November 2007 - Protestant Reformed Churches in America

Protestant Reformed Theological Journal
The dreadful judgment of give courage and strength of
God has fallen upon this apostatizing
faith to the faithful in the Neth-
church. May God yet erlands.
■
Calvin and the Biblical Languages,
by John D. Currid. Rossshire,
Scotland: Christian Focus
Publications, 2006. Pp. 106.
$16.00 (paper). ISBN-10: 184
55021245. ISBN-13: 978-184
5502126. [Reviewed by Ronald L.
Cammenga.]
Dr. John Currid is Professor
of Old Testament at Reformed
Theological Seminary in Jackson,
Mississippi. In this work
he not only demonstrates the
important use that John Calvin
made of the original languages
of the Old and New Testaments,
but also issues a clarion call to
Reformed seminaries to remain
steadfast in their insistence on
the importance of a mastery of
Hebrew and Greek by those who
are being trained for the ministry,
as well as a call to ministers
of the gospel to make use
of the original languages in their
work with the text of Holy
Scripture. Currid begins his
book by documenting the decline
in knowledge and use of
92
the original languages in the
church prior to the Reformation.
He demonstrates that the Reformation
was a return to Scripture,
an important aspect of
which was a return to the study
of the Scriptures in the Hebrew
of the Old Testament and the
Greek of the New Testament.
Currid’s focus is on John
Calvin and the biblical languages.
He demonstrates that
Calvin was a “distinguished textual
scholar” who was proficient
in Hebrew and Greek. “Calvin
may not have been an expert
Hebraist and Greek scholar,
along the lines of the contemporary
Reuchlin or Scaliger, or
the later Gesenius, but he had a
thorough working knowledge of
the Hebrew and Greek languages”
(p. 29). Currid illustrates
Calvin’s language skills
as exhibited in his lectures, his
sermons, and his commentaries.
In all three endeavors it is clear
that Calvin used his biblical language
skills, and interpreted and
applied the teaching of Scrip-
Vol. 41, No. 1