Learning+Life

Kacie Van Pelt (class of 2017) knows which words appear more than 25 times in the Greek New Testament. She’s helped write the book on them: Biblical Greek Vocabulary in Context. “This book puts vocabulary into context for students. Instead of rote memorization in isolation, the vocabulary words appear through selected verses from the Greek New Testament. To know the meaning of a word in its lexical form is one thing, but to recognize it in context and understand how it is being used in a sentence is another,” she said.

Kacie’s father, Dr. Miles Van Pelt, had already written Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary in Context. When he decided to write a Greek companion to that volume, he asked if Kacie would be interested in helping. He knew she was more than prepared for the opportunity.

Van Pelt’s interest in languages was nurtured at Prep. She took four years of Latin and two years of Greek. “Some of my favorite Prep memories are playing Greek Scrabble in Dr. [Paul] Smith’s class,” she recounted. “When I was in sixth grade, I took Biblical Greek at Reformed Theological Seminary through the Summer Institute of Biblical Languages program led by my father. I also later studied Hebrew with him in high school.”

Kacie’s language studies culminated in a B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Kentucky. “In undergrad, I focused on German, but studying any language makes a student a more informed citizen of the world. Culture is deeply ingrained in language. You cannot truly learn another people’s language without also learning about their perspectives, beliefs, and experiences. Additionally, one of the best things about learning another language is how much it teaches you about your own. I love the quote from German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen, which translates to, “Whoever does not know a foreign language knows nothing of their own.”

Asked what she learned through the process of contributing to Biblical Greek Vocabulary in Context, Van Pelt replied, “It was incredibly rewarding to see just how much of the Greek New Testament a student can understand if they have a firm grasp of this vocabulary list.”

Van Pelt is currently starting her second year of law school at the University of Mississippi, but she is putting her previous studies to good use. “My background in linguistics has proven useful in studying the law, which has a language of its own.”

Biblical Greek Vocabulary in Context (Zondervan Academic. ISBN-10 0310114667) is available for pre-order. It will be published in December 2021.