Martin Luther On Studying Greek and Hebrew

"Truly, if there were no other benefit connected with the languages, this should be enough to delight and inspire us, namely, that they are so fine and noble a gift of God, with which he is now so richly visiting and blessing us Germans above all other lands. We do not see many instances where the devil has allowed them to flourish by means of the universities and monasteries; indeed, these have always raged against languages and are even now raging. For the devil smelled a rat, and perceived that if the languages were revived a hole would be knocked in his kingdom which he could not easily stop up again. Since he found he could not prevent their revival, he now aims to keep them on such slender rations that they will of themselves decline and pass away. They are not a welcome guest in his house, so he plans to offer them such meager entertainment that they will not prolong their stay. Very few of us, my dear sirs see through this evil design of the devil." –– Martin Luther on the importance of the biblical languages (quoted from the article made available by www.ntgreekstudies.com)

Martin Luther was keen to point out how Satan seeks to "offer [people] such meager entertainment that [the biblical languages] will not prolong their stay."

I hope we can work hard enough to turn the ebb of that tide to where perhaps more than one or two pew-warmers in church will sit eagerly with their Greek and Hebrew as they listen to sermons based on those sacred texts, first for our own edification and faith and then for the world's.