[B-Greek] Introductory NT Greek Textbooks (was "DEIKNUMI: 2sg. endings variation")
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Apr 2 07:22:28 EDT 2008
Two items -- one regarding editions of Mounce, a second about NTG
primers generally -- I want both to clarify and to underscore a point
I was trying to make in my last response to the thread on variant
forms of DEIKNUMI/DEIKNUW yesterday:
(1) Mounce:
On Apr 1, 2008, at 10:36 PM, Kokkee Ng wrote:
> Where can I purchase a copy of MNTG, preferably the paperback
> edition? At the present rate of currency conversion of about 3.5
> (USD 1 = MYR 3.5), I find the hd edition to be a bit too expensive
> for me. I can't find it at Amazon nor at CBD. Is it still in print?
>
> Kokkee Ng
> Bible College of Malaysia
If by "MNTG" you mean Mounce's "Basic Biblical Greek," I don't think
there's a paperback edition of the textbook; there is a paperback
workbook only. Upon checking Amazon.com under "Mounce" I find a rather
dismaying hodgepodge of introductory NT Greek tools. If you are NOT
referring to "BBG" you need to be clearer.
(2) What NTG primers are and what they are not:
The term "primer" means, fundamentally, "first textbook" or "beginning
textbook." One should expect from such a textbook to acquire a basic
introduction to the essential features of what one is learning; since
we're talking about NT Greek, that means a basic introduction to the
essential features of NT Greek. But what do we mean by "essential
features"? I would think that "essential features" of NT Greek would
include (a) the "standard" features of the way nouns, verbs,
adjectives, pronouns, and adverbs are inflected in Koine Greek, (b)
the "standard" features of NT Greek syntax: how words cohere in the
most common patterns and convey intended meanings between speakers and
writers of the language, and (c) the "core" words of the vocabulary
that will be encountered in the texts one hopes to be able to read and
understand intelligently. I would say that it should also include
clear and accurate advice on the nature and use of reference works
that will be essential to continued work in NT Greek; lack of such
advice is, I think, a very serious failing in some primers, a failing
that I think is really unforgivable.
A primer cannot and should not be expected to be a reference grammar
for NT Greek, even less for Biblical or Jewish-Christian Greek texts
generally. To a considerable extent a primer in NT Greek must simplify
what is complex to the extent of presenting as homogeneous what is in
fact heterogeneous and disparate. Some NT Greek grammarians like to
talk about NT Greek in "synchronic" terms, arguing that the language
spoken and written in the NT Greek texts is essentially uniform and
standard within the relatively brief time frame of the composition of
the NT corpus. Others (myself included) prefer to speak of NT Greek in
"diachronic" terms, arguing that the language under discussion is not
at all uniform but in process of change and that it employs
vocabulary, morphology, and syntactic structures, some of which are
older and becoming archaic and some of which are emergent and in the
course of becoming standard.
How is a primer in NT Greek to deal honestly with the synchronic
nature of the language of this corpus? In the matter of verb
morphology it must teach W-verbs and MI-verbs; there's no escaping the
variant formations of contracted W-verbs and there's also no escaping
the fundamental verbs for "be," "stand," "put down," and "let go" that
have retained -- more or less -- their MI-verb inflections over
several previous centuries of written and spoken Greek. Among the few
languages that I know or know of, irregular verbs are a difficulty
that cannot be worked around: one must acquire an intimate familiarity
with them, whether through memorizing paradigms (not very efficient
but to some extent unavoidable) or -- preferably -- through oral
drilling and relentless exposure to texts employing them. As in French
one must come to know instinctively which verbs are conjugated with
"etre" and which with "avoir" -- or which verbs take complementary
infinitives preceded by "a" and others preceded by "de", so in Greek
one needs to have an instinctive ability to recognize the present and
imperfect forms of contract verbs and the present and imperfect forms
of MI-verbs. And just as beginning students of French must come sooner
or later to the dismaying realization that "every grammatical rule has
its (apparent) exceptions," so must the beginning student of NT Greek
come sooner or later to grasp the truth that this Greek language
doesn't bear any resemblance to a simple letter-substitution code and
that its vocabulary also doesn't accommodate itself to one-word
glosses in one's native language. It is somehow terribly ironic that a
child learning a language in an environment where it is spoken can
grasp that language effortlessly while an English-speaker who has
spent a year with a primer of NT Greek is still almost helpless when
confronting a hitherto unread NT Greek text.
All of which is to say that one needs to be aware -- probably to a
considerably greater extent than is common -- of the limitations and
necessary oversimplifications that are characteristic of NT Greek
primers. The primers can help a beginner learn to tread water and
develop and practice basic swimming strokes; that's all they can do.
And the reference appendices that are to be found in primers are not
-- should not be -- intended for consultation beyond the time frame
during which one is learning what the primers teach.
St. Paul says, 11 ὅτε ἤμην νήπιος, ἐλάλουν
ὡς νήπιος, ἐφρόνουν ὡς νήπιος,
ἐλογιζόμην ὡς νήπιος· ὅτε γέγονα
ἀνήρ, κατήργηκα τὰ τοῦ νηπίου. [hOTE HMHN
NHPIOS, ELALOUN hWS NHPIOS, EFRONOUN hWS NHPIOS, ELOGIZOMHN hWS
NHPIOS; hOTE GEGONA ANHR, KATHRGHKA TA TOU NHPIOU]. So it behooves the
learner of NT Greek LALEIN, FRONEIN, LOGIZESQAI hWS ANHR (or GUNH!)
KAI TA TOU NHPIOU KATARGEIN.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Ret)
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