[B-Greek] Spirit or spirit
Eric Weiss
eweiss at gte.net
Wed Feb 26 13:20:50 EST 2003
Andy (and others):
I found that until I had 1 year of NT Greek, or close to it, I could not
interact well with the conversations on B-Greek. Though I still write
some dumb things, I wish I could erase some of my earliest posts and
questions to the list!
I would urge you as soon or as best as possible to enroll or take or
self-teach yourself the equivalent of 1 year of NT Greek. Not only will
it immensely aid your comprehension of what is being discussed on
B-Greek, but it is nearly required for what you appear to want to do --
i.e., interact with the New Testament on its own terms as it was written
(or at least how it has been reconstructed and edited according to the
best minds and efforts of the best textual critics we have today).
William Mounce's BASICS OF BIBLICAL GREEK has a CD with it, and an
accompanying workbook, and I think audio files of him teaching the class
at his Web site: http://www.teknia.com. It's perhaps the most popular
seminary textbook these days.
David Alan Black's LEARN TO READ NEW TESTAMENT GREEK is a nice
supplement to Mounce or any other first-year grammar, as he gives good
explanations for things that other grammars might leave you somewhat
puzzled about, and also introduces you to technical linguistic terms
that will help you down the road. Now in its Expanded Edition, it has
exercises and answer keys and can be used alone as a first-year
textbook.
I am currently teaching some people at church with John Dobson's LEARN
NEW TESTAMENT GREEK (2nd Edition), and there is an accompanying cassette
tape that reads and pronounces the first 14 chapters. Unfortunately,
some of the pronunciation and accenting (syllable stressing) on the
cassette is incorrect and is even contrary to what Dobson writes about
this in his own book. It takes a very inductive, immersive approach
(that's one reason I'm using it -- it seems less rigorous than other
books, and I have church members, not seminary students, in my class)
and omits accents, a problem that is somewhat solved when you reach
chapter 17 and begin reading from the Greek New Testament, which will
have all the accents for you.
A book I would highly recommend is Cullen I.K. Story's and J. Lyle
Story's GREEK TO ME. It uses a "picture memory" system to aid vocabulary
and verb/noun paradigm memorization -- and it WORKS, especially for the
vocabulary, which is perhaps more extensive than any other 1st-year
grammar, i.e., all words occurring 25x or more. A member of B-Greek has
used this book for years with stellar results among his students. The
book is now published by http://www.xulonpress.com, item number 60222X
-- but you can get the vocabulary cards and a CD (definitely recommended
if you're studying on your own) that helps you learn the material from
J. Lyle Story himself, at his Web site http://home.regent.edu/lylesto/.
Parsons Technology has a GREEK TUTOR that might be useful either by
itself or as an adjunct to a first-year grammar book like one of the
above.
I have posted some annotated information (including ISBN information)
about some of the above at a page I developed at:
http://home1.gte.net/vzn05pnm/ntgreek/resources.htm.
As Augustine heard (and obeyed): "Take up and read."
Best wishes!
- - -
Eric Weiss
http://home1.gte.net/vzn05pnm/index.htm
S.D.G.
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