There is an idea which floats around in pulpits and Bible studies, and it goes something like this: “Greek is a perfectly precise language which clearly conveys its meaning, and this is the reason why God used Greek for the New Testament.” I do not pretend to know the mind of God regarding why the New Testament is in Greek. But there are some substantial problems in the assertion that Greek is “perfectly precise.” Uncovering these problems—in this article and a follow-up in the next issue—will actually help us interpret the Bible more accurately.
Humor me for a moment and read the following line:
new_string = re.sub(r'[a-zA-Z0-9:]+’, ”, string, re.I)
This is an example of precise language, taken from the Python computer programming language. This piece of computer code takes in a string of text, removes every English letter and any number, and then outputs the new text string. It is part of a bigger program designed to generate a digital Greek…
