[B-Greek] Jan Hoogland’s “Access to the Greek NT”
Carl W.Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Dec 18 13:16:08 EST 2006
The following advertisement is published with permission of the list-
owner.
=============
Your attention, please!
Lexica and grammars of Greek, available in the English medium, are
usually horrendous statements of essential simplicity. Why is that
so? Because the simplicity of Greek described with the simplicity of
English is a disconnect anyway you look at it.
Though human languages are not as easy as ABC, neither are they
anything but straightforward information systems that are quite
learnable. The proof of that is that each of us learns at least one
human language, sometimes many. Even languages we learn as adults
yield to some focus on our part.
Why should Greek be beyond the best efforts of so many? Though there
are many explanations of that condition, one of the best is that we
add our own complications by trying to learn Greek through the
English channel to the mind. What we need is to open a Greek channel
to the mind and watch most of the complications hitherto encountered
disappear.
Such is the thesis and praxis of Jan Hoogland, a physicist by
academic training (optics) and, as to his hobby, a godsend to the
rest of us.
Hoogland has developed materials to open that needful Greek channel
to the mind in a short book he has written called "Access to the
Greek New Testament," one hundred twelve spell-binding pages in
fourteen well-balanced chapters.
Just to whet your appetite, consider the following:
Language is decoded, but not by eliminating possible meanings from
each successive word we encounter in whatever sentence until we
finally arrive at the right concatenation of surviving meanings.
RATHER it is decoded by adding a basic meaning for each lexical and
grammatical unit encountered, fine-tuned by context, until the
meaning of the sentence cries out to be understood.
Lexical and grammatical meaning is not stored in a lexicon or grammar
(or in the mental equivalent thereof) in such a way that we have to
wade through marvelous outlines of information until we find just the
right one for our sentence. RATHER each lexeme and grammatical
construction consists of merely a single intrinsic meaning. Learn
that and hitherto well-used grammars and lexica will become dust
collectors on your shelf.
Translation is not the way to approach Greek (unless you are a
professional Bible translator). RATHER read Greek for comprehension
as you read English, except that you need to comprehend it through
the Greek channel to the mind.
Sound inviting? Too good to be true?
Try it out for yourself. Our benefactor, Jan Hoogland, is offering a
free photocopy of his yet-unpublished book to anyone that asks for it
within thirty days of the appearance of this ad. Alternately, you may
request a free CD of the same text. If those media aren't satisfying
to you, our author is willing to send you a zipped file containing
the text of this insightful work.
Send your specific request (photocopy or CD or attached file) to Jan
Hoogland at hoogland at hawaii.rr.com. Include all appropriate address
information. And start to build a Greek channel to your mind.
The text in all formats is copyrighted by Jan Hoogland, 2006. As long
as you do not change the content of the text or profit by it in any
financial way, you may share copies of the same with the author's
implicit blessing. This book is part of a larger work that is planned
ultimately to become the "Transformation of the Greek New Testament."
Though that goal is several years away, the author invites you to get
a headstart on the way to building your own Greek channel to the mind
by obtaining your own personal copy of this intermediate version today.
T. Friberg, AGNT project, proclamator
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