[B-Greek] Memorizing definitions

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Jun 24 15:02:37 EDT 2004


Forwarded for Phil Thompson:

Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Memorizing definitions
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 11:06:07 -0700
From: "Phil Thompson" <pthompson at go180.net>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>

Michael Abernathy wrote:
> Forgive my ignorance, how does one read the GNT if one cannot define
> the words? I ask this question as one who has just finished my 1st
> year of Koine and am preparing to take a second year. I have a
> vocabulary of about 400 words, 100 of which are "loosey-goosey"...

Dear Michael,

If you've got any Greek vocabulary at all, you can profitably read the
Greek NT. Once I got to where I could recognize a few words, I started
using a New Testament with Greek and English on facing pages. I'd read
the Greek out loud (no comments on my pronunciation :) and where I
didn't know a word I'd look over at the English side - and there, I'd
just added a word to my vocabulary. (If you're reading the NT, even if
it's a passage you haven't memorized, you probably still know more or
less what it says, so there aren't many sentences you can't finish.)
When I could read the Greek NT without missing too much of the meaning,
I started reading *Old* Testament passages in Greek. My copy of
Brenton's Septuagint has side-by-side columns of Greek and English, so
again I had a translation handy. I was pleasantly surprised that I could
read even a passage with which I was unfamilar - and often I could still
understand it! :) The same for liturgical material and the Church
Fathers. My vocabulary is still growing because I'm still reading Greek.

Personal preference - use a Bible with Greek and English in facing pages
or columns, not an interlinear. Otherwise you'll end up reading the
interlinear English text and you won't start thinking in Greek. The
sooner you can "get" the thought-order and rhythm of any language you're
trying to acquire, the sooner you'll be able to read it with
understanding instead of having a running commentary of translation in
your head.

I've lurked here for a while but I don't think I've introduced myself.
Philip Silouan Thompson - I keep a personal website at
www.philthompson.net <outbind://19/www.philthompson.net>  In Protestant
Bible school I learned enough Greek to be dangerous. Since resigning my
pulpit to become a layman in the Greek Orthodox Church I've had occasion
to expand my knowledge of NT/Byzantine Greek and put it to use in
reading liturgical and patristic materials. These days I'm an Oracle
database administrator in Walla Walla Washington, USA. (So I've gone
from being a pastor to being an Oracle...)

Enjoying lurking here. Some good discussions :)

In Christ,

Philip Silouan Thompson [Please note that list etiquette calls for a
full-name signature to be appended to all messages sent to the list.0




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