[B-Greek] Fw: Recommendation for Koine Greek text
Michael Lawson
dikaiosune_7 at msn.com
Tue Apr 13 21:34:23 EDT 2010
Ernie and Berel,
I am on the last chapter of the first edition of Machen's New Testament Greek for Beginners. There are 33 chapters
by the way. There is a study guide with an answer key put out by David L. Thompson. The study guide is very thorough
but there are some errors in the answer key, more than I expected. You are correct that the end of the book, namely
the last two chapters are rushed. Overall, despite criticism of the book being antiquated by some in b-greek,
the book's main benefit is the English to Greek translation exercises in my opinion. I found that I learned the
material better than the book I originally studied which was Summer's Essentials of New Testament Greek. One
can also search under Yahoo! Groups with the search word <Machen> to see our group's answers to the exercises
under the messages' link if a study guide is not appropriated. Thompson also gives you translation exercises from
the New Testament in each chapter of his study guide but not from the Septuagint.
Michael Lawson
----- Original Message -----
From: Ernest Sjogren<mailto:esjogren at nc.rr.com>
To: Berel Beyer<mailto:berelbeyer at gmail.com> ; greekstudy at nxport.com<mailto:greekstudy at nxport.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 8:11 PM
Subject: Re: Recommendation for Koine Greek text
Berel,
> learn Koine Greek specifically with an eye to reading the Septuagint.
If the student will accept a traditional approach, Machen's New Testament
Greek for Beginners is good. There's a new edition that I haven't seen, but
the old one was republished constantly from 1923, so it should not be hard
to find, although it is often a bit pricey, for as small a book as it is.
It is like (if you don't know it) a very bare-bones Wheelock, but for koine
Greek. If I recall correctly, the end is a bit rushed, and in a couple of
places too-similar material is presented in the same (consecutive?)
chapter(s), but I used it 20 years ago, helped by an extremely kind friend
who corrected the exercises, and it was excellent.
Towards the end of working through it I easily began reading Mark, then the
other Evangelists, and then Tobit from the Septuagint, etc
But it is _very_ traditional. Grammar presentation, paradigms to memorize,
and vocabulary to learn. 20 (usually) Greek-to-English and nearly as many
English-to-Greek sentences per chapter, of which there are about 38. You
would have to correct the exercises for the student, or a key would have to
be found. There is no "cultural studies" type of material, other than what
is in the introduction. That sort of thing would have to come from
elsewhere, if it is important to the student.
Ernie Sjogren
P.S.--I could be wrong about the number of chapters. I do not have a copy in
English, here, but my Russian translation ("and adaptation") has only 33
chapters.
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