[B-Greek] Reading The Philosophers in Greek and other extra Biblcal reading
Suttles, Andrew C. (GRC-DSI0)
andrew.c.suttles at nasa.gov
Fri Feb 27 08:45:01 EST 2009
Thanks, Mark. I just wrote someone off-list yesterday and told them that your advice is always very helpful (at least to me).
I know there are many on the list who are beginning to intermediate koine readers who are always interested in additional resources for learning/reading outside the New Testament. As to Plato, do you know of any "second year" readers, or any second year readers of any Attic author that reference the readings in the work to standard grammars like Smyth or Goodwin?
Thanks,
Andrew Suttles
Cleveland, OH
>-----Original Message-----
>From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
>[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Mark Lightman
>Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 11:51 PM
>To: B- Greek; Stephen Baldwin
>Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Reading The Philosophers in Greek and
>other extra Biblcal reading
>
>I found Frank Beetham's Reading Greek with Plato to be very helpful.
>He presents the entire Greek grammar and then has you read
>through some of the Meno with lots of notes, with exersises
>(and an answer key!) that prepare you for the Meno. In his
>notes he often rearranges Plato to fit normal English word
>order, which helps.
>
>As far as what else to read outside the NT, I bet there is a
>consenus that the single best thing to read to help your NT
>Greek is the Apostolic Fathers.
>Hermas is probably the easiest real Greek I have ever read.
>It's not great literature or theology but it's long and will
>help drill your forms and NT vocab and will introduce you to
>other vocab that you will need. Bauer is the best thing to
>help you with it, as there are lots of words in the Apostolic
>Fathers that are not in even the big LSJ and Bauer helps you
>with some idioms.
>
>The other thing I would recommend is Morice's Stories in Attic
>Greek, if for no other reason than Anne Mahoney's 2006 reprint
>has the largest Greek font I have ever seen and she prints
>Morice's notes on the bottom of the page, instead of in the
>back of the book. These stories are actually a bit tough in
>terms of the vocab, which is very extensive and includes some
>rare Greek words, but the syntax is simple by design.
>
>Then there is Homer. I have been reading Homer for the last
>few months. There is one huge drawback to reading Homer and
>two huge advantages. The drawback is his ridiculously
>extensive vocablulary. He has two or three or more synonyms
>for every word you learned in your NT Greek. The guy must
>have fifteen different words for "noise." I wish there were a
>Reader's Greek Iliad with all the words that don't appear in
>the standard textbooks in footnotes, but there is not.
>The advantages to reading Homer are (1) his syntax is very
>simple, with parataxis and word order closer to English and
>(2) his Greek is magnificent.
>You read a simple sentence and you are struck that every word
>is perfect.
>It's just like Shakespeare, beautiful in words, drama, and
>ideas. I don't know how helpful Homer finally is to my NT
>Greek, but I don't care. Much of the Greek that we read is
>uninspired, like Marcus Aurelius, or inelegant translationese
>like the LXX, or unsteady, like Ignatius, or overly fancy,
>like Plato. Homer is the only Greek I have ever read outside
>the early Letters of Paul that leaves me 100% satisfied with
>the Greek. So I would make it a long term goal to read Homer,
>but read the Apostolic Fathers first, and don't neglect your
>re-reading of the NT itself.
>
>Mark L
>
>--- On Wed, 2/25/09, Stephen Baldwin <stbaldwi at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>From: Stephen Baldwin <stbaldwi at hotmail.com>
>Subject: [B-Greek] Reading The Philosophers in Greek and other
>extra Biblcal reading
>To: "B- Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
>Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2009, 7:05 PM
>
>Brethren:
>A marginally off-topic question.
>In reading theology books, much discussion mentions and quotes
>the Greek philosophers.
>I just wondered whether it is idiotic for an amateur Koine
>minnow to dip into the philosophers (Plato, Socrates etc.) in
>their original Greek and hope to make anything at all from it?
>I'm not studying for a PhD or presenting a conference paper.
>It is more-or-less just for fun.
>
>If the idea is not entirely off the wall, are there particular
>editions aimed at the less competent amongst us?
>
>A supplementary question too:
>When reading the GNT, it is very difficult, once one has fixed
>the passage, not to guess and assume meanings -- because one
>is subconsciously hearing the familiar English as one reads
>the Greek, and anticipating the meaning of the Greek which of
>course is a capital offence. Reading brand-new stuff is a way
>round that problem. So I was going to ask: Outside of the GNT,
>where is a good place to start reading other Koine? I presume
>the Fathers? Are some easier than others?
>
>Rgds
>Steve Baldwin
>stbaldwi at hotmail.com
>
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