For more than thirty years,I was schooled, in a religious organization that you must study Greek in order to understand God’s word and find His salvation. It was their feeling, as it was mine at the time, that in order to adequately know the mind of God you must have and use this list of books shown below.
- The King James Version Bible
- A Greek-English Interlinear Bible (Berry or one of several available)
- Greek-English Analytical Concordance of the Greek-English New Testament by John Stegenga
- The New Testament from the Greek Text as Established by Bible Numerics by Ivan Panin
It was also felt that it wouldn’t hurt if you also had a Vine’s Expository Dictionary, Strong’s or Young’s Concordance, and a host of other books too. The more the better. In my own studies I used many different books, most of them large, and have no doubt they weighed over one-hundred pounds if weighed together. I have changed my mind on that mode of thinking,have sold most of the books, and here is why?
Let’s start with book number 1: The King James Bible. The King James Bible was first produced in 1611 and was the first bible to be reproduced on a wide scale. Previously, individual texts were printed by hand on scrolls and papyrus sheets; were available for viewing if you were important enough; but the writings had never been widely printed for a person to acquire as a single volume. Some of the wealthy had handwritten texts in their library; copied from the original scrolls or perhaps copies of the original scrolls; but this was strictly something only the wealthy could ever possibly afford. The bible, as we know it today in a single compendium of letters and writings, has only been widely available for about four-hundred years. Modern electric presses have make it, and a host of other books written about the bible available on a wide basis. Having a printed book is strictly a modern convenience though, and previously truths was passed along mostly verbally.
Book number 2: The Greek-English Interlinear Bible, was devised sometime between 1877 and 1897 by George Ricker Berry. There are a few other competing versions but Berry produced the first. They all function nearly the same. This book hasbeen around for just a little more than one-hundred years.
Book number 3, Greek-English Analytical Concordance of the Greek-English New Testament by John Stegenga was produced in only one official printing of just 2000 copies, in 1963. It has been unofficially photocopied by others and distributed since. It has been in existence for less than fifty years.
Book number 4: The New Testament from the Greek Text as Established by Bible Numerics, was first produced in 1914. It has been in existence for less than one-hundred years.
Let me pick a random year; say 1129. How would I do the proper Greek word study in 1129 to learn the mind of God since these books have not yet been written, put into volume or widely produced? Better yet, since there are not yet any printed bibles, how would I even know what the gospels said or what Paul wrote to the Hebrew peoples, or what he told the Ephesians or any of the other churches in letter? But wait, since most people were illiterate, even if I had the books, how would I read them unless I was one of the few that were literate?
Do you see the problem with our modernist thinking? It is not a book that leads a man to God, it is simply the Holy Spirit. Christ died about two-thousand years ago. His story was printed and widely distributed in book form more than fifteen centuries later. Did God forget about those other individuals who lived for fifteen centuries? Were they under the “no books…no salvation” curse? Emphatically no! They found salvation through the Holy Spirit as He sent others to tell (verbal) the good news of Jesus Christ to them in a simple form they could readily understand. Books were optional.
…in whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation,–in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14
Here is a story drawn directly from the book of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts). Please read this story and there will be a short quiz at the end. I promise the quiz will be short. Ready…go!
And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do yourself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house. And they spoke unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, immediately. Acts 16:25-33
Ok, here is the quiz. I promised it was short.
1. How many books did Paul and Silas have in the cell with them?
2. What translation of the Bible did he use?
3. How many hours did it take him to explain what he needed to know?
4. How many months did Paul and Silas stay and teach him the rest of what he needed to know?
Answers are below. No peeking now.
ANSWERS: 1) Zero. 2) None. 3) Less than one. {v.33}. 4) The question isn’t fair because I forced you to go hunt down your bible to answer it. The answer is: They left the very next day. Verses 35-40.
