Why study Greek?

The New Testament was originally written in Greek (mostly). I'm currently studying Greek in school, and am beginning to appreciate the need to understand the original language. Here's an example we looked at in class today.

Philippians 3:8 (ESV)  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

Rubbish? Let's look this word up.

American Heritage Dictionary: refuse, garbage, foolish discourse, nonsense

Digging deeper --

Thayer’s Greek Lexicon:  Any refuse as the excrement of animals. Worthless and detestable.

Friberg Lexicon:  [The Greek for "rubbish" is] anything that is to be treated as worthless and thrown out; translated according to the context: dung, rubbish, garbage, offscourings.

And even deeper --

New Theological Dictionary of the New Testament:

The Greek World: 
  -  “dung,” muck, both as excrement and also as “fodder that has gone bad.”
  -  Sometimes used to denote things that have gone bad, ex a half eaten corpse.

Use in Hellenistic Judaism: 
  -  In writings used to tell how the inhabitants of the city besieged by Titus had to search sewers and dung for something to eat.

Use in The New Testament: 
  -  “I count them all as dung” Phil 3:8
  -  The choice of the vulgar term stresses the force of totality of this renunciation. 
  -  To the degree that the law is used in self justification, it serves the flesh and is not just worthless but noxious and even abhorrent.

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