koin/ classical-difference

Edward Hobbs EHOBBS at WELLESLEY.EDU
Thu May 4 12:42:19 EDT 2000


Terminology matter:  "Baby Greek"

"... A siminary I know calls koin greek baby greek."

In a half-century of teaching Greek, I have never heard "Baby Greek" mean 
anything other than "beginning Greek," i.e., "the Greek course which one 
takes first, starting from scratch."

"Baby Greek" was taught at the University of Chicago (where I took it over
55 years ago), and studied Xenophon followed by Plato; but they offered NO
courses on New Testament Greek, none at all--though I did have a seminar on
Hellenistic Greek grammar, where we studied Radermacher and Blass-Debrunner.

If it is used as a synonym for the Greek of the NT, I have never heard it--
but my teaching has been limited to the University of Chicago, Harvard, the 
University of California (Berkeley, SF, and Davis), and Southern Methodist
University, plus (in my dotage) Wellesley.  But perhaps some seminaries do 
use the phrase that way.

On the other hand, Carl is surely right in suggesting that if one reads only 
the Greek found in the NT, one is in effect always doing baby Greek!


Edward Hobbs





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