Was Dispensationalism -Reply

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>>>If Greek is so dangerous, then why did our LORD choose to communicate His Gospel
to us in that particular tongue?  Please consider the doubt your statement must
cast on *ANY* translation from the Greek...
I think that your statement needs to be reconsidered.
-- Robert Jay Brown III  rj@eli.wariat.org  



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Greek I do not believe was specially chosen by God, it just happened to 
be the language that the majority of the middle east understood as a 
trade tounge.  Therefore many of pauls books were written in greek.<<<




First of all, Greek want not merely the language that "many of Paul's books were
written" in...it is the language that ALL of Paul's letters used as well as the
rest of the books in the New Testament.  The entire New Testament is Greek.

Secondly, Greek was chosen by God.  Nearly every New Testament writer was a born
Jew who (more than likely) knew Hebrew.  Hebrew was a potential candidate.
Aramaic was the common spoken language to the Jews in Palestine and was often
used in religious writings and was even utilized to a minor extent in the Old
Testament.  Aramaic was a potential candidate.  Latin was the official language
of the Roman Empire of which Palestine was a part and was spoken by most in the
Empire.  Many of the extent written documents from the same time period of the
New Testament were written in Latin.  Latin was a potential candidate.  The
bottom line...God chose the Greek language.  Besides, even if there were not any
other languages to choose from, the fact that Greek was such a popular language
at the time is because of God's providence.  If it is such a weak and dangerous
language than why didn't God see to it that another language would have been the
popular written language during the pivotal time when He was to transmit His
Word for all generations.  He could have caused ANY language to be the popular
language.

This is not to say that there is something intrinsically divine about the Greek
language.  But, it is certain that the language is not weak of dangerous.  I am
no expert, but I believe the prominent opinion by linguistic experts that New
Testament Greek is a beautiful, descriptive and clear language.

Recommendation:  All interested in the recent discussions about biblical
languages, translations, original texts, etc. should read Bro. Bernard's book
_God's Infallible Word_.  It is a wonderful, inspiring book written by a true
man of God that dispels many ignorant myths about these kind of issues.


***********************
 Kirk Van Ooteghem  
 00kmvanooteg@bsu.edu
 University Libraries
 Ball State University
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