Basics of Biblical Greek Workbook, Bill Mounce, Chapter 23 (3 of 3): New Testament / Koine Greek 34

Lecture 34 in New Testament or Koine Greek completes chapter 23 of William (Bill) Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek Workbook, the first aorist active indicative verb and the aorist middle indicative verb. Both William D. Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek (Workbook), ed. Verlyn D. Verbrugge, Third Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009) or William D. Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek Workbook, Fourth Edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2019) are acceptable for this class. The lecturer is independent Baptist professor Thomas Ross.

This video covers the third and last part of Basics of Biblical Greek Workbook for chapter 23. Additional exercises 12-20 are covered. Sentences by Bill Mounce are translated, as well as either exact or close reproductions of:

13. 1 Maccabees 14:39
14. Jeremiah 42:21 (LXX 49:21)
15. Deuteronomy 31:22 (LXX)
16. Acts 16:32
17. Matthew 27:42
18. Mark 6:50
19. John 17:25
20. John 8:40-42

Concerning the words πάτερ δίκαιε, "[Oh] righteous Father," in John 17:25, Spurgeon notes:

[John 17:25-26 are] the last sentences of our Lord’s most wonderful prayer. May they not be regarded as the flower and crown of the whole intercession? ... Here are great deeps which neither reason nor thought can fathom nor experience fully know. Only the scholars of the New Jerusalem who have for ages studied the manifold wisdom of God in the glorious work of redemption, and perhaps not even they, would be able to tell out all that the Saviour meant by these most simple but yet most pregnant words. ...

In verse 25 there is a testing name given to God, a name by which we may decide whether we know the name of the Lord or no. What is that? … “O righteous Father.” I know not that in any other portion of Scripture God is called by that name. In this prayer Jesus had not addressed his Father by that title before. He had spoken of him as “Father,” and also as “Holy Father,” but here alone it is—“O righteous Father.” ... If you know him aright you know and understand what is comprehended under those two simple words, which are so remarkable when found in combination—“righteous Father.” He is “righteous,” having the attributes of a Judge and Ruler: just, impartial, by no means sparing the guilty. He is “Father,”—near of kin, loving, tender, forgiving. In his character and in his dealings with his people he blends the two as they were never combined before. How can the judge and the father be found in one? When guilty men are concerned how can both characters be carried out to the full? How is it possible? There is but one answer, and that is found in the sacrifice of Jesus which has joined the two in one. In the atonement of our Lord Jesus “mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” In the sacred substitution we see declared how God is “righteous” and yet “Father”: in the sublime transactions of Calvary he manifests all the love of a tender Father’s heart, and all the justice of an impartial Ruler’s sword.

This is the knowledge which our Lord has come to declare among the men whom he has chosen out of the world; and he assures us, first, that this is peculiar knowledge. “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee.” The heathen world knew nothing of a righteous Father ... The world by wisdom knew not the God who is called “righteous Father.” ... “Righteous Father!” his is the peculiar revelation which is received by those who have been taught of the Holy Spirit, and to this day Jesus Christ may say, “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee.” Men kick against the doctrine of the atonement, they quarrel with substitution, they are fierce in their sarcasms against the mention of the precious blood of Christ, and sneer superciliously at those who hold fast the old truth. They stumble at this stumbling stone, and strive evermore to overthrow this rock of truth; and yet, depend upon it, this is the test question by which we shall know whether a man knoweth God aright or knoweth him not. ... A man who knows God as “righteous Father” shows that he has some knowledge of himself: he has perceived the sin within his nature, and it has burdened him; the righteousness of God has appeared to him in its threatening form, and he had been bowed before it under a sense of his guilt. You can see, too, that the man also knows something of his Saviour: he has evidently seen the Son, or else he would not know the Father, for of old Jesus said, “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” He has seen God’s great gift to man, and learned his boundless love. His knowledge of the “righteous Father” shows that his heart has submitted itself to the justice of God. ... Submission and trust compose a condition of character which is peculiar to a renewed soul, but will surely be found in a man if he be indeed saved, for it is the mark of being saved from self-justification and from the hatred bred by despair.

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