[B-Greek] The value of reading the NT in Modern Greek

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Aug 5 12:12:14 EDT 2008


Mark Lightman posted this message last night, but it was delayed  
because it was formatted in MIME HTML and over the 50k limit our list  
software allows for incoming messages. Rather than wait for him to  
send a re-formatted text, I'm sending it on the list immediately (CWC).

From: Mark Lightman <lightmanmark at yahoo.com>
Date: August 4, 2008 10:40:03 PM EDT
Subject: the value of reading the NT in Modern Greek

There have been some good discussions on this list  about the value of  
learning to speak modern Greek.   I think most B-Greekers would learn  
to speak modern  Greek if we could develop the discipline necessary  
to  produce more time in our lives.  If we could give up, say, sleep,  
hygiene and gainful employment.  If you read the  archives, though,  
you will find some caveats.  For example,  Randall Buth, of all  
people, is not too enthusiastic. He says  the main advantage of  
learning to speak modern Greek is  that it would be good practice for  
learning to speak koine Greek!  There is also a post from a teacher  
who found that  native Greek speakers often find their knowledge of  
modern  Greek to INTERFERE with learning ancient Greek.  But  anyway,  
that’s not what I wanted to talk about right now,  not about learning  
to speak modern Greek.  We’ve also talked  a lot on this list about  
the value of pronouncing NT Greek the  way Modern Greeks do, but I  
don’t what to talk about that either.

What I want to talk about is the value of something much more  modest  
than becoming fluent in speaking modern Greek.   I want to talk about  
the value of learning to read (and only  to read) the New Testament  
(and only the New Testament)  in modern Greek, using the koine NT as  
your crib.  You see,  this is how I spent my summer vacation.  When my  
Economic  Stimulus check arrived, I filled up my gas tank and paid a  
few  late fees on my sub-prime mortgage and I still had about $25  
left,  so I  bought one of those diglots with the koine Greek New   
Testament on one side and Today’s Greek Version on the other  side.  I  
then took this book with me on the only vacation I could  afford.  (I  
moved my couch a few inches southwest, so as to be  closer to Florida.)

I have been enjoying the heck out of working my way through  the  
Modern Greek, using the Ancient Greek, which I know  fairly well, as a  
“cheat.”  I have no real desire at this point  to learn Modern Greek;   
my interest is always in improving  my ability to read the Greek New  
Testament.  As I say,  above all, it has been fun.  For someone who is  
in love with koine, it is interesting to see what has become of the  
language.   AUTOU has become TOU (not to be confused with the   
article.)  EIS becomes S.  Participles are usually replaced  with POU  
meaning “who” (and it’s not declined) plus the  indicative, so hO  
BLEPWN becomes hO POU BLEPEI.  (“The one who sees,” like in English.)   
The future is  formed with THA (which is from THELW INA) plus the  
subjunctive, so literally instead of saying “I will  eat,” you say “I  
want that I should eat” (does anyone  else find this weird, that  
Modern Greek here sounds like Yiddish?)  OIDA and GIGNWSKOW give way  
to XERW, which is from EXEURON.   “Son” remains  hUIOS when talking  
about Jesus, but GIOS for ordinary  sons.   Anyway, these things are  
interesting (at least  to me) but I think reading the Modern Greek NT  
also  helps your koine Greek in a number of ways.

NUMBER ONE:  You find morphemes that are familiar  to you from koine,  
but in unfamiliar situations.  For  example in 2 Cor 10:4 you find the  
modern Greek word  GKREMIZW, which is akin to Ancient Greek  KRHMNOS,  
cliff.  AS  “let” as a helping verb is from  AFES.  In Jude 5 you have  
QUMIZW for
HUPOMIMNNiSKW, which may help you to remember that the morpheme QUM  
can include  mental activities as well as emotion or wrath, which   
might help you remember that the NT word  ENTHUMEOMAI means “I  
consider or think.”     Seeing these morphemes in strange places  
helps  burn the Greek roots deeper into the brain.  The  value of this  
in studying Homeric and Classical Greek is often promoted on this  
list, but I had not  realized that Modern Greek does the same thing.

NUMBER TWO: The modern Greek will often give you a recognizable  
synonym or paraphrase which allows you to understand the koine in a  
new  way without using any English.  AMHN AMHN LEGW hUMIN in John is  
rendered SAS BEBAIWNW, a verb which (in a slightly different  form) we  
know from the koine NT.  hODOS is  generally replaced with DROMO and  
DROMOS  in turn in Acts 13:25 becomes ERGO.  Buth has  talked about  
the need for a koine lexicon written in  koine, so as to bypass the  
English, but this is pretty  much what you have in the Modern Greek  
NT, and  even more so in older Modern Greek translations.  These are  
so close to the koine as to offer almost  an alternate text which is  
pretty understandable to  any one whose koine is good and who takes  
the time  to look up a few Modern Greek words and learn the  changes  
to the language.  Are you not sure how to  render hO hUIOS TOU QEOU  
TOU ZWNTOS in Mt 16:16 into English? (and Carl Conrad says you  should  
not; see one of his recent Ad Nauseum posts  about thinking in Greek  
versus translating.)  Well, you  don’t have to.  Check out the Modern  
Greek which has  Ho hUIOS TOU ALEQINOU QEOU, which, if you think   
about, is probably what Jesus meant, and here you can  avoid  
translation.  You’re not exactly thinking in Greek,  but you are at  
least not using any English (in my diglot,  even the maps are in Greek.)

