Monday with Mounce

This is one of the basic points we try to make in first year Greek, but in the rush to simplify the language sufficiently for a first year student, sometimes the subtly of this point is missed. Just to be clear, I still believe the augment indicates past time. I haven’t gone over to the other camp on this point. And yet the aorist is so much more than “past time,” and in fact time is significantly secondary to the real gist of the tense. Students need to be reminded of this periodically.

One of the more interesting expressions in the Pastorals is ἔργον ἀγαθόν. It presents a conundrum whether you translate it as “good deeds,” “‘good works,” or with a phrase.

Colossians 2:8 is often misunderstood to say that all philosophy is bad and Christians should not engage in the discipline. It is just two little words in Greek (or, actually, the absence of two little words) that can clear up this misunderstanding. The Greek is a tad difficult, so let’s start with a slightly wooden translation.

One of the problems of memorizing word glosses in first year Greek is that it is possible to miss the richness of a word’s meaning, especially its breadth of meaning (“semantic range”). 

I was reflecting on the NIV translation of Psalm 1:1, which reads: “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take (ἐν ὁδῷ ἁμαρτωλῶν οὐκ ἔστη, LXX) or sit in the company of mockers.”