recommendation

Al Lukaszewski alski at fuller.edu
Sun Apr 4 10:27:19 EDT 1999


The first round of Summers' NT Greek was a good introductory grammar;
however, the recent update is, IMHO, poorly done.  I used it last year to
teach Greek and my class found more errors in the text and the workbook
than I was able to keep track of -- even simple copy errors from the former
edition!  

My experience with the 8 case system was that my class became confused
about the extra three early on -- i.e., too early an introduction to syntax
on too little a grammatical base.  I had to switch to the 5 case system and
tell them not to worry about the other three -- to learn them as
syntactical functions of 3 of the 5 cases.  

Gradually I came to subsidize Summers' work with that of Machen and the
class turned out fine, but, sad to say, I lost a lot of people -- not only
mentally but attendance-wise -- because of the confusion and errors in the
new edition.  If you have to use it, I would strongly recommend subsidizing
it from other grammars like Machen, et al.

Best wishes,
Albert Lukaszewski
FTS
alski at fuller.edu


At 07:59 AM 4/5/99, Jay Adkins wrote:
>Dear William Noel <noelfam at iolok.com>
> You asked.
><<Does anyone have experience with Essentials of NT Greek by Ray Summers? 
>The college I'll be attending (Tyndale, In Fort Worth, TX) uses it. Thanks 
>in advance>>
>
>I used Essentials of NT Greek by Ray Summers in Seminary some twenty years 
>ago, it is a little dated in that it does not speak about verbal aspect and 
>relies mainly on Aktionsart.  It has been revised since then though by 
>Thomas Sawyer in 1995 and now has a workbook to go along with it which may 
>be purchased separately.  The workbook does have additional information not 
>in the text and is well laid out.  I think the book itself was well laid 
>out to begin with though and the revised edition has a new chapter on 
>syntax which was totally missing from the first edition.  Both include a 
>Greek Verb Chart that detaches from the back of the book, very useful.
>
>Overall, I would see it as a fine first year grammar.  Most of what you 
>want to accomplish in the first year of study is a good understanding of 
>accidence and the book does a good job of that.  The revised edition even 
>helps give you a good head start on second year Greek with the added 
>chapter on syntax.
>
>I like the way it follows A.T. Robertson's case scheme which is based on 
>function, with 8 cases instead of the normal 5 based on form.  This helps 
>to get the first year student to look at context for the meaning and usage 
>of case instead of relying solely on form.  There are those that disagree I 
>suppose.
>
>I am learning the real key to learning Greek in the first year is not the 
>text book you use, but the frequency you attempt to read the NT.  Second 
>year grammars on the other hand can make a difference and I have several to 
>cross reference.
>
>Jay Adkins
>
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