recommendation

Jay Adkins JAdkins264 at aol.com
Wed Apr 7 05:20:27 EDT 1999


 Albert Lukaszewski writes:

<<<Body: 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.>>>>

While I must concur there are numerous mistakes in the text, they can be 
pointed out beforehand so as not to confuse the student, so this is really 
not a major concern to me.  Although it is granted the publisher should 
have done a better job of editing.

I think the choice of using this grammar is based on the acceptance or 
rejection of the philosophy behind the use of the 8 case system based on 
function or the 5 case system based on form.  When I used the text for the 
first time myself as a student and now that I have used it as a teacher, my 
thoughts are the same.  It is the best approach.  I noted in my first 
response that there would be those that disagreed, but I still think that 
it is helpful to early on to introduce the importance of context and 
discussing the use of prepositions when teaching/learning Greek.  Spending 
some time on the development of the language gives the student a better 
appreciation of the historical use of Koine Greek and this approach almost 
requires that the teacher do just that.  Plus, an early understanding that 
not all genitives are alike seems to me to be a good thing, and I don't 
think that choosing 8 cases over 30 or 40 is a bad thing.  A.T. Robertson's 
system may not be perfect, but I don't think it is bad when used the way he 
intended it.

As to the use of other grammars, I again concur that is always useful, if 
for no other reason, different writers will chose different terms and 
illustrations to explain the same basic concept.

I must admit to not using the workbook, I only reviewed it.  I chose to 
prepare my own additional assignments based on the text and vocabulary of 1 
John so as to prepare my students to be able to read and translate it prior 
to the end of the class.

Also I am not teaching at the seminary level.  Each summer I teach 
interested teenagers and college students who are generally exceptional 
students to begin with.  They have no other distractions during the summer, 
so they have plenty of time to devote to this study.   Additionally they 
are motivated by a love of God's Word and not a requirement for some 
degree, so drop out rate is nonexistent for them.

I would be interested in what others think of using the two different case 
systems based on form or function for teaching first year students.
Jay Adkins



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