Incomprehensible Preaching?

I found this humorous story from the Lark via Shuck and Jive.  It’s humorous, I think, because it strikes close to home even though it’s exaggerated.

I make two serious points out of this.  On those occasions when I’ve had the opportunity to teach Greek or Hebrew to those planning to be pastors I emphasize:

1. Use what you know from the pulpit; don’t try to get beyond your own knowledge of Biblical languages.  That avoids the type of problems I mentioned yesterday.
2. In general, use your Biblical languages to deepen your own study and then express what you learned, not the language details you used to get there.

Preaching is not my main activity.  I general teach, often in hour long settings or longer.  But when I do preach, I make very little express reference to Biblical languages.  If I learned about the text by studying it in the original, I should understand the text better, and I should then take time to express what I learned so it can be comprehended by the congregation.

In 15-25 minutes you really can’t tell folks that much about the languages.  Speak plainly and simply (he says to himself as well!).