How to study, what to use....

Jonathan Robie jonathan at texcel.no
Sun Jul 19 06:50:27 EDT 1998


At 01:08 AM 7/19/98, Norman Frederick Schafer wrote:

>What is an interlinear?
 
An interlinear has the Greek text on one line, and a very literal
word-by-word translation on the next line, with each English word aligned
to the corresponding Greek word.

Example:

PAULOS APOSTOLOS   CRISTOU   IHSOU  DIA     QELHMATOS    QEOU
paul   an apostle  of christ jesus  through [the] will   of god

Lots of beginners use interlinears, and many people who never intend to
really be able to read Greek use interlinears to get at the Greek words so
they can look them up and slip a little Greek into their sermons or
whatever. Many Greek teachers are dead set against interlinears because
they tend to encourage people to read the English rather than the Greek,
and encourage the assumption that the English really is a complete and
adequate translation of the Greek. Personally, I think that a raw beginner
who does not have access to a teacher might benefit from an interlinear
sometimes when trying to "crack" a difficult verse, but even then, it is
best to try to crack it first, use the interlinear to solve the problem,
and do your reading in a Greek text without the English translation. This
encourages you to actually read the Greek.

The "Blue Letter Bible" has interlinear Greek for each verse, and you can
access it for free:

http://www.khouse.org/blueletter/

Hope this helps,

Jonathan

___________________________________________________________________________

Jonathan Robie		jwrobie at mindspring.com

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