The Ursprache of Discipleship

This morning, I got a freshly brewed cup of Ethiopian coffee and sat down to watch the morning news and consider my day. There was a lot of discouraging news about the state of many things, but in the midst of sour news about our culture, was a great piece of hope. The excitement over the new Scripps National Spelling Bee champion, Katharine "Kerry" Close, is very encouraging.

The Bee was televised live Thursday night, which is a good sign, because national TV networks typically will only schedule prime-time shows that advertisers believe will actually be watched by a considerable audience. Kerry's story was important to celebrate.

The winning word: "ursprache." Unlike last year's winning word, "appoggiatura," this year's word starts with the letter "u." That's about all I could have told you about those two words. So I looked up "ursprache":

ursprache - (Ur·spra·che):

See protolanguage.
"Oooo," I said to myself, "I know that word!"

protolanguage - (pro·to·lan·guage):

A language that is the recorded or hypothetical ancestor of another language or group of languages. Also called Ursprache.
It got me thinking about how important knowing ursprache is to understanding our Bible, and our faith, and more specifically, the words of Christ. We live in a great time, where geological , archeological and other sciences are allowing us to understand and use ursprache to make Bible translation and interpretation even more precise.

As you probably know, the New Testament is written in Greek; but, its not written in modern Greek. It was written in an ancient, ursprache of modern Greek called "Koine Greek". This version of Greek was the "common language" at the time, a second language for many. If you spoke aramaic conversationally, you probably also knew Koine Greek which would have been necessary for you to know in order to do business in a multi-cultural society. The New Testament was written in this language (the Old Testament was also translated into it) so that the broad society could read it.

It's important to remember the the Bible was written for us, but it wasn't actually written to us. Therefore, Bible scholars must attempt to understand what the people who heard it the first time thought of it in order to give us an accurate translation and interpretation today. Thanks to our ability to research and understand ursprache, this work can be done quite effectively.

For example, the Koine Greek word that is often translated as "power" is "dunamis" such as in Acts 1:8 "For you will receive power [dunamis] when the Holy Spirit comes on you..." (NIV) This same word, dunamis, is also the root word English english word "dynamite." Because of this connection, someone trying to interpret this passage and the "power of the Holy Spirit" may describe the power as "explosive, like dynamite" since both power and dynamite have the same Greek root.

However, a correct understanding of ursprache would indicate that the Biblical writer (Luke) would not have intended to describe God's power as "explosive" at all. While it's true that the root to dynamite would describe an explosive power today, the Biblical writer had never heard of dynamite as it wasn't invented yet. There are no known uses of dunamis from his day that mean "explosive" as we would understand that today. Dunamis did not take on that connotation for centuries. Thus, Luke cannot be telling us that the power of the Holy Spirit is explosive.

"Discipleship" is one of those words we use in church a lot, and sometimes its meaning is different from place to place. But what did Jesus' Great Commission mean to those who heard it? What does it mean to "make disciples?" The ursprache of Jesus' command is clear. A disciple was not merely a student of someone, although our modern word could be limted to that meaning. Also, a disciple was not just someone who merely studied and got to know some important person, as you could say a disciple might be today.

The meaning of the specific word used in Koine Greek for "disciple," as Christ used it in Matthew 28, was describing someone who is a follower, someone who is committed to more than just knowing and understanding the teacher, but one who would live his or her life maintaining a lifestyle according to thier mentor's precepts and instruction.

This would have been the understanding of those who audibly heard those words on that day. Today, it is also the meaning for those of us who read them. We know this because ursprache is well understood. The command of Christ for believers is to follow Him, obeying his commands and living out His teachings. This is what a disciple did then, and what one must do now.

Blessings,

Pastor Scott

PS: appoggiatura - (ap·pog·gia·tu·ra): (Music) An embellishing note, usually one step above or below the note it precedes and indicated by a small note or special sign.