Love Fulfilled Ministry

  Reading the Greek Behind the Translation A Methodology for Recovering Authentic Meaning in New Testament Greek Words With Special Reference to 2 Corinthians 8–9 I. The Problem: When Translation Becomes Interpretation Have you ever looked at the meaning of a word in the Bible and wondered how it can have so many different and seemingly incompatible meanings? I have. I first began studying with a parallel Bible and noticed the differences which just made me more curious, then I found an interlinear Bible. The next step would be to learn Greek, but one can study well with an interlinear Bible . Every Greek word carries a semantic range — a spectrum of possible meanings that shift depending on context, genre, author, and era. This is not a flaw in language; it is how language works. The Greek word ἁπλότης (haplotēs), for example, can mean singleness of heart, sincerity, frankness, or — at the far edge of its range — open-handedness. All of these meanings are real. All of them are d...