Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - What Has Been Done for These People and Their Neighbors Now in America? (Symposium) The Rev. Jesse W. Brooks, Ph. D. (presiding) - The Greeks: Rev. C. T, Papadopoulos - Our Debt to the Greeks - The Greek New Testament
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A Symposium 119
Our Debt to the Greeks
This is general and true for all nations, but when we come to the
Greeks, it is not only our duty and privilege to help them, but we
are debtors to them. Paul, who was the apostle to the Gentiles,
in his Epistle to the Romans, particularly emphasizes the fact that
he feels himself a debtor to the Greeks. If he was debtor to the
Greeks, then the whole Christian world is debtor to them.
We all know what "debtor" means. Therefore, if it is our duty to
evangelize the Russian, the Italian, the Pole, the Bulgarian and the
Turk, and to help save the Greeks from the terrible bondage of the
Turk, and to help them get their rights, above all we are debtors
for their evangelization. But why are we debtors? What have we
received from them? What have they given us? All who have studied
history know what the Greeks have done. If any one wishes to find
out what the Greeks gave the world, let him go to any library of
any nation or language where he will find thousands of volumes bear-
ing witness to what this nation has given the world of philosophy,
science, art, freedom, etc. The Greeks were always generous. They
never kept their knowledge a secret for themselves, nor did they
wait that others might come and receive it; but they traveled and
endured hardships that the light might help others. The Greeks
loved freedom. They were the first to teach democracy to the world.
They fought alone against the Barbarians that they might protect
their freedom and that they might keep Europe from invasion. When
the Barbarians, like the Huns of today, brought their armies to
invade Europe, the Greeks stood their ground and fought their battles
and saved Europe, just as our army, together with our Allies, will
do today, to save the entire world from the menacing tyranny of
German militarism. As in the Apostolic age the persecution against
Christians spread the light of the Gospel, so after the fall of Con-
stantinople the Greeks scattered throughout Europe, building schools,
teaching language, science and philosophy and spreading Christianity.
The Greek New Testament
I quote a sentence from the last speech of Gladstone in the House
of Commons: "Let us help save the remnant of the Greek nation,
because the freedom of civilization which Europe enjoys today is the
reflection of the swords of their fathers." If we forget what they
have done for us, history will never forget. The Greek nation will
always stand bright on her pages. The greatest thing the Greek
nation has given to the world is the Book of books, which we call the
New Testament. Turn to the first page of any New Testament and
there you will read: "Translated from the original Greek." Today
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