[B-Greek] ? - please respond

Eric Weiss eweiss at gte.net
Sat Dec 6 10:39:59 EST 2003


Matthew Creeden wrote:
 
> For the last three months I have been studying NT Greek at the
seminary.  I
> have a final on Monday which I do not think I will do well on.  I have
> found this endeavor, which I was very excited about at the beginning,
to
> truly be painful and almost wasteful in terms of time.
>
> All I did for nearly four months was memorize vocabulary words (few if
any
> I remember) and paradigms.  I have been praying for God to show me
(because
> the prof certainly has not) how on earth I am supposed to incorporate
this
> tool into my pastoral life.  What books are essential to have?  How
should
> the language be used in sermon preparation?  What is the best way to
go
> about learning the language from a practical standpoint without
becoming a
> Greek scholar (clearly not my intention)?
> 
> I hope you understand my frustration.  I am not certain what the
difference
> is between linguistics, morphology, syntax, etc. and how much I need
to
> know of each before I can say I understand this language well.  I
simply
> want to be more efficient and productive with the time I spend
studying the
> language for it to be useful to my congregation.  I have always
prepared
> sermons from my NIV and a concordance.  Now I am being "sneered" at by
the
> intellectuals for they feel this methodology is for backwood
preachers.
> 
> Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.  I would like
to
> know more about the language, but I simply feel it is out of reach.
>
> Matthew Creeden in NC
 
 
Which grammar are you using to learn Greek from? If you are having
difficulty understanding the terms 
or your teacher, I found that David Alan Black's LEARN TO READ NEW
TESTAMENT GREEK: 
EXPANDED EDITION did a good, concise and clear job of explaining things,
or supplementing 
explanations, that I was unclear about from my primary grammar (Mounce
in my case). Buy a copy - 
unless you're USING Black as your grammar! <grin!>
 
Black has written another book called USING NEW TESTAMENT GREEK IN
MINISTRY that's maybe 
worth reading to give you pointers on ministry use of Greek. 
 
If you can find a copy, get/read A.T. Robertson's THE MINISTER AND HIS
GREEK NEW 
TESTAMENT. A bit dated, but it's what first motivated ME to learn Greek.

 
After you've completed a year of Greek, get Kendell Easley USER-FRIENDLY
GREEK. It's specifically 
geared to post-first-year-Greek ministers to explain Greek grammar in
easy ways with pointers on what 
is and is not important for sermons and teaching. I never could do his
exercises/examples very well, 
but the rest is well worth reading.
 
After a year of Greek, you can get/read David Alan Black IT'S STILL
GREEK TO ME. It's sort of an 
easy-to-read intermediate grammar which, like Black always does, also
introduces you to linguistic terms 
you really do need to know for further work in commentaries, etc.
Some/much will be a repeat of what's in 
other books (and the same is true of those books), but sometimes one
author's style works better for you 
than another author's style. Besides, hearing/reading the same thing(s)
several times is one way one 
learns these things.
 
After 1 year or 3 semesters of Greek, get and read D.A. Carson
EXEGETICAL FALLACIES. Once you read 
it, you will KNOW that as a minister of God's word, you NEED TO KNOW
Greek - or at least need to know 
how to use it properly, and why (and how to avoid using it improperly).
 
For your vocabulary, nothing will help you learn it faster or better
than The Greek Memory System by J. Lyle 
Story. These are picture flashcards of nearly every word that occurs 25x
or more in the Greek NT. I literally 
doubled my 300+ word vocabulary after my first year to over 600 words in
a matter of a few weeks, as I recall. 
600 words will give you the ability to navigate much of the New
Testament. The cards are keyed to Story's 
grammar, so they are NOT alphabetical in the box.
http://home.regent.edu/lylesto/memsystem.html - the 
vocabulary flash cards are what you want. Many seminaries carry them, or
can order them. $20.
 
Rather than a 4-translation Bible, perhaps look for:
 
The Precise Parallel New Testament
 
It's $40 h/b and $80 leather (yikes!!), but in one size-of-a-large-Bible
volume you will have on the 
same page:
 
King James Version
Rheims
Amplified Bible
New International Version
New American Standard Version (1995)
New American Bible
New Revised Standard Bible
Greek text (N-A 27 / UBS 4).
 
Best wishes!
 
- - -
Eric S. Weiss
eweiss at gte.net
 



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