[B-Greek] What NT Bible do you reccomend for a newcomer?

Jeffrey T. Requadt jeffreyrequadt_list at hotmail.com
Sat May 13 08:59:24 EDT 2006


I noticed that someone mentioned the NET diglot. That's the one I currently 
use. When I started learning NTG a while ago, my parents bought me the UBS 
4th ed. w/o dictionary as a Christmas present (I'd been using an old 
Nestle-Aland 22 that an old pastor/missionary friend had given me). I used 
that UBS 4 all the way through college, since the text is identical to the 
NA26/RSV diglot that my fellow students bought from the bookstore. However, 
when the NA27/NET diglot appeared, I snapped it up. I really like having the 
NET text with real notes on one side to glance at for reference and to 
compare with my understanding of the text. What I really love are the notes, 
because they really help one understand the thinking of the translators. I 
think I paid about $60, which was a bit of a splurge for me (still is). I 
would agree with the opinion of those who have said that internlears are 
bad, bad, bad to learn from. They are useful as a help to see what words are 
used in a passage, but they are not meant to be used to find out "what the 
Greek *really* says," which is how many pastors use them in their sermon 
preparation. Interlinears are simply meant to help, not to be a crutch, 
which is what they usually turn out to be, unfortunately, and so often the 
person using it who has little or no knowledge of Greek (or whatever 
language) feels like now they "know" what the Greek really "says," as 
opposed to what a legitimate and perfectly good translation like NASB, NIV, 
NRSV, NET, NLT, etc., says. So that's why so many people on this list have 
such a strong aversion to interlinears, especially when used to learn the 
language. On the other hand, the new ESV Reverse Interlinear that comes with 
Logos I have found to be quite useful as a way to see what the original word 
was that was translated into English. But even so, I use this as a tool, 
already knowing how Greek syntax basically works, and knowing what reference 
books to go to (lexica, grammars, etc.) to understand the Greek, and I don't 
use the interlinear to do so.
That said, I do reccomend the NET diglot that you can get at 
http://www.bible.org/store/product.asp?ProductID=56. It combines the 
scholarly Nestle-Aland text with a contemporary, study-friendly English 
translation.

Jeffrey T. Requadt
Tucson, AZ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nancy Hill" <hillsmith2000 at yahoo.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 11:48 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] What NT Bible do you recommend for a newcomer?


> Hi there...
>
> My son is a homeschooled high school senior who
> is just starting to study the ancient biblical
> versions of the Bible. He is interested in both
> the Old Testament Hebrew and the New Testament
> Greek.
>
> Unfortunately, our search for a Bible in those
> languages is confusing. A search on amazon.com
> yields lots of different choices, but we don't
> know which one would be best. I'd like to find
> something affordable (I'm thinking $40).
>
> I'm hoping that you might have a recommendation
> for a Bible that has both languages or one that
> is the New Testament Greek by itself (we have
> been able to find lots of versions of the Old
> Testament in Hebrew so that is not a problem).
>
> If you were just starting out and had zero
> knowledge of ancient Greek, which NT Bible would
> you get?
>
> Thanks very much for your help.
>
> Nancy Hill
> Ventura, California
> 805-760-8588
>
> P.S. He'd also love to connect with other local
> scholars who are studying this material.
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
> 




More information about the B-Greek mailing list