[B-Greek] relative value of re-reading the Greek NT versus following the advise of Conrad and Buth
Mark Lightman
lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Sat Feb 23 20:13:57 EST 2008
I think we would all agree that the best way to learn
NT Greek is to read and re-read the Greek NT, but
I think most of us would also agree with Carl Conrad that you
also have to read other unfamilar Greek and I think most
of us would also agree with Randall Buth that you also
have to figure out a way to speak and hear Koine and
not just passively read it.
But the quesiton is, what is the relative value of Carl and
Randall's suggestions verus just re-reading the Greek NT.
I always go back and forth on this. My practice is to re-read
a NT text but then I get frustrated that my Greek is not good
enough, so I listen to Carl and read some some Attic Greek and
then I listen to Buth and try to talk to my son in Koine and then I
get frustrated again because it seems like my time would be
spent better re-reading 2 Corinthians again so I go back to that
and start the process all over again.
Again, I think all three are important, but I wonder what has been the
experience of others. I remember Carl once wrote that if you
spend all your time just re-reading the Greek NT you can't really
say you know Greek, but I think of all the time I have spend doing
anything BUT reading the Greek NT and it seems like reading the
Greek NT is much more valuable. Sometimes I think, if I HAD spent
all my time re-reading Acts 27 instead of working my way through another
Attic grammar or worrying about how to pronounce dipthongs, maybe my
Greek would be BETTER. At any rate, what is the correct percentage? I
guess I spend 75% of my time re-reading; I'm not sure if that is too much
or not enough. Is there anybody out there who ignores Conrad and Buth and
just reads the Greek NT and feels this is working? Or are there people who can
testify that Carl and Randall are right? (in addition to being blessings to all of us
which we would all agree to even if they are overstating the value of their methods!)
Mark Lightman
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