[B-Greek] further study - modern or classical?

Barry nebarry at verizon.net
Mon May 1 08:05:28 EDT 2006


> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-greek-
> bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Riley
> Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 12:09 AM
> To: B Greek
> Subject: [B-Greek] further study - modern or classical?
> 
> 
>  I find myself with a few weeks free and want to continue with Greek study
> beyond NT Greek.  I did 2 years of NT Greek, and have recently read most
> of
> Wallace's book to refresh my memory - I enjoy reading grammar books - and
> yes, I am not normal :).  I have access to both modern Greek [through my
> friendly neighbourhood library] and classical Greek [JACT Reading Greek]
> and
> can't decide which would be most useful.  I have maybe 6 weeks in which to
> be "obsessed" with the subject, then will probably have to cut back to
> just
> an hour or so a week.  What would you advise?  Left to myself, I may spend
> the entire 6 weeks making the decision :)

Kevin, by all means satisfy your obsession with classical Greek.  It will
help you far more with reading NT Greek than the study of Modern Greek,
since it's far easier to extrapolate from the earlier "versions" of the
language to its later development than to move the other direction.  I find
it amusing sometimes that students who have only had "Koine" often
exaggerate the differences between Classical and Koine -- in reality there
is sufficient continuity that the differences are glaringly obvious.  Those
of us who started in a Classical curriculum have normally found reading the
NT a breeze, at least compared to Aeschylus or Thucydides...

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Adjunct Faculty & IT Support
The Center for Urban Theological Studies
http://www.cuts.edu
Visiting Faculty
Reformed Theological Seminary-Washington DC
http://www.rts.edu/campuses/washington_dc/index.cfm

http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry





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