Reading Greek

Paul Wendland wendlanp at wls.wels.net
Sun Dec 22 01:25:03 EST 2002


Dear Glendon:

Plato's dialogue's *are* online, and are worth every second.  I don't think
there's a more elegant and yet naturally flowing Attic Greek you'll read
anywhere.  If you're going to start anywhere with Plato, I might recommend
Plato's *Apology*. All the same I'd certainly be interested to hear other
people's suggestions.  Here's a place where you can access them in Greek and
in a parallel English translation, should you need one.  You might read a
section through in English first and then try ploughing through the Greek
without the English.

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0169
&query=div1%3D%232&vers=original&layout=&loc=Apol.%2017a

You can adjust the font so it shows up Greek if you're willing to fool
around a little bit with the configure button.

Plato's representation of Socrates' defense is simply soul stirring stuff.

Paul

========================
Paul O. Wendland
Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary
wendlanp at wls.wels.net

||-----Original Message-----
||From: Glendon M. Gross [mailto:gross at xinetd.ath.cx]
||Sent: Saturday, December 21, 2002 9:33 PM
||To: Biblical Greek
||Cc: Biblical Greek
||Subject: [b-greek] Re: Reading Greek
||
||
||I have a question for you.   Is classical greek recommended as an
||enhancement to learning biblical greek?
||
||The reason I asked is that I have thought about trying to read Plato's
||dialogues in the original Greek if I can get my hands on them.  I am
||concerned, though, that it might be too great a leap for me after
||reading just the New Testament.  Still, the fact that translations are
||so easy to come by might make it possible to solve some of the
||comprehension problems by referring to a translation if I get stuck.
||
||Are Plato's dialogues available online in the original greek?
||
||Regards,
||
||Glendon Gross
||Amateur Greek Student
||
||Barry Hofstetter wrote:
||> ----- Original Message -----
||> From: "Carl Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
||> To: "Biblical Greek" <b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu>
||> Sent: Saturday, December 21, 2002 5:26 PM
||> Subject: [b-greek] Re: Reading Greek
||>
||>
||>
||>>No, you're doing it the right way, in my opinion; you certain
||MUST look up
||>>the words you don't know and you need to have a pretty clear
||understanding
||>>of the grammatical relationships as you read--and 1 John is easy enough
||>>that one can read a good deal at one sitting. The key is to
||read more than
||>>a sentence or a paragraph at a time--the more the better. The
||more you do
||>>this, you build up a sense of recurrent constructions of the
||same sort and
||>>also of the sorts of contexts in which the words that are
||frequently used
||>>most commonly appear, and you should also develop, through the
||reading of
||>>large chunks at a time, a sense of word-order, of recurrent patterns of
||>>sentence-structure. All this increases your sense of ease and
||>>comfort-level, and you should even find yourself thinking in terms of
||>>Greek thought-patterns--or the sort of thought patterns that come
||>>naturally to the Greek-speaker/writer's mind.
||>
||>
||> I know "amen" posts are probably frowned on, but I can't resist -- amen.
||>
||> The more you read, the more you know...  :)
||>
||> Seriously, this is precisely the discipline that anyone
||attempting to learn
||> Greek should develop.  The only problem, if problem it is, that
||after a while,
||> one develops an almost intuitive sense for the language, so
||that one can spot
||> problems in grammatical exegesis without really being readily
||able to explain
||> why they are problems...  I remember more than one advanced
||grad student, and
||> even a professor or two, who could flawlessly translate various
||passages, but
||> couldn't always adequately explain the translation.  I found
||teaching beginning
||> through intermediate Greek for several years helped immensely,
||in my case, so if
||> you have a chance to teach or tutor someone else (assuming that
||your own ability
||> is up to it) then carpe that diem for sure.
||>
||> I also recommend to anyone who can to read more than just the
||NT.  Adding the
||> LXX helps, but the more extra-biblical Greek one gets, the more
||it helps with
||> reading Biblical Greek.
||>
||> My two denarii worth...
||>
||> N.E. Barry Hofstetter
||>
||> Fecisti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec
||requiescat in te...
||>     -- Augustine, Confessions 1:1
||>
||> http://home.earthlink.net/~nebarry
||>
||>
||> ---
||> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
||> You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [gross at xinetd.com]
||> To unsubscribe, forward this message to
||$subst('Email.Unsub')
||> To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu
||>
||>
||>
||
||
||---
||B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
||You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [wendlanp at wls.wels.net]
||To unsubscribe, forward this message to
||$subst('Email.Unsub')
||To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu
||




More information about the B-Greek mailing list