It’s all Chinese to Me

Many Spanish-speaking countries replace the "Greek" in "It's all Greek to me" with "Chinese" when referencing something incomprehensible. Starting today, though, my Wednesday mornings really ARE going to be all Greek to me: I'm auditing Griego I at Concordia the Reformer Seminary!

My class consists of 1st year seminarians Martín (2nd from right), Oscar (on Zoom), Daniel, and Kairo (far right), plus fellow missionary Clarion (2nd from left). 

Rewinding to my college days, I took a semester each of Biblical Greek and Biblical Hebrew, for fun because I'm that kind of nerd. I don't remember much besides the Hebrew alphabet to the tune of "Yankee Doodle," but I've always had in my head that maybe one day I'd further my studies and at least have a foundation. Rev. Joel Fritsche, the seminary's director and professor of biblical languages, and I have joked about me taking his classes before, so when he texted me this summer in all seriousness to ask if I wanted to, I didn't think twice. 

One of the Missionary Kid Program Team volunteers brought my textbook from the US to Punta Cana for me. 

I'm unbelievably excited to delve into the New Testament in its original language. It'll hone my Spanish skills (yes, class is in Spanish), as well as my ability to clearly articulate God's Word. The academics don't intimidate me (although there are nine quizzes on the syllabus...), but my job has to come first and I'm anxious about the amount of class periods I'm going to miss while hosting volunteers or otherwise traveling regionally. In that vein, I cracked the book open a couple weeks ago to read the introductory material and try to have the alphabet memorized by the first day of class. I was smitten as soon as I stumbled across a quote in the Preface to the Spanish Edition that references 2 Timothy 3:16:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

The author posits that the words themselves aren't the only thing God-breathed, but also grammatical nuances like time, voice, mode, aspect, person, number, gender, case, syntax, phraseology, clause order, and discursive structure. WHAT?!? Yes. 

Prepare yourself for frequent allusions to what I'm learning in future blogs, Facebook posts, newsletters, and obviously conversations. After one class, I can already read (more or less) John 1:1-5!

Until next time, blessings!

P.S. I giggled to myself a little when I realized I was eating Greek yogurt for breakfast! Today in class I learned that the popular brand name "Oikos" (οἶκος) means "house/home/family" (as in economy).