[B-Greek] accessibility of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius for beginning-intermediate students?

Sunil Kothari skothari01 at hotmail.com
Wed Nov 14 09:58:14 EST 2007


Hello all. I have taken to heart the advice offered numerous times on this mailing list to read widely, both inside and outside the biblical tradition. Before venturing into Attic and earlier (e.g. Homeric) works, it occurred to me that it might be easier to start with Hellenistic Greek texts. I was wondering about the advisability of tackling Epictetus and/or Marcus Aurelius. I have always had an interest in philosophy (and especially Stoicism) and have also been told about the influence of Stoicism on some later Christian thought(?). So, my questions:
 
1. How accessible is the Greek of the works of these two thinkers to a beginning-intermediate student (one who has, for instance, read the Johannine epistles and the the gospel of Mark)?
 
2. Is there any benefit that reading these particular thinkers (as opposed to others) would offer in terms of further developing my NT Greek skills? For instance, by virtue of a large shared vocabulary or use of similar syntactical constructions? From a linguistic point of view, are there better choices as far as beginning to read outside of the canon? (I will of course be continuing to work my way through the NT).
 
I would be grateful for any advice.
 
Thank you.
 
Sunil Kothari
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