Two Are Better Than One

“NOTES ON NUMERIC INTERLINEAR GREEK NT by Ivan Panin”

One. This is not a typical Interlinear Greek New Testament. First of all, the format is chosen so that main and supporting clauses can be immediately seen in a poetic type of format rather than all running together as in prose. Peter Marshall, former Chaplain of the US Senate, wrote all his sermons this way, and Winston Churchill wrote his speeches in a similar manner.

Two. The English translation is not consistently under the Greek words in the usual strict manner. This is done so that those interested primarily in the translation, may read it with more ease.

Three. The Greek text has been transliterated into English letters so that any layman can pronounce the Greek words with an approximate correct pronunciation. The transliteration follows the Berlitz method of learning new languages. The accented syllable is capitalized. In the case of more than one connecting syllable, a hyphen is used to keep each word a unit.

Four. For those not too familiar with Greek, but desire to know what is the key Greek Word that the English translates, the Strong’s Concordance Number beside each significant Greek word will make this clear.

Five. In Greek there are two forms for the letter “e” and “o”. So that you may differentiate between the two, the long “e” and “o” are underlined.

Six. English “help” words in the translation that do not appear in the original are in “Italics.” The Authorized King James version and most other translations follow this same format.

Seven. The “iota subscript” is a vestigial form standing for the letter “iota” in ancient Greek. It helps to identify the Dative Cases as one of its purposes. It is appreciated by advanced students. However, my computer does not include this “subscript”, and because the majority of readers who will use this Interlinear New Testament would not make use of it, it has been omitted. Scholars can easily verify each occurrence.

Eight. The Definite Article “the” in Greek is of great importance. Latin does not have this part of speech. The King James Authorized Version is declared to be a translation directly from the Greek, but the definite Greek article is not correctly used. It seems apparent that the translators of the 611 AD version relied far more heavily on the Latin Vulgate than the Greek originals. Panin has been very careful to give this Greek part of speech its proper place. When it does not make sense to use it in his translation, he puts it in as a “colon” in front of the noun or verb form it modifies. Those who understand the importance of this part of speech, will appreciate being made aware of its presence.

Nine. Punctuation in the Greek differs in some points from English. Because the Greek has been in our case transliterated into English letters, I have taken the liberty to change into the Greek text, the English “colon,” “semi-colon,” and “question.”

Ten. There is a “rough breathing,” and a “smooth breathing” in Greek. The former has an apostrophe facing the word starting with a vowel. It has been transliterated with an “h” in the transliteration. The “smooth breathing” is not pronounced, and is traditionally not transliterated.

Eleven. But mostof all, and aboveall, the two texts employed are that of Ivan Panin’s Numeric Greek and English New Testaments. There is absolutely no deviation from Dr. Panin’s Greek text. However a very few minor changes have been made in his English translation. “Ye” has been replaced with “you;” “whilom” has been replaced with “former,” because of its archaic nature. You can trust that except for such very minor changes, you are reading exactly as Panin himself made his translation, even to the punctuation. He was a master of English, and though nearly 100 years have passed since he made his translation, we could not feel justified in making any other changes. If you purchase his translation, you can check how faithfully we have adhered to his own text.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses offered to make an Interlinear Greek New Testament from his two texts. He regretfully turned their offer down, because he saw them as a “cult.” So his two texts have lain dormant since 1942, with his vision unfulfilled. Another has made an Interlinear Greek New Testament for his two texts, but has changed not only his translation, but even in places changed the Greek Text. I for one cannot recommend its purchase.

Twelve. Dr. Panin discovered through Numerics that God has established even the correct sentence structure, paragraph sub-divisions, paragraphs and sections or chapter equivalents. This text has been formatted, assigned sentence topics, with summaries for each sub-paragraph, paragraph and chapter equivalent. Needless to say, these titles and summaries are not inspired. For this reason we leave a space above each. You the reader are invited to substitute your own in case you feel you can improve on ours.

I purchased all of Panin’s 20 or so books, booklets and pamphlets in 1945. It was because of the above contextual discovery that I have personally spent over 40,000 hours in preparing to post this Interlinear New Testament on our Website, book by book as they are completed. The order of the books is according to a natural combination of Greek words. For example, the 5-fold Ministries of Ephesians 4:11 is the basis for one of the 12 Embryonic Revival Principles restored to the church in the 1948 Visitation at North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada.

We will therefore post Greek Word studies on these 5 ministries at the same time Ephesians is posted. At the same time we will post the first chapter of the book on these 12 Embryonic Revival Principles.

Following this we will post 1 Timothy with its corresponding Greek Word for “Presbytery,” and its related synonyms such as “elder.” Acts 13:1-3 and Acts 15 will share as the basis for understanding what God restored on February 11, 1948 in Northern Canada in what has been dubbed “The New Order of Latter Rain” by some. It is interesting to note that the word “Christian” was given to early believers by their enemies.

P.S. For those of you who are interested, you can check out my article entitled “Reaching Unbelievers through Bible Numerics” and published by “The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.” Click on the following URL to get on their Website: http://www.christianity.ca/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=4553&srcid=1979 You will find 5 links in this article which have helped many others who have clicked on them.