It is certain that a college which does not require Greek will not prepare many to go forth as ministers or missionaries. This would be a great evil not only to the churches, but to the community generally.
– James McCosh, Twenty Years of Princeton College (1888)
Along the lines of McCosh’s statement, consider these important arguments for the necessity of students learning ancient and classical languages that I provide in the following short video.
I comment as one who majored in Greek and studied Hebrew as well.
After 4 years of studying Greek and reading Homer, Plato and others as well as the New Testament, I still did not feel that I knew the language well . . . at least well enough for me. This is even more so with Hebrew. It is not merely the language, learning words, syntax, and the like, but also acquiring a familiarity with the culture. It is the culture, which can vary from generation to generation, that gives meaning to the words, the language. So while I would agree that there is some benefit in learning a language sufficiently to understand how it is constructed and to be able to use commentaries, read and assess articles and sermons, etc., the overwhelming majority of us will never have the time to actually become skilled in reading and understanding the language, especially if we are not in an environment where we are using it every day in the accompaniment of someone who does know it and knows it well. That’s how I lost my ability to speak Vietnamese. I simply had no opportunity to use it and develop my conversational skills after leaving Vietnam..