Professor Muraoka is a brilliant scholar of the biblical languages: over more than forty-five years, he has published on Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. His Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, 3rd ed (Leuven: Peeters, 2009) and Greek-Hebrew/Aramaic Two-Way Index to the Septuagint (Leuven: Peeters, 2010) sit near my desk for regular consultation, and he has provided us with A Syntax of Septuagint Greek (Leuven: Peeters, 2016), A Grammar of Qumran Aramaic (Leuven: Peeters, 2011), and A Syntax of Qumran Hebrew (Leuven: Peeters, 2020). He received the great distinction of the British Academy’s Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies (2017), the equivalent of a Nobel Prize. In “retirement” since 2003, he has been teaching in Asian countries on biblical languages and Septuagint studies for some weeks annually, as a volunteer. This is at least his tenth book published since 2003. His lifelong study has prepared him well to address the lamentable situation that many who study theology—or even focus on Biblical Studies—regard learning the biblical languages as unnecessary. The trend of seminary and theological college curricula to embrace practical theology and much else has squeezed biblical languages to the margins. This little book pushes back against this trend by making a case for the continuing significance of reading the Bible in the original languages for those who preach and teach from the Scriptures in churches, as well as those who teach in higher education.

Professor Muraoka begins with a short “My Curriculum Vitae of a Sort” (pp. 9–14), in which he recounts how he began to engage the Bible through study of English, taught by an American Baptist missionary in his native Japan. He came from a family indifferent to religion and describes his conversion and baptism. At university he wanted to study Greek and Hebrew alongside his English degree, but his request to join the classes was rejected since he was a complete beginner. Astonishingly, he taught himself the basics of both languages so that he could join the classes, and for his undergraduate dissertation wrote on the translation of Greek infinitives in English Bibles. These studies opened him up to a lifelong engagement with Scripture in the original languages, strongly motivated by his Christian faith.

After a helpful introduction laying out his approach, which includes not using Hebrew/Aramaic and Greek fonts throughout, the balance of Professor Muraoka’s book walks readers through a series of biblical passages where reading the original language provides insights and understanding that are hard to see in translations, especially in English. The largest chapter (ch. 1) is on Hebrew, including helpful readings of the “sacrifice” of Isaac (Gen 22:1–19), and the story of David and Bathsheba (2 Sam 11–13). This chapter highlights lexical choices, word order (particularly fronting words as the focus of a clause or sentence), repetition of nouns and verbs (and of cognates), wordplay (common with Hebrew three-letter roots), indications of the gender of verb subjects and objects, misplaced verse-divisions, naming and not naming characters, use or absence of personal pronouns, Hebrew’s lack of a word meaning “yes,” and the use of diminutive forms of names. Throughout, Professor Muraoka explains the ideas non-technically, although he does assume a basic knowledge of English grammar.

The chapter on Greek (ch. 2) begins with helpful discussions of personal pronouns, the article, and the portrayal of past, present, and future (explaining verbal aspect). He illustrates the points by taking readers through the sinful woman’s encounter with Jesus (Luke 7:36–50) and other shorter NT passages, plus some examples from the Greek OT account of David and Bathsheba (having discussed the Hebrew in the previous chapter).

Chapter 3, on Aramaic, identifies the parts of the OT in that language and considers its importance for Jesus’s speech. A helpful discussion of singular and plural engages with words for “god” in the three biblical languages and relates this to Daniel 3 and 5. He considers words in Japanese for various kinds of wine and the way to translate key passages such as in Nebuchadnezzar’s banquet, as well as the name “Jerusalem,” which Aramaic preserves in an older form than Hebrew.

Chapter 4 then turns to the Septuagint as bridge between the Testaments, noting its importance as the Bible of the Jewish diaspora and the earliest Christians. He illustrates the translators’ handling of some key words, such as “make” and “create,” the terms for “love” in Greek, and a fascinating discussion of a nineteenth-century Japanese soldier-politician, Takamori Saigo, and his life-motto, “Revere heaven, love humans.” The latter is one of a number of such illustrations where Professor Muraoka refers to Far-Eastern culture and language in discussing biblical passages.

Throughout, the author is clear that he writes as a Christian scholar, and he thus notes the importance of justification by faith in Paul (p. 103) and invites his readers to “be saved” by accepting the gospel message of Jesus’s death for our sins and defeat of death in his resurrection (p. 105).

If you need to be persuaded of the value of biblical languages, or need to persuade others of their importance, read this book! It is clear and readable, and there are very few errors and typos. May Professor Muraoka’s tribe increase!