Bible Is Greek To Him Spirit Moves New Christian To Study God’s Words In Text’s Original Language

When he wants a smoke, George Blaisdell rolls his own cigarettes.

When he reads the Book of John, the process is somewhat the same.

Blaisdell prefers to translate the New Testament’s fourth Gospel from Greek. He then jots down his own observations of what the text says about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“You can’t go too slow,” said the 53-year-old locksmith and former atheist, who learned Greek in college. “Every word is a window to Christ.”

Many early Bible translators were great reformers who laid down their lives to give the Scriptures to the public. But with all due respect, Blaisdell finds English versions “terribly superficial.”

It took the great precision of Greek, the ancient language in which the New Testament was first composed, to stir Blaisdell’s soul. He found Jesus in the words.

“It was, simply, awesome,” he said. “I felt the winds of the Spirit moving over my waters.”

Jack Chan, this mountain community’s Presbyterian pastor, once studied the New Testament in Greek. He understands its power.

“When you get into the original languages of the Bible … you get a broader understanding of what the Scriptures are saying,” Chan said. “You begin to think the way the people thought in that day and age.”

Take, for example, the opening verse in the King James version of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning the Word already was.”

Blaisdell spent days contemplating the sentence, referring to Greek-Hebrew dictionaries and praying for guidance. He came up with this: “Within the Godhead the divine intelligence has always been.”

“Godhead,” Blaisdell said. “That could symbolize the Trinity. But I think it involves much more, like angels and miracles.”

Looking back, Blaisdell believes God guided him to the Book of John.

Blaisdell was educated in Greek and philosophy at San Diego State University. Over the course of several years, he constantly “bumped into” references to the Gospel in literature and in conversation.

Eight months ago, he searched out a copy of the Greek version of the New Testament.

“I wanted to see for myself what John had to say,” he explained. “Along the way, I discovered I was a Christian.”

Akin to spiritual poetry, translating the Scripture often requires Blaisdell to stop and think hard.

In many ways, he shows the dedication of a monk, albeit one who has a live-in girlfriend, occasionally mutters blasphemy and smokes like no one’s business.

His monastery is a house built on what used to be a junk yard in a woodsy area north of Cle Elum. Against a backdrop of aging books in the house, beat-up Subarus outside and a small zoo of domestic animals everywhere, Blaisdell spends hours at a time with his study guides and Greek New Testament.

“The key that unlocks many of the words is prayer,” he said, “for God alone gives meaning.”

One verse can result in several pages of handscribbled interpretation in his spiral notebook.

“For thus loves the Father the cosmos,” he recited. “That’s ‘For God so loved the world.”’

Four Greek words mean love. The most common in the Book of John: “philos,” brotherly love, and “agape,” divine love - pronounced a-GAH-pay.

The first half of the book deals with water, the second half with blood. “I love the metaphors,” Blaisdell said.

The Book of John, he said, is as relevant as anything else to human need and aspiration. At the same time, though, he has begun exploring the Greek versions of the New Testament’s other books.

Despite the renewed sense of spirituality, Blaisdell said he still doesn’t know whether to spit or swallow when it comes to organized religion. For too long, Christians were merely Bible thumpers and hypocrites in his eyes.

“I’ve just awakened from an extraordinarily dark period of my life,” he said. “I’m moving toward the social aspect. But with my atheistic background, I’m shy about churches.”

Until he finds a church that feels right, Blaisdell considers himself a “Bible Christian.”

“I’m realizing the Spirit blows where it will,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”