Do Greek Christians normally read the NT in the original language or a Modern Greek version?

[JSRG]

Figured this might be a good place to ask this. It's my understanding that unlike English, where if you go back to just the year 1000 you basically find a different language, Koine/Biblical Greek is actually reasonably comprehensible to a modern Greek speaker, though obviously not as much as actual modern Greek is.

I know there have been various Bible editions that "translate" the New Testament from Koine to Modern Greek, so I know both original and modern get used by Greek Christians, but I'm not sure which is used more. Anyone know?

As long as I'm at it, I might as well ask about the Old Testament. Does the Septuagint get much use nowadays or is usage of that just limited to scholars, with pretty much everyone else using translations of the Hebrew into Modern Greek?

 

[Al Touthentop]

Figured this might be a good place to ask this. It's my understanding that unlike English, where if you go back to just the year 1000 you basically find a different language, Koine/Biblical Greek is actually reasonably comprehensible to a modern Greek speaker, though obviously not as much as actual modern Greek is.

I know there have been various Bible editions that "translate" the New Testament from Koine to Modern Greek, so I know both original and modern get used by Greek Christians, but I'm not sure which is used more. Anyone know?

As long as I'm at it, I might as well ask about the Old Testament. Does the Septuagint get much use nowadays or is usage of that just limited to scholars, with pretty much everyone else using translations of the Hebrew into Modern Greek?

I think we ought to defer to the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew. The Septuagint was what Jesus quoted and what all of the writers of the NT quoted. The scholars who translated it were actually fluent in both the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek spoken at that time and thus probably made a better translation of the Old Testament than the translators did of the Masoretic text into English.

In modern Greek, Sunday is still "The Lord's Day" - the same words used for that day in the New Testament.

 

[ArmyMatt]

off the top of my head I don't know what is used more in common use, but I can say that the Septuagint is the text that is used liturgically.

 

[FenderTL5]

The Liturgical language of the Church (Greek Orthodox) is the Koine.

This was stressed when I took my first Greek class at the church. The class taught modern Greek, but the language in the service and service books is the Koine. The teacher made that part very clear.

As for specific translations, especially the English portions of the Liturgy, I don't know.
I do know the English in the Orthodox Study Bible New Testament portion is primarily the New King James (NKJV).
The old is from the Septuagint.

I have a Gospel Book that is the EOB Eastern/Greek Orthodox Bible translation. There is a seperate volume for the Epistles that I have not yet purchased but is on my 'wish list'.

 

[buzuxi02]

If you go to Greece you would read it in both languages.
The reason being BY LAW the holy scriptures cannot be altered , and any modern Greek translation must have the original koine side by side. So if you buy a NT bible they will all come with the original and modern side by side.

 

[Knee V]

I am not Greek but have attended many services in the Greek language, and my wife knows Greek. All the Greek services I have attended used the ancient Greek for the liturgy and the Scripture readings, not modern Greek.

As for the Old Testament, we still use tend to avoid the Masoretic texts and tend to translate from the Septuagint.

This is not to say that the Septuagint is the ONLY acceptable version. The Syriac version called the Peshitta (referring here only to its Old Testament) was translated from the Hebrew around the 2nd century BC. Like the Septuagint, it is based on Hebrew texts far older than the Masoretic texts.

 

[Barney2.0]

Last time I was in Greece I remember them using Koine Greek in the Churches liturgy, many of the Greeks who were with me said they can still understand the Koine Greek.

 

[rakovsky]

This would be a normal question for Greeks to ask about English speakers, but since the NT was written in Greek and the OT was translated by ancient Jews into Greek, so naturally the answer is that Greeks would read it in the original Greek. Another reason for this is the closeness of Late Ancient/Koine Greek to modern Greek. A third reason is the use of Biblical Greek liturgically by Greek Orthodox. I guess it is like how you can find Americans reading Shakespeare or Chaucer (14th century) in the original English. But one difference is that unlike Biblical Greek being used and continued in Church use, Chaucer and early Old English has not been in continued use. The English language drastically changed since Chaucer's time. Maybe there was alot of French and Latin influence in the wake of Chaucer.

This article discusses the change from Middle to Modern English:
The History of English - Early Modern English (c. 1500 - c. 1800)

Here is the prologue to the Canterbury Tales. I can tell that it's about Spring, but there are alot of words that I don't get:
1. The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Lines 1-200. Geoffrey Chaucer. 1909-14. English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray. The Harvard Classics

 

[Vasileios]

As a Greek I can verify that we use the Koine Greek in every church service.

Our bibles are either just the original versions or more usually, the one with texts both in the Koine and a more modern translation next to it (usually all left pages are the Koine and the right pages in modern greek).

