they understand when they read the Greek Scriptures in their original language. I knew Greek language today is different from ancient times, but I wanted to know how different. The brother told me they can read it and understand most of what it says, but it's arduous to decypher because many old grammar twists have disappeared in the modern speech. An approximate comparison would be for a modern English speaker to read Chaucer:

 

This frere bosteth that he knoweth helle,
And God it woot, that it is litel wonder;
Freres and feendes been but lyte asonder.

 

That's why the organization prepared the NWT in Modern Greek, which is easy to understand. I found that interesting. They can still read what the apostles wrote 2000 years ago and understand it reasonably well! And they can even read inscriptions that are almost one thousand year older, since they still use the same letters!

 

When the Watchtower explains the meaning of some Greek term, like "apostle" or "apostasy", for Greek brothers it is redundant, because that's exactly what the word means for them.

 

That led me to another crazy idea. Many difficult words we use, especially science-related words, come from Greek (telescope, stomatologist, arthropod...). But for a Greek they are directly understandable. For example, as a child at the school I had to learn by heart that butterflies and moths are "lepidoptera", from Greek lepis 'scale' and pteros 'wing". But for a Greek student, "lepidoptera" means exactly "scaled wings". So for them it's not a mysterious name, it's self-explanatory! Not fair!

 

 

 

[Beggar for the Spirit]

Hi Carlos,

 

I am happy for you that you get to vacation in Greece!    

Besides experiencing the good food and culture,

I think it is great you are learning more Bible history

and knowledge of the Greek language!

 

Thanks for posting your conversation with the Tour Guide from Bethel.

That was very interesting, I had always been wondering the same thing if

the Greek brothers understood the ancient Greek?

 

Please tell us some more! 

[GStorrs46]

Carlos,

 

   I envy you. I've always wanted to visit the Bible lands and see for myself the places and imagine the events

that we read about in the Scriptures. While you were in Greece, where all did you get to visit ? What new insights

did actually being in the places we read about in the Bible give you ? And how is the work going now in Greece ?

I know in times past they experienced a lot of opposition by the Greek Orthodox Church, even to the extant I

believe for a while our public preaching work was banned. Do they now have full freedom to practice the truth ?

And finally, I'll bet much of that Greek food was to die for. You have got me working up an appetite for some

of my favorite Greek food. I'll look forward to talking to you about so many things.

 

                                                                                                                                                GStorrs46

[GrumpysWife]

Carlos,

 

   I envy you. I've always wanted to visit the Bible lands and see for myself the places and imagine the events

that we read about in the Scriptures. While you were in Greece, where all did you get to visit ? What new insights

did actually being in the places we read about in the Bible give you ? And how is the work going now in Greece ?

I know in times past they experienced a lot of opposition by the Greek Orthodox Church, even to the extant I

believe for a while our public preaching work was banned. Do they now have full freedom to practice the truth ?

And finally, I'll bet much of that Greek food was to die for. You have got me working up an appetite for some

of my favorite Greek food. I'll look forward to talking to you about so many things.

 

                                                                                                                                                GStorrs46

Ditto..............

[rocket]

How do they say "lucky duck" in Greek? Of all places in Europe, I think I would enjoy Greece as much or more than other countries. Just to walk in the same cities as Paul and other disciples of Christ would be encouraging.

[carlos]

Thanks for posting your conversation with the Tour Guide from Bethel.That was very interesting, I had always been wondering the same thing if the Greek brothers understood the ancient Greek?

Please tell us some more! 

 

Greek language has a history of nearly three thousand years, and logically it has changed a lot during that time. The language Greeks speak today is quite different from the Classical Greek spoken by Plato and Aristotle, and even from the Koine Greek spoken in the time of the apostles.

 

Yet the Orthodox Church insists that the Bible be read in ancient Greek and religious services are held in an old variant of Greek that is hardly understood by the average man. So when Greek people go to church, they hardly understand what is being preached by the priest, and the same happens when they try to read the Scriptures. In contrast, when they attend our meetings or read the NWT and our publications, they can understand the scriptural truths in their everyday language.

 

While you were in Greece, where all did you get to visit ? What new insights did actually being in the places we read about in the Bible give you ? And how is the work going now in Greece ?

I know in times past they experienced a lot of opposition by the Greek Orthodox Church, even to the extant I believe for a while our public preaching work was banned. Do they now have full freedom to practice the truth ?

And finally, I'll bet much of that Greek food was to die for.

 

We spent a couple days in Athens before traveling the Peloponese, then continental Greece through Delphi and the Thermopylae and as far north as Meteora.

 

In Athens I loved visiting the Areopagus. There is not much to see there, since it was just a hill where idle intellectuals used to meet to discuss philosophy, but it's just across the Acropolis, so it's easy to imagine Paul talking to the Athenians while pointing at the Parthenon and the other magnificent temples just in front of him. There was a painting at Bethel from some of our publications that depicts exactly that. Seeing so many temples and hearing so many myths in the Acropolis I couldn't help imagining Paul walking there, looking at the idols with disgust but at the same time paying enough attention to find an altar dedicated to an unknown god. Today there is a bronze plate at the foot of the Areopagus with Paul's speech engraved in it.

 

Paul's talk at the Areopagus

 

The Acropolis from the Areopagus

 

Another interesting visit is Corinth, a ride of less than one hour from Athens. The old city is now just a heap of ruins, but you could tell it was a big and prosperous city in Bible times, with lots of stores and businesses. In the agora, the main street, still stands a platform called the bema, that was used by the authorities to address the people. This platform is very likely the "judgement seat" mentioned in Acts 18:12-17, where proconsul Gallio refused to judge Paul.

 

Another interesting thing about Corinth is that that's where the Peloponnese is united to continental Greece by a land bridge only four miles wide. In Bible times there were two sea ports, one on each side of the isthmus: Cenchreae (where sister Phoebe lived, according to Romans 16:1, and where Paul had his hair cut due to a vow according to Acts 18:18) and Lechaeum. Many ships, instead of sailing 250 miles in treacherous waters around the Peloponnese, took a shortcut sailing to Lechaeum and having all their cargo unloaded and then loaded on another ship at Cenchreae, or vice versa. They even built a track so that smaller ships could be hauled overland by oxen fron one harbor to the other. Of course, in any case they paid a tax, so that explains why Corinth was such a prosperous city. Today there is a canal that crosses it, so there is no longer need of oxen.

 

The brothers in Greece have suffered a lot of persecution fueled by the Orthodox clergy, especially regarding military service. Some brothers have spent many years in prison. Fortunately, after several favorable sentences from the European Court our brothers today can preach with freedom. Currently there are some 30,000 publishers in Greece. Interestingly, despite being a language spoken only by some 14 million people, almost all of our publications are translated into Greek, while many (like Insight on the Scriptures) are not available in languages spoken by many more millions.