Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1874-02-20
From the Biblical Recorder.
Half Hours with the Greek Tcsta.
nRezlt.-NOs l.,

Il have never reduced our studying tc
: anything like the system which ought to
$ characterize the studies of any man who
deserves to be called q student. Still.
7 we are always intending, and resolving
l to do better; and even in the midst OF
: the multifarious duties OF very Iabo-
rious partorate, we have found it
? practicable to make and adhere pretty
} rlgldly to some few rules in the way
J OF systematic study. We are indebted
to DIR. John A. Broadus' book on
! Preaching, for one OF the most rigid
of these rules; and as we have found
, 1t an exceedingly useful one, and cne
which Is continually saving US from
sad blunderS in our pulpit work, We
feel disposed TO state it here, for the
benefit of such of our brother pastors
as may think 1t worth while to reflect
upon, and adopt 1t.
This rule ought Gy all means to be
adopted by crc3W preacher who can
read the New Testament in the origi-
nal. It IS simple and reasonable
rule. Here sit is: I will never preach
from any passage in the New Testa-
ment without first reading the text in
the Greek, and trying to find out for
myself exactly what the passage
means" The rule will be all the bet
ter, If this reading be extended to the
whole connection in which the text oc-
ours. If the passage be in one of the
Gospels, then let the study of the
original be extended to the parallel
passages in the other Gospels, If such
there be. We know that this will take
time but the great tut,H in the prepa-
ration of most of the sermons that are
preached is perhaps, just this,
namely, that too little time is spent
upon the work. We should like to
argue this point at greater length; but
we must content ourselves with saying.
that an experience of years has fully
| convinced us, that time spent in this
kind of work is time saUcd.
Another rule which we manage to
follow pretty rigidly is to devote the
first half hour of every day which we
spend in our study to reading the Eli
glish Bible and the second half hour
to reading the Greek Testament. Our
plan is to read regularly through from
beginning to end.
In reading the Greek Testament, we
now and then fall upon passage
which the original throws some new
| light ; ard it has occurred to us, that
it might be worth while occasionally
| to prepare a short article, embodying
! the results of such study as we are
able to give to some OF these passa-
| ges.
We are aware that this is an expert
| ment but we do not mean to continue
| very long unless we see reasons for
| believing that the experiment is, in
some sort, a success. We know that
| considerable number OF our ministerial
| brethren have one or more OF the crit
| zeal and e1egetical commentaries at
hand, and that such brethren man
| find moro light than we can expect
to give. But it by no means follows
| that even these brethren win
| certainly reject our humble at
Temps to throw light upon special
passages of the Greek Testament cs-
pecially when they rcmeplbcr that the
scholars are not the only persons who
/ are interested in critical AID e1ogcti-
cal studies and that many man who
never heark Of OIshauscn, will be glad
to know some of the things which
much humber student Of the Greek
Testament can tell i'll a brief and un-
pretending newspaper article
Oar first attempt. then, viii bs
brief exegesis Of Eph. lis, g Fer by
grace are We saved, through faith, and
that not OF yourselves It is the gift OF
God"
We read, some time ago, a book
published by a distinguished and able
preacher. who lad studded Greek at
college, aud, We suppu &. at the Theo-
logical Seminary.
He wanted TO prov "a 9TH is the
SIT II God and il. a ass .rassage
= decisive. Lha p ~, 3. rahes
i, means thai t;uf. & 4;
and in tbs TICw I,i. s.--... e.. we
believe, by some c.;Hfne'.uici- If no
mean rcpUte.
We 10 not mean 10 5-.,- Tat his is
sound doctrine; b.. --- ,.o :, ST that
the doctrine ! ut ....+. S. &C., l. If the
text means that r.r,. t Gift of
God, the / st q III r.eaLs that
y. zee j. tie sit i GOO, 100 then the
i, winch tJ.;.Es 45etc,s AMI jt4ith,
would b. fo!ac oronlmar, IS would
al4o tic si,.s.t5ar noUn .gj0. In order
to this inte----,z.-fi>. II, lac last clause
must (gram nlatic.l.y} read, ''they are
the gifts ui Cod, !. e., grace and
fuih are. The ngular1ronoun, that,
would also I,e fcrccd - refer to two
nouns. graz. and tusfh. Even the
English PRESENTS these grammatical
dificultics. The Greek scholar might
be led 10 question til,. feasibility OF
making 4 nouter pronoun tGato refer
to the femiulnc noun jy;%f;s. There Is
no doubt that tie passage in the
original presents considerable difficult
ty; but, upon the whole, We cannot
(grammstically) adopt any other CON
clusion than the following, namely,
that Paul teaches that the soteria (sai-
vationJ is effected by tie grace OF
God. faith being q condition Of its re-
ception. The tO3f0 (that) refers to the ef-
fecting THIS salvation by grace, through
faith, i. e., il refers to the whole result
under the circumstances mentioned.
The It III the English refers to tIle
s0tr0tion wrought ont and applied in
the manner specified. The ilioln OF
the Greek does not require this ii to
be expressed, and SO thcc2 is 10 word
for Il in the original We should
paraphrasa the passage thus:
''Iou are saved by grace through
faith, and this salvation, tLue wrought
is not your own WORK; lie whole work
is Gods, and hc gracionaIy gives you
the benefit Of it,
This Interpretation seems to be sla-
taiEod by that able and acute critic,
Oishausen: though he is very far from
being satisfactory in his exegesis Of
the passage.
Whatever may be thought of the
grammatical difficulties of the origi-
nal. We can hardly suppose that any
Greek scholar wouId, upon n fair ex-
animation, conclude that it teaches
that faith is the gift Of God.
We think that the cxegesis given
above is ontirsly consistent with both
the Greek and the English construc-
tions. Fl.
The editor of the San Antonia
Herald acknowledges the receipt of
two fresh and beautiful Indian scalps.
Mr.. Ruby has married in Maryland
a Miss Jet. Look out for the trim
kets," observes contemporary, which
is a neat thing neatly said.
Tn the Rev. Edward r. HaIe's