March 14, 2024 | Daniel L. Segraves, Ph.D.
A friend recently asked me to help respond to a biblical question asked by another person. It didn’t take long for me to discover that the question came from another person’s website. Ordinarily, the source of the question wouldn’t have mattered, but I was surprised to see that the author of the article misrepresented my educational background, claiming I have “no degree in Greek” and that it “would be impossible to find a Greek language expert who agrees with” me “on the word definitions imperative to understanding the passage of I Corinthians 11:2-16.”
I bear the article’s author no animosity, but I think correcting an error in this statement is important. I earned 13 semester hours in New Testament Greek, 10 of which were graduate-level in my Master of Arts in Exegetical Theology program. This was with straight A ‘s. I graduated with highest honors from Western Seminary (www.westernseminary.edu) in this 64 semester hour degree program, which included three semesters of Biblical Hebrew with straight A’s. Not only did I study Hebrew in my seminary classes; I was also tutored in Hebrew by the Director of Education at Temple Israel, a Jewish synagogue in Stockton, California. This degree program concluded with the writing of a thesis that made use of the skills I had learned in my study of the Greek language. At the request of one of my professors, I presented a condensed version of that thesis to the Far West Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society.
After graduation with the M.A.E.T., I completed the advanced Master of Theology degree at Western Seminary’s Portland, Oregon campus. It took five years for me to complete this degree, which concluded in the writing of another thesis that made use of the Hebrew language as it appears in the Book of Psalms. I earned the Th.M. with honors, and this degree enabled me to qualify for entry to the Ph.D. program at the Regent University School of Divinity.
It took me eight years to complete the Ph.D. in Renewal Studies with dual emphases in Christian Theology and History of Global Christianity. I fulfilled all of the required courses and a dissertation that was awarded “passed with distinction.” As with most Ph.D. programs in theology, I was required to complete another language course in addition to Hebrew and Greek. I fulfilled this requirement by taking and passing a course in Theological German.
I have taught New Testament Greek at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as Biblical Hebrew at the undergraduate level.
My educational journey was not unusual for those who give their lives to research, writing, and teaching in the disciplines of the Bible and theology. All those who teach in these fields at the graduate level at Urshan Graduate School of Theology have fulfilled similar requirements.
Now, back the questions asked by my friend’s friend. If he has not done so, I suggest that he read my book Hair Length in the Bible: A Study of I Corinthians 11:2-16 (Hazelwood, MO: Word Aflame Press, 2007). This book was edited by David K. Bernard, D.Th. and includes the following chapters: (1) Introduction to I Corinthians 11:2-16; (2) Analysis of I Corinthians 11:2-16); (3) The Voice of History; (4) Answers to Objections; and (5) The Letter and the Spirit. The book includes a substantial amount of references to Greek resources supporting the position taken in the book.
In addition to this, I would like to call attention to the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, Second Edition, by Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida (New York: United Bible Societies, 1989). This resource is specifically designed for use by Bible translators. As it relates to the meaning of κομάω, L-N says “to wear long hair as part of one’s attire—‘to have long hair, to appear with long hair, to wear long hair.’ γυνὴ δὲ ἐὰν κομᾷ δόξα αὐτῇ ἐστιν ‘if a woman wears long hair, it is a pride for her’ 1 Cor 11:15. In a number of languages it may be necessary to translate κομάω as ‘to let one’s hair grow long’ or ‘not to cut one’s hair.’
The point given here to those who are involved in the work of Bible translating is this: If the receptor language (the language into which Scripture is being translated) does not have a word that inherently means “not to cut one’s hair” or “let one’s hair grow,” the translation should describe this as the meaning of κομάω in the form of a sentence.
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