[B-Greek] "Sunday School Greek"
Eric Weiss
papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Tue Jan 23 10:47:23 EST 2007
My first-year Greek teacher said that after 3 semesters (i.e., first-year Greek, plus an
exegesis/translation course), one should be able to interact intelligently (or begin to do so)
with commentaries and books that reference the Greek. I think he was correct. We used
Mounce for that first year of Greek. Of course, at that level one should often defer to the
wisdom of the commentators and not use such ability to find and pronounce one's own
interpretations of the Greek if they are contrary to what the consensus of commentaries is.
And one year of Greek, IMO, is only enough for one to embarrass one's self in the pulpit
should there be a Greek-knowledgeable person in the pews!
My two cents to accomplish the ability to use some discernment and understanding of the
Greek NT along the lines of what you want, and if your resources and time are limited:
Set yourself to take the equivalent of 2 years of Greek, maybe working through Daniel
Wallace's grammar for your second year - a workbook with exercises is now available - go to
Zondervan.com and look for this: A Workbook for New Testament Syntax - Companion to
Basics of New Testament Syntax and Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics.
I agree with Carl Conrad that N. Clayton Croy's A Primer of Biblical Greek grammar looks
like a good choice for first-year Greek, and it's inexpensive, but it lacks the tools of Mounce.
You also need to up your vocabulary to every word that occurs 20x or more (Mounce only
teaches 50x or more). Croy introduces you to the Septuagint as well (but so do some of
Mounce's exercises in his first-year Greek book/course). For $31 or so you can by Brenton's
diglot Septuagint (Greek text with English translation on the side) if you need help with the
translation of the exercises, or go online to find a Greek LXX.
(One of my favorites is J. Lyle Story GREEK TO ME, but it's getting close to $200 now for
all the materials if you include the cost of a Greek New Testament. But one can do self-
study with it with the audio-visual CD, and it's great for vocabulary and grammar acquisition if
the picture-memory method works for you.)
After you've had 2 years of Greek, or during your 2nd year, read D. A. Carson EXEGETICAL
FALLACIES so you'll know what mistakes NOT to make.
After this, you will then be in good shape to do what you hope to be able to do, and will
likely know Greek better than many in the pulpit who let their Greek slide after leaving
seminary.
Eric S. Weiss
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