Dr. Lena Toews spends her days immersed in Koine Greek. No other language is permitted. She has been in Sounio, Greece, for the past three months and will remain for another six. From 8 am to 4 pm her days are filled with reading, speaking and analyzing ancient texts. Though the work may sound intense, Toews finds it energizing. “The greatest challenge is that there are not more hours in the day,” she said. “The work and study are so interesting that I always want more time.”
Toews, who teaches biblical Greek in Union Adventist University’s Religion Program, learned about this opportunity while attending annual professional meetings in San Diego hosted by the Biblical Language Center. She had already incorporated the BLC program into her Greek courses and knew its founder, Dr. Randall Buth, who pioneered teaching Biblical languages using the same methods as those for modern languages. Since 1996, he has run a Hebrew-language program in Israel that helps scholars achieve a deeper understanding of the language in what Toews calls “its most natural environment.”
“I was invited by Dr. Randall Buth, founder of the Biblical Language Center and a United Bible Societies translation consultant,” Toews said, “after a colleague and co-author informed me that Dr. Buth was forming a team to help establish an immersive Biblical Greek program in Greece and encouraged me to participate.” After prayer and careful consideration, Toews knew God was leading her to go to Greece for a nine-month seminar called “Preparation for Bible Translation.”
Her cohort includes teachers and learners selected by Buth’s team from several countries. Some will eventually return to their homes to create Bible translations in their own languages. For Toews, the goal is to fully adopt the language to bring ancient texts to life for her students and her scholarly work. By the end of the nine months of immersion, Toews hopes to “internalize and ‘feel’ the Koine Greek language so deeply that it leads to better translation and interpretation based on solid exegetical insights,” which she describes as “invaluable for a Bible scholar and professor.”
She hasn’t been waiting to return home to share her newfound insights on the language with her students at Union. She has continued teaching over Zoom. “I like how she brings a hard subject into a new light,” said Caleb Miller, a sophomore theology major. “We’re still memorizing a lot of things, but we do it in a way that’s natural.”
Between studying and teaching classes with an eight-hour time difference, Toews explores archaeological sites associated with early Christian texts as well as the wider ancient world, gaining context to better understand the language and times of the New Testament. She is also eagerly preparing for May, when her students and colleagues from Union’s Religion program and other academic disciplines will join her in Greece for a two-week study tour.
Toews has grown fond of the people of Greece, praising their hospitality and warmth. She enjoys visiting the Seventh-day Adventist international church and the Greek-speaking Seventh-day Adventist church. She likes sampling Greek cuisine, especially the traditional Greek salad with local olives. On Sabbaths, she enjoys “sitting by the sea, walking where Paul walked, and praying where he preached. His life becomes part of my life.”
What she misses most about Union is seeing her students outside the classroom. “I miss talking with them in the cafeteria or at my house, seeing them at Friday night vespers as they pour out their hearts to God, and running into them around campus when they stop by our department to say ‘hi,’” she said. “I can’t wait to share my adventures to inspire my students, colleagues and friends to explore, learn and grow for themselves.”
Toewes said she has thoroughly enjoyed learning while also helping others. “I know that the knowledge and work here will benefit many in the future and even touch lives with the gospel.” She reflects this conviction through the words of a well-known Bible scholar and translator, Edward L. Greenstein:
“The act of translation ascribes sense not only to the intelligible but also to the barely intelligible and even to the unintelligible. The original enfolds within it untold levels of meaning and suggests a plethora of associations. The original purveys mystery in a way a translation rarely can. A translation necessarily transforms the opaque into the transparent. Accordingly, to read a translation [of a Bible text]… is inestimably simpler than reading the original.” (Job: A New Translation, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019, p. 31)
For Toews, this immersion in Koine Greek is about dwelling in that richness of the original text, so that future translations, teachings and readers may come closer to its depth and nuance.
by Seth Coe, a sophomore writing studies major from Canon City, Colorado.