[B-Greek] Learning Greek (ad nauseam and for the umpteenth time)

Alexander Ring akring at mac.com
Wed Jul 16 13:27:17 EDT 2008


On Jul 16, 2008, at 3:32 AM, Carl W. Conrad wrote:

> Too much of the
> procedure that is most commonly taught, I believe, is based upon the
> notion that the Biblical Greek text is a cipher that has to be decoded
> and reduced to its concrete number of intelligible elements that can
> be converted to English or some other target language;

And to see how well this works, just try one of the many translation  
programs on the internet.

Reading a text in Greek is like reading a text in English; you just  
have the added barrier of a foreign language. And we overcome that  
barrier the same way we overcome the others: Practice. We teach  
children to read by teaching them to "cipher" (or "decode", as we say  
in education) the letters and words, but then we make them practice  
reading, because it is only by practicing that they master it. The  
same goes for Greek. You learn the alphabet, you study for your vocab  
quizzes, but in the end the way you learn the language is by  
practicing, by reading a little every day.

The point of groups and lists like this one is not that Greek is best  
left to the experts, or that only those who know Greek can ever truly  
understand the New Testament. It is to share knowledge about the  
language. To emphasize the point that in the end the best way to  
learn Greek is to put away your interlinear and get out your Greek  
New Testament and read.

So don't be daunted by what you read on this list. Trust me, you are  
not the only feeling like a first-year student sometimes (okay, most  
of the time). But the more Greek you read, the more the stuff on the  
list will begin to make sense; even long, protracted English answers  
like this one.

Rev. Alexander Ring
11221 Farwest Dr
Lakewood, WA  98498

akring at mac.com

There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand  
binary, and those who don't.





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