NUMBER THREE.  The Modern Greek is one take  on cruxes,  a take which,  
all things being equal, one  might think would have more weight than  
say an  English translation.  Some examples from recent  cruxes  
discussed on this list:  The modern Greek  (or I should say, one  
version of the Modern Greek)  does not retain the distinction between  
FILEW and  AGAPEW in John 21:15ff (AGAPEW is used throughout) but does  
preserve the one between BOSKW  and POMAINW.  PROS TON THEON is John  
1:1 is  simply “with (ME) God.”  (I think ME is from META  but not  
sure; does anyone know?)  The Modern Greek  does not repeat QEOS in Jn  
11:22, but does add AUTOS,  suggesting the QEOS does imply SOME added  
emphasis.   You can see what becomes of rHMA (more or less replaced   
by LOGOS) and of LOGOS (often retained or rendered with  a fuller  
phrase; in Luke 1:2 LOGOS becomes MHNUMA  CARMOSUNOU, “joyful  
message”.)  Now, of course, this could get out of hand.  Every  
exegetical point could be  addressed by saying “But the Modern Greek  
says…!”  This would get annoying from someone who actually  KNOWS  
Modern Greek; from someone like me, who  has spent about seven hours  
looking at one Modern  Greek text, this would be intolerable.  But I  
find it  at least interesting to look up tough passages and see  the  
Modern Greek take(s.)

NUMBER FOUR.  Learning to read the Modern Greek NT is probably good  
preparation for learning to speak  Modern Greek.  This is still on my  
long term to-do list,  somewhere between memorizing the pluperfect  
and  cleaning the top of my refrigerator, so at least I’m  making  
progress towards ONE of my goals.
NUMBER FIVE:  Trying to read the Modern Greek  NT by using the koine  
NT as your crutch raises some  interesting pedagogical issues.  If  
your goal is to improve your NT Greek, can you really call it   
cheating if you use the koine Greek NT to help you  figure out the  
Modern Greek NT so you can better  read the koine Greek NT? If this is  
cheating, it’s a  pretty benign sort of cheating,  like fantasizing  
about  your wife while making love to her.  Conrad has  maintained  
that if all you know is the Greek NT, you don’t really know NT Greek.   
If like me, you  can read the Modern Greek New Testament with  a  
dictionary or the Koine NT as your crib, can you say that in any sense  
you “know” Modern Greek?   Lest someone on the list Alexander Pope me,  
let  me do it myself.  I know that learning a little Modern  Greek is  
a dangerous thing, and I’ve been learning  a microscopic amount of  
Modern Greek.  But if  your goal is to really know one Greek text  
super-well,  and if you can, on the basis first of  radical  
familiarity  with the English and then the koine Greek, understand   
the Modern Greek NT, should you read it?  I think you  should, for the  
same reason you should climb a mountain.   The Modern Greek NT happens  
to be THERE, in a  convenient format opposite the koine NT.  I  
remember  at one point someone on the list expressed the wish for  
having an Attic NT.  If someone wanted to produce a  koine/Attic NT  
diglot, or a Homeric/Koine NT diglot, or a Linear B/Koine diglot, I  
would use it and find it helpful.   It takes very little time to  
become “fluent” not in Modern  Greek, but in the Modern Greek New  
Testament, and so  you get great bang for your time buck.

NUMBER SIX:  And most importantly, reading the  Modern Greek New  
Testament with the ancient Greek  New Testament as your crutch keeps  
you engaged in  the Greek NT.  Other pedagogies, reading Homer, trying  
to speak koine, working your way through Smyth,  are all do doubt  
helpful, but whenever I wander too far  away from the Greek NT I feel  
compelled to go back.

This is probably the point at which some might ask, what  is your  
question, Lightman?  I don’t really have a question,  I guess I’m just  
recommending that once you get very familiar  with the Greek NT,  
reading the Modern Greek NT might  be a good use of your time.  I  
guess I’d like to know  if others have tried this and what they  
think.  Above all,  I had never realized that even a demotic  
translation,  not to mention what is sometimes called the Modern High   
Greek, is so very close to the koine NT.  I think the  Modern Greek  
New Testaments have been underutilized  resources for B-Greekers, at  
least for this one.

Mark L.


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