|
Julius J. Kim, Ph.D.
Dean of Students
Dear Students,
I suppose I knew some Greek before I came to seminary.
When
I was young, for example, we regularly did our grocery
shopping at Alpha Beta. Furthermore, when I took chemistry
in High School, I knew that the Greek letter Delta referred
to the change that occurred during an experiment. By
college, I was introduced to the myriad of fraternities and
sororities that used Greek letters for their names.
But like
many of our first-year students in Summer Greek, I was in
for quite a shock when I took Biblical Greek for the first
time and discovered that there was so much more to this
language than the symbols used for supermarkets,
chemistry equations, and college houses. To me, Greek
(and Hebrew) opened up a whole new world as I discovered the
richness of God’s Word.
WSC prides itself on its commitment to
the biblical languages. Since the Bible was originally
written in Hebrew and Greek, it is imperative that we learn
the biblical languages to get a better handle on what the
Lord God gave to us through all the servants he used, be it
Moses or the Apostle Paul. After all, our founder, Dr. J.
Gresham Machen, desired that all students at Westminster
Seminary become “experts at the Bible.” Unlike some
seminaries who require the languages for their Biblical
Studies majors only, WSC requires four semesters of both Hebrew
and Greek and utilizes
them for most, if not all, of our classes—from preaching to
systematic theology. In fact, something we have recently
placed more emphasis on is coordinating what our students are
learning in their Greek courses with the rest of the
curriculum.
Take, for example, what we do in the first-year preaching
curriculum for the Master of Divinity students. By the time
our M.Div. students take their first preaching course during
the spring semester (PT 504, Sermon Preparation and
Delivery), they would have had Greek I in the summer, Greek
II
in the fall, and Greek III during the winter term. In the
spring, they are enrolled concurrently in Greek IV, New
Testament Interpretation (NTI), and the preaching course.
In order to foster a better grasp of the language in
both interpretation and exposition, all the students in the
preaching course are required to preach from a section from
1 John, a book they have already worked through, verse by
verse, in their Greek II class. We are literally helping our
students move from Greek text to sermon.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Biblical Studies department
supplements our students' knowledge of Johannine literature and
thought in Greek IV and NTI, as they
work through sections in the Gospel of John in Greek. It
is our hope that as we aid our students in going deep into
the Gospel of John within the larger context of
John’s writings, that they will have the tools to preach and
teach any
section of Scripture with
confidence. And with the confidence that you are faithfully
interpreting God’s Word with accuracy comes the passion to
declare ever more boldly the glory of God in the Gospel.
So, for you Summer Greek students just starting your second
week of language studies - hang in there! It is well worth
the struggle and hard work. And for you prospective
students, our language courses are tough - but they will make
a difference for a lifetime of ministry.
|
|
 September
07: Senior Reflections
May
07: Senior Reflections
March
07: CWiPPThink
January
07: Winter Term
November 06:
Reformation Day
September 06:
Welcome Back
August 06:
Summer Greek
July
06: CPR
June
06: Sign Up and Gear Up
May
06: Reflection by Michael Schout
April
06: den Dulk Lectures
March
06: Student Association
February
06: Preaching Christ
December
05: Mentors
|
