[B-Greek] SFWE in the Iliad 1.8
Ann Nyland
accuratebibles at ozemail.com.au
Fri Aug 1 20:43:21 EDT 2003
Hi Charles,
My suggestion about Anabasis was that it is a good place to start Attic
Greek, not that Anabasis itself would help someone's NT Greek more so than
Homer or any other text. My opinion is that one needs to learn Attic Greek
if one wishes to learn Greek, so why not start with it. (There's so much
Attic Greek.) Of course, that's just my opinion.
Yes, I would say that Homeric Greek would give someone a great backdrop for
the NT, but the more Greek the better. Someone would have a good and proper
background to the GNT if they could read Greek, not just the Ionic dialect.
And as there's lots of Attic Greek and not much Ionic, why not learn Greek
and not just the Ionic dialect. Having said that, and in the context of
reading the GNT, Grrek speakers in NT times often studied Homer as the
standard reading text, and I have heard it said that Christians contibuted
to illiteracy by banning Homer due to its pagan gods - thus taking away the
standard text. Pisidian Antioch was so illiterate, that people had to
purchase stencils for epitaphs.
I completely agree about removing crutches, but I don't think that Plato (on
the whole), Thucydides, Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus, or Aristophanes for
example offer crutches or even a bandaid! I think people who have only read
Homer would get a severely horrible shock if faced with much of Attic Greek!
Ann Nyland
----- Original Message -----
From: <Granby at SAFe-mail.net>
To: <B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2003 2:21 AM
Subject: Re: Re: [B-Greek] SFWE in the Iliad 1.8
>
> At www.textkit.com there is a classical greek forum and they widely
recommend "Homeric Greek" by Clyde Pharr. I am going through this book
myself and love it. Although I'm not entirely sure whether his book is
really good, or Homer is really good (I know that by now), or if it was just
what I needed at the right point in my self education.
>
> My wife has recently asked me to teach her greek (mainly for biblical
greek purposes) and I was seriously considering using this textbook to start
with.
>
> Is it reasonable for someone who learns homeric greek to be able to easily
transition to biblical greek?
>
> Personally, I feel that starting to learn Homer has really jump started my
ability to read other greek authors/texts much more than reading Xenophon's
Anabasis did.
>
> (my own theory is that the absence of the regular use of the article
removes a crutch and forces one to really learn the cases)
>
> Thanks
> Charles Granby
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