I can only think in English

That's why today's Greek translations were frustrating.

The Greek word "ean" can mean either "if" or "when" in English. "When the Messiah comes again..." expresses a very different level of hope from this: "If the Messiah comes again..."

The distinction made me wish I knew some language other than English well enough to think, dream, even burp in it. I would translate the Greek into that language instead, in order to get around the limits imposed by choosing an equivalent English word or phrase.

As a Lutheran, I'm trained to ask, "What does this mean?" I'm not trained to expect that the answer is ever one single thing: "Therefore I ought to thank and praise, serve and obey him..." (Luther's explanation to the first article of the Apostle's Creed).

Yet I want the Greek text of the New Testament to mean just one thing. The better questions would be, "What does the writer mean?" or "What does God mean to say through this?" The best I can hope for is to find English-thinking word or phrase that convey the same sense as the Greek might have, not a literal, word-for-word, formulaic translations. It might just take a lifetime!