As for comprehending, my experience is that it is difficult to follow the whole text in the original Koine Greek, there would definitely be some words that would be incomprehensible. Actually, I would think it is the syntax and the more dense form of sentences that throw modern Greeks off. But if you actually read it with the translation to help, in no more than a couple of months you get used to the syntax and the few words that are unknown. Personally, I was able to read the original text very quickly and it really beats any translation, no matter how good. It is a very precise and beautiful language, like a much more refined, serious, poetic and regal version of modern greek. I wish I could learn ancient Greek just as easily, Plato and Aristotle still present a lot of challenges for me (it's not that I spent much time with the original texts though) and Homer is very difficult for me, I guess similar to the what the English speaking people think about old English?

PS: Hello to anyone who remembers me - and everyone else! I used to come here more than a decade ago! Life happened but then the Coronavirus also and missing the services (terrible) brought me looking into forgotten corners of the net...

 

[ArmyMatt]

welcome back!

 

[buzuxi02]

All Greek [Orthodox] church approved bibles are Koine or Koine and modern side by side. If you acquired a NT copy from Greece in just a demotic (modern) translation it's probably an illegal bootlegged or Jehovahs Witness bible.
Here is article 2.3 of the Constitution of Greece:3.

The text of the Holy Scripture shall be maintained unaltered. Official translation of the text into any other form of language, without prior sanction by the Autocephalous Church of Greece and the Great Church of Christ in Constantinople, is prohibited.

The above is what such a bible would look like including an authorization in the beginning from the synod that approved the translation.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Welcome back, though I think you are before my time.

As a Greek I can verify that we use the Koine Greek in every church service.

Our bibles are either just the original versions or more usually, the one with texts both in the Koine and a more modern translation next to it (usually all left pages are the Koine and the right pages in modern greek).

As for comprehending, my experience is that it is difficult to follow the whole text in the original Koine Greek, there would definitely be some words that would be incomprehensible. Actually, I would think it is the syntax and the more dense form of sentences that throw modern Greeks off. But if you actually read it with the translation to help, in no more than a couple of months you get used to the syntax and the few words that are unknown. Personally, I was able to read the original text very quickly and it really beats any translation, no matter how good. It is a very precise and beautiful language, like a much more refined, serious, poetic and regal version of modern greek. I wish I could learn ancient Greek just as easily, Plato and Aristotle still present a lot of challenges for me (it's not that I spent much time with the original texts though) and Homer is very difficult for me, I guess similar to the what the English speaking people think about old English?

PS: Hello to anyone who remembers me - and everyone else! I used to come here more than a decade ago! Life happened but then the Coronavirus also and missing the services (terrible) brought me looking into forgotten corners of the net...

 

[~Anastasia~]

I attend a Greek Orthodox parish with most of the parishioners being Greek-born and they speak Greek among themselves.

I asked them this question, more than once.

Most have the Bibles with Koine on the left, modern Greek on the right.

They pretty much always tell me that they read the modern Greek, and often say the Koine is very different and hard to understand. But otoh, I see that they easily DO understand everything they hear in Church, though it’s always Koine.

It’s a little puzzling to me. It reminds me of my daughter when I was teaching her to read, and she finished a primer book and said in a frustrated voice “I can’t read it!” .... But you just were ...

Figured this might be a good place to ask this. It's my understanding that unlike English, where if you go back to just the year 1000 you basically find a different language, Koine/Biblical Greek is actually reasonably comprehensible to a modern Greek speaker, though obviously not as much as actual modern Greek is.

I know there have been various Bible editions that "translate" the New Testament from Koine to Modern Greek, so I know both original and modern get used by Greek Christians, but I'm not sure which is used more. Anyone know?

As long as I'm at it, I might as well ask about the Old Testament. Does the Septuagint get much use nowadays or is usage of that just limited to scholars, with pretty much everyone else using translations of the Hebrew into Modern Greek?

 

[icxn]

...Actually, I would think it is the syntax and the more dense form of sentences that throw modern Greeks off. But if you actually read it with the translation to help, in no more than a couple of months you get used to the syntax and the few words that are unknown. Personally, I was able to read the original text very quickly and it really beats any translation, no matter how good.

Same for me, except being Greek-Cypriot, I find it easier to read. Even though Modern Greek is what we are tought in school, Cypriot (a kind of Byzantine Medieval Greek) is what we use (or used to) in casual conversations. It may sound strange, but I had to think twice, translate as it were, what I had to say when speaking with Greeks from Greece.

 

[buzuxi02]

They pretty much always tell me that they read the modern Greek, and often say the Koine is very different and hard to understand. But otoh, I see that they easily DO understand everything they hear in Church, though it’s always Koine.

It's the difference between reading a KJV, with all the "thy" and "thou" and other archaic syntax compared to a modern translation. Once you hear it enough and figure it out it becomes common.

One of the easiest ways to figure out what's being said for Greek-American who can read some modern Greek is to follow along in the Holy Week service book where its Greek and english side by side. You can just peak over to the english and vica versa.