[B-Greek] Introductory NT Greek Textbooks (was "DEIKNUMI: 2sg. endings variation")

Kokkee Ng kokkee at streamyx.com
Wed Apr 2 10:34:05 EDT 2008


No, I was not referring to Mounce's BBG nor his Morphology (which I 
have); I was referring to Brooks-Winbery's Morphology.
I have their book on syntax but did not know they published a book on 
morphology way back in '94.
I left the US for home after my studies in early Jan of '94.

Kokkee Ng
Bible College of Malaysia


Carl W. Conrad wrote:
> 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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