We live in an era of time-consciousness and efficiency, where technology facilitates the rapid acquisition of information and service. With two minutes on a smartphone, meals can be delivered to one’s doorstep from a local restaurant, or a ride to the airport can be engaged. As these examples illustrate, however, human interaction is often short-circuited by technology, reminding us that, as with most things in life, there are detriments, as well as benefits, to such advances. The same principle applies to the seminary training of would-be pastors. Technology has improved the analysis of Scripture in marvelous ways. A variety of software programs allow one to conduct word-searches, diagram sentences, and look up dictionaries, with instant results, where otherwise days of labor would have been needed. These developments have even led some schools to abandon the teaching of biblical languages altogether, a tempting prospect to weary students. Why undergo three or four taxing years of learning Hebrew and Greek when language software can bridge the gap between them and English (or Spanish, or Chinese)? Just here, two questions give us pause concerning such an approach.

First, can software really displace the benefits of learning a language? The answer is “No” — a thousand times, No. In learning a language, its vocabulary and syntax, one also becomes steeped in that people’s period and culture. Translations, moreover, necessarily involve interpretation, and software cannot undo the idiom “lost in translation.” In Genesis 1, for example, the phrases “God created” and “God said” use different Hebrew verb forms, each with its own significance and function — yet English translations betray no such nuance. Reading an entire book like Ruth in Hebrew, with its subtle plays on words, cannot be matched by an English reading however supplemented with software analysis.

Secondly and more importantly, what about our love for God’s Word? Loving the Word of God includes understanding both its preciousness and its vital, irreplaceable role in the lives of God’s people. The Jewish poet Bialik once wrote that “reading the Bible in translation is like kissing your new bride through a veil.” Should a pastor, one called to minister the Word of God to the people of God, be satisfied with only a veiled knowledge of God’s Word? A love for God, whom we know through his Word, enables fatigued students to persevere diligently in their study of biblical languages.

These are hard times, as the world inundates the hearts and minds of God’s people through endless social media outlets. The Church needs more of the Word, not less — this not simply in terms of quantity, but quality. Seminaries need to work harder, increasing and sharpening pastoral training, rather than slackening requirements. With the Spirit’s help, pastors need to get as close as humanly possible to God’s revealed will, removing the veil to God’s Word in Hebrew and Greek. Pray for us to this end, that we may be used of God to equip pastors to divide the Word rightly, proclaiming the matchless excellencies of Jesus Christ and his abundant salvation to a lost and dying world, and that his people may indeed be transformed by the renewing of their minds.