Over the past
30 years the combination of the growth of the internet, cell phones, and the
development of Christians as a distinct end market for publishers has led to an
overwhelming flood of Bible study materials. Although general Bible knowledge
is decreasing, those who are interested can now freely access materials that
would have been available only to scholars and specialists (if at all) only a
generation ago. One of the tools that have increased in popularity are
interlinear Bibles. They can be a very useful tool when used properly, but can
also create confusion when they are not.
Interlinear
Bibles have the Greek and/or Hebrew text of the Bible with additional
information appearing in between the lines of original language text (thus the
name interlinear). The amount of additional information varies but there is a
standard format that is typically used. Also, these tools are now increasingly
used by people who do not have any training in Greek or Hebrew but knowing a
few basic things about the translation process is needed to get the most out of
the tool.
I have been
asked a few times through the years if I could explain why a translation
differs from what is in the interlinear. Recently, I was asked if I could help
someone explain why English Bibles show John 1:1 as
“In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
While the
interlinear says:
“In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.”
Obviously,
these two are vastly different in meaning and implication. So, what is going on
in this verse?
The first
thing we need to understand is that interlinear Bibles are not translations.
Many include a translation but the “interlinear” data that causes confusion are
usually not the translations. Let’s look at our example from the second half of
John 1:1. It probably looks something like the following in your interlinear although
it might be arranged in a slightly different order.
Line
1: καὶ
|
θεὸς
|
ἦν
|
ὁ
|
λόγος
|
||||
Line
2: καί
|
θεός
|
εἰμί
|
ὁ
|
λόγος
|
||||
Line
3: CLN
|
NNSM
|
VIAI3S
|
DNSM
|
NNSM
|
||||
Line
4: kai
Line 5: and
|
theos
God
|
eimi
to be
|
ho
the
|
logos
word
|
||||
Line 6: and
|
God4
|
was3
|
the1
|
word2
|
||||
Line 7: 89.92
|
12.1
|
58.67
|
92.24
|
33.100
|
Let’s walk
through what we have here…
Line 1: This
is the actual Greek text of John 1:1b
Line 2:
This is the “lemma” or dictionary form of the Greek words. Since Greek words
change
depending
upon how they are used, adding this lexical form allows the reader to quickly
locate them in a Greek lexicon or other reference tools.
Line 3:
This line provides codes that explain the part of speech and grammatical
function
of the word. The “CLN” under the first word (the Greek word for “and”) tells us
that it is a Conjunction-Logical-coNnective. Interlinear’s that includes this kind of information will
have a key that explains what the codes mean.
Line 4:
This line is a transliteration of the Lemma or dictionary form. This is simply
changing the
lexical/dictionary form of the word from the
Greek alphabet to the English alphabet.
Line 5:
This line is the lexical value of the dictionary form found in line 2. It is not
a
translation
of the verse. It is just providing an English equivalent for the dictionary
form of the word. Notice, for example, that the verb “to be” appears in the
present tense whereas John used the past tense in the actual Greek text.
Line 6:
This is where the trouble usually starts. This line is often referred to as a
“word for
word”
translation so people assume that this is somehow more accurate than their
English translation. This is really only a translation in that it gives an
English rendering of each word in the Greek text but it is not a completed
translation and is not more accurate than what you have in any good English
Bible. Since Greek functions differently than English you cannot simply translate
the words themselves. If you look closely, you will notice there are small
numbers below several of the words in this line. Those numbers indicate the
order the words need to be in for it to convey in English the same meaning that
is in the Greek. If you are using the interlinear properly you will see that it
is actually telling you the same thing as the English translation. There is no
conflict whatsoever.
Line 7: This
line includes cross references. In this case, it is to the Louw-Nida
Greek-English
lexicon.
You will often see Strong’s numbers or cross references to other well-known
lexicons and translation tools.
Your
interlinear may have more or less information but what we have looked at here
is typical of what you are likely to see. An interlinear is a very helpful tool
once you understand how they work. If not used properly, however, they can lead
to confusion. In English we use word order to convey meaning. For example; we
know that the sentence “Jack gave the teacher an apple” is not the same as “the
teacher gave Jack an apple” even though the same words are used. In Greek,
however, the word order does not determine who is doing what to whom. In Greek,
you could say “an apple the teacher Jack gave”, “gave Jack an apple the
teacher”, or any other variation. Rather than word order Greek uses changes to the
form of the words themselves and the use of other indicators such as the
article to show the reader their function in the sentence.
In our
example from John 1:1b even though the word order in Greek is “and God was the
Word”, that sentence does not communicate what we would mean by the same word
order in English. When we look at the way John wrote this sentence we know for
certain that a Greek speaker would understand the sentence to mean “and the
Word was God”. In this case the words God (θεὸς) and word (λόγος) are both written in the form they
would have if they were the subject (nominative case). You can also see this
indicated in the interlinear by the “NN” indicating they are nouns in the
nominative case. Even though this is the case, we know that God is not the
subject because of the way John uses the Greek article (ὁ). The fact that the word for “God”
does not have the article but the word for “Word” does tells us right away that
the subject of the sentence is “Word” rather than “God”. To express this in
English we have to change the order and put “Word” before the verb in the sentence.
Just like any
other tool an interlinear can be very helpful if used properly. If you plan to
use an interlinear in your studies be sure to read the introduction and “how to
use” sections so you can get the most out of them. Growing in knowledge of the
original languages can be very beneficial for picking up on emphasis and nuance
in the text but the greatest Bible study tool for the vast majority of people
is going to be a good translation of the Bible into whatever language they can
read most fluently because there is no substitute for time in the Word.
