The Acts 21:37 Test: ἑλληνιστὶ γινώσκεις

“And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek?”

The Acts 21:37 Test. Do you know Greek?

We often, in Christian circles, banter around the words “know Greek” or “read Greek.” Most often that only means we have had some Greek courses and can “read” Greek in a minor sense – that we know the letters (alphabet), how they make words, know some of the words (vocabulary), some things about mood, tense, voice (conjugation), and so on. With the help of good tools, we can figure out what sentences in the Greek New Testament say. This is not really reading Greek. It is a good skill and a good tool, but honesty calls us to admit that we are doing a lot of studying with helps (in itself, not a bad thing) and not much reading. I have had a little study in five different languages, and I can only read and speak one – English (and not always well, at that).

Without looking at or using any helps, write the Greek words or phrases that correspond with the following common English words or phrases:

1. Maybe                  ______________
2. Table                     ______________
3. Wolf                       ______________
4. Eight                      ______________
5. Chicken                ______________
6. Yellow                   ______________
7. Hot                         ______________
8. Elbow                    ______________
9. To shout               ______________
10. To swim                ______________
11. Bonus: “Goodbye, God bless you.” _______________________________

(With acknowledgement to Daniel Streett for the idea)

Without looking at or using any helps, read, understand, and translate the following sentence:

Πᾶς δὲ ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου δεχθήτω· ἔπειτα δὲ δοκιμάσαντες αὐτὸν γνώσεσθε, σύνεσιν γὰρ ἕξετε δεξιὰν καὶ ἀριστεράν.

Don’t post your results. There is no way we can know whether you worked from what was in your head, or used tools to cheat (from lexicons to online translators), or some combination of both. Just be honest with yourself and maybe benefit from the exercise. This is for personal growth; only in a live setting would we know for sure of the results.

The results for most of us should make us aware of at least two things.

• We should not represent ourselves as seeming to know more than we really know.
• If we have a limited knowledge of a language we cannot read or speak, we may lead ourselves or others astray with what we think we know.