Does Greek Give You "Special Knowledge"?

Last weekend, I was sitting at a coffee bar with some friends in a small coffee house in South Dakota.  The owner of the shop asked me what I was doing with my life, and I told him I was working on my masters' degree in biblical languages.  When he heard this, he answered that he he had a friend who studied biblical languages.  "Does studying Greek and Hebrew give you new insight into what the Bible means?" he asked.

It's an interesting question.  Most of the Greek and Hebrew students I know, myself I included, study the languages to help them study the Bible better.  We get pretty excited when we study I John and discover that the present tense is continuous action.  Some of us are thrilled to build an outline out of Greek adverbial markers.  And don't even get us started on the difference between the two primary words for knowledge in the New Testament...!

But does knowing Greek give us any special knowledge (pardon the gnostic reference:)?  "No," I told the man.  "It's kind of like looking at a picture in black and white or color.  There isn't anything added to the picture when you see it in color, but you can see the details better.  You don't need to know Greek to know what the Bible really says.  It says the same thing in Greek that it does in English."

Knowing Greek is a great benefit, but the knowledge of God which gives us everything necessary for live and godliness is available through our accurate English translations.  Why?  Because it is not ultimately us or our accurate translation that causes us to understand the Bible.  It is God's Holy Spirit.

"But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.  None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.  But as it is written, 'What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him" - these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.  For the Spirit searches everything even the depths of God....Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God." - 1 Corinthians 2:7-12