Beyond the Book with Dr. Merkle: “Greek Word Studies for Everyone”

At Southeastern Merkle serves as research professor of New Testament and Greek, holding the M.O. Owens Jr. Chair of New Testament Studies. He also serves in the roles of associate dean for biblical studies and editor of the Southeastern Theological Review. In the following Q&A, Merkle takes some time to answer a few questions about “Greek Word Studies for Everyone.”

1. What is the purpose of this book, and who is its target audience?

The purpose of “Greek Word Studies for Everyone” is to provide a reliable guide for how to navigate the many resources available for doing word studies. In order to achieve that goal, the book teaches the basics of how to read Greek words, how to look up those words, and how to properly understand the information that various resources provide. Thus, this book provides an entry point for any curious Christian to employ the best Greek word study tools. The book is designed for laypersons who want to dig deeper into their Bibles and for Christian ministers who want to do responsible word studies.

2. What motivated you and Dr. Plummer to write this book?

Christians who want to study God’s Word in depth often do so via word studies. But the best tools for engaging in word studies are off limits for those who do not have a basic knowledge of Greek. Consequently, those studying the Bible have to settle for inferior resources. Our book gives the readers enough knowledge of Greek and the best available resources to appropriately and responsibly use them.

3. Why are word studies so important to the study of the Greek language?

Words are the basic foundation of the Greek and English languages. So often, when we study the Bible, our comprehension of what the Bible means is truncated because of our lack of understanding of a Greek term. Every language is different, and no two languages are parallel. Many people assume that Greek word “X” is exactly parallel to English word “X.” Although these words may overlap at certain points, they are not completely parallel. Consequently, it is simply a mistake to believe that the same Greek word should always be rendered by the same English word.

For example, in the New Testament, the same Greek word aphiēmi (ἀφίημι) is often rendered “allow” (Matthew 3:15), “left” (Matthew 4:11), “forgive” (Matthew 6:12), and “divorce” (1 Corinthians 7:12). Because words have a range of meanings, it is essential to consider the context carefully in order to discern the specific meaning. If we consistently rendered a Greek word with the same English word, that would produce a strange translation and would even distort the inspired biblical author’s meaning. In short, doing proper word studies helps us to rightly handle the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

4. How much Greek would you say someone needs to know before they can do a word study well?

Someone does not have to be an expert in Greek, but they do need to know some basics. In the book, we teach the following: (1) the Greek alphabet, (2) pronunciation of letters and letter combinations, (3) a few dozen common vocabulary words, (4) an overview of various Greek New Testaments, and (5) an overview of Greek lexicons. This book, however, does not stop here but also provides guidance on concordances, commentaries, and English Bible versions.

5. What are some common word study fallacies, things students easily fall prey to, that you are hoping to correct through this book?

In chapter 2 of the book, we discuss several word study fallacies, three of which include: (1) illegitimate totality transfer (confusing a word’s range of meaning with its specific, contextually determined meaning); (2) the etymological fallacy (assuming that a word’s root meaning is the key to understanding a later usage); and (3) the reverse etymological fallacy (assuming that a later word that is related to the key word will help elucidate the earlier usage).

A common example of the reverse etymological fallacy occurs when someone says something like: “Here in Romans 1:16, Paul uses the word dunamis [δύναμις] to describe the gospel, and dunamis is where we derive the word ‘dynamite.’ Therefore, the gospel is an explosive power just waiting to be revealed through your life!” In this illustration, the person used a later meaning to help shape an earlier usage of the term. Our goal, however, is to discover what a biblical writer meant when the word was used, not how it later influenced the creation of meanings of other words. Thus, mentioning that the Greek term dunamis is related to the English term dynamite is irrelevant and perhaps even misleading.

6. What makes this book unique in its contribution to the field of Greek language learning?

This book is unique in that it targets those who do not know Greek to equip them to use resources that, without the help of this book, would have been out of their reach. Additionally, this book includes free video resources at https://www.wordstudiesforeveryone.com. The goal is to watch the videos, read the chapter, attempt the practice exercises, then check your answers by viewing the practice exercise videos at the aforementioned website. Finally, at this website you will find a link to free digital flashcards to help you memorize the lists of Greek vocabulary words in each chapter.

7. How does this book further equip readers to serve the church and fulfill the Great Commission?

The thrust of the Great Commission is to make disciples, and disciples are made by “teaching them to observe everything” that Jesus commanded us in his word (Matthew 28:20). In order to be faithful to Jesus’s commission, we need to know the word well, and we need to faithfully communicate the word to the next generation of disciples. This means that, to the best of our ability, we need to ensure that we are rightly handling God’s word when we teach and preach it to others. This book provides guardrails so that we don’t veer off into a ditch and also encouragement so that we don’t grow weary in doing well.