I have been busy for the past 7 weeks as my lack of posting clearly demonstrates. I ended up teaching a bit more than I anticipated this fall, and well, I am finally finished. I did enjoy my semester, but when time is at a premium, the blogging tends to dry up.

A funny thing happened on my way between grading Greek exams and then resuming my Sunday school notes for the church I pastor. One of the Greek vocabulary words on a final exam was ἱκανός which BDAG lists in two major ways: (1) sufficient or adequate in terms of number or quantity and (2) fit, appropriate, competent in terms of being worthy. Anyway, last week I graded 13 exams and noted it 13 times in grading. I might add, when you grade the vocabulary part of an exam, it tends to be really fast. This is because you have known these terms for a while (almost 30 years for me since I first took Greek) and it is pretty automatic.

Then this morning I resumed my Sunday school notes in Matthew and was translating 3:11 and there it was: “I am not fit to remove his sandals” (οὗ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἱκανὸς τὰ ὑποδήματα βαστάσαι). It is just a little adjective, used only 39 times in the New Testament. But this morning it seemed really important! John’s statement hit me very hard.

I know that my academic world should impact my ministry world, but I guess this morning it seemed the other way around. I will never look at this little adjective again in the same way when it comes up on a vocabulary exercise.

Categories: ἱκανός, Greek, Matthew