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

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Jul 17 05:02:07 EDT 2008


On Jul 17, 2008, at 3:27 AM, manuchon1 at free.fr wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> First of all, I'm french, and I don't have a lot of opportunity to  
> communicate in English. So I beg your pardon if I'm not clear and  
> for all the remainig mistakes. If someone is willing, he can correct  
> me offlist, I will greatly appreciate.
>
> My goal is in line with all that Dr Conrad expressed. I want to be  
> able to read the new testament in greek and comprehend it. I would  
> like also to read "historical" christian (in a broad sense)  
> documents. I don't care about translating the text, there are a lot  
> of texts in English that I couldn't translate but that I can  
> understand and explain to others, that's all that I want.
>
> During nine years, I studied english in school in learning grammar  
> and the rest, but after all this I was able to read virtually  
> nothing and was utterly unable to express something. Later, I  
> realized that informations are a lot more available in English, so I  
> began to read in English. The first months were very painful, even  
> if I read the same author and short articles, I spend most of my  
> time in a dictionary, struggling to figure out what the author  
> wanted to say. It seems to me that for every articles, I spend  
> thirty minutes to read the english and at least one hour in the  
> dictionnary. Now, I can read English as if it's french (at least in  
> the theological domain, I lack of vocabulary, especially everyday  
> words). Sometimes, I read and hear so much in english that I can see  
> myself thinking in English, or sometimes it's funny, I want to speak  
> french, I know how I would say what I want to say in English, but  
> nothing come in french!!!
>
> So I'm in line too with the "how" to achieve my goal: with "painful"  
> but rewarding labor, reading again and again a lot of greek.
>
> So, my question is more WHAT to read? With all that I've read of  
> you, it seems to me that reading classical greek is interesting. The  
> point seems to be that, in reading, you will encounter a lot of  
> expressions, ways of saying things, not so common in the new  
> testament, so when you see them you are not surprised by them but  
> have mastered them. For the common expressions, ways of saying  
> things, because they are common in the new testament, you will  
> encounter them and will have the opportunities to master them!
>
> For the moment, I went through Mounce, have read about 2/3 of  
> Wallace. In my lybrary there are : BDF, BAGD, Robertson is in its  
> way.  I try to read the pauline epistles, but I see that I can  
> understand, not because I understand the greek but because I know  
> some english or french translation of it. This is not really what I  
> want...
>
> So, what are your advices? Are there some good reading course  
> (Athenaze???) ? Or have I to buy Liddle-Scott, a classical grammar  
> (Smyth?) and merely read anything I want? Is there some Author or  
> texts that your recommend (because of the vocabulary or anything  
> else)?
>
> Thanks to all who will help me!
>
> Emmanuel Hechon

Bienvenue à B-Grec, M. Hechon !
Alors, qu'est-ce qu'on doit lire? Here's something I suggested a while  
back:

"Not quite any piece. Depends on what it is. Philo isn't very easy  
reading for anybody, but one can get used to him with some effort and  
read with reasonable speed upon developing a characteristic Philonian  
vocabulary. I've previously recommended reading what Randall  
recommends: some Epictetus (the Enchiridion is an item that everybody  
ought to have read many times along with Plato's Apology). More  
leisurely reading in Hellenistic literature would be something like  
Pseudo-Lucian's LOUKIOS H ONOS, which is the inspiration for Apuleius'  
great Latin classic, the last book of which is a major source for  
understanding ancient mystery initiations, "The Golden Ass." This  
little novelette has everything: adventure, witchcraft, sex; it's  
relatively easy reading and, like Homer's Odyssey or Herodotus'  
travelogues, just fun to read. Like Epictetus, it is contemporary with  
some of the GNT documents."

You might look at Louis Sorenson's "Let's Read Greek" reading groups: http://www.letsreadgreek.com/epictetus/ 
   -- he offers Aesop and Epictetus. Most especially I'd recommend the  
readings in the Enchiridion of Epictetus: http://www.letsreadgreek.com/epictetus/index.htm 
  --This is a splendid site; I've just looked at it again and I think  
I'd be more enthusiastic about it yet than I was when I wrote (four  
months ago):

"It is a splendid compilation and the reading group that he is  
sponsoring looks to be an enjoyable and fruitful undertaking for those  
who participate in it -- however few there may be, they will be richer  
both as intelligent readers (NOT translators) of Koine Greek and as  
conoscenti of the world in which the GNT took shape. Like the  
evangelists who disseminated the Christian gospel and who precipitated  
the Greek corpus of writings that we know as the NT, Epictetus was an
itinerant preacher. Moreover there will be MP3 files of this work as  
read aloud in Koine pronunciation favored by Randall Buth as well as  
in the conventional Erasmian pronunciation. It is good to see such  
enthusiasm expended for Koine Greek apart from the GNT itself."

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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