I studied Greek in college. And I have to admit I didn’t choose this major for any high or lofty reason; I have since begun to tell people that I wanted to read the New Testament in the Original; that’s not really true. We had something of a “Major’s Fair” at our Orientation Week, and all the other tables were full and bustling except for the Classics table – so I wandered over, and I was drawn in by a kindly professor and a big plate of Grape leaves. I ate 4 or 5 or maybe 12, and I signed my name on a sheet.

I’ve been thinking back on those early days recently, especially my first classes. The first Greek word I learned was the first person singular present tense indicative verb LUO. I quickly discovered it means “I loose.” You learn it on day one of the Greek class because it’s a short, regular verb that’s easy to conjugate. It’s a particularly useful verb for those who’re in the habit of tying up oxen or releasing mules. Now, as a 18 year old boy from a suburban town I didn’t have a lot of life experience to bring to sentences like “I would have loosed the oxen,” or “They are going to loose the donkeys,” let alone “I would have loosed,” “I used to loose,” and “I was going to have loosed.”

But then comes the great day when you first pick up a copy of the New Testament in its original Greek. And then you enter a new world.