Mastery of the biblical languages is foundational for interpreting Scripture accurately. But mastery of the biblical languages does not guarantee accurate interpretation, and can even engender a hermeneutical imperiousness. Often, the biblical languages are abused to defend preferred systems of theology and thus can even hinder originalist hermeneutics.
Dr. Rod Decker, a former seminary professor, wisely advocated “grammatical minimalism,” in contrast to “a maximal, ‘golden nuggets’ approach”: “the most appropriate way to handle the interpretation of an ancient text . . . is to place the least weight on the individual grammatical pieces and the greatest weight on statements in their context” (Reading Koine Greek [Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014], xv–xvi).
Messiah Bible Institute 