[B-Greek] Ten Best Books for Studying New Testament Greek

Mark Lightman lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Thu Nov 25 10:32:26 EST 2010


Carl egrapse

<I rather doubt there would be any full consensus
on any "ten best," but lists like this have at least some entertainment value.>

Hi, Carl,

I agree.  The lack of consensus on these things is precisely what causes them to 
be entertaining.  A Cy Young Award to a pitcher who goes 13-12?  Really?  A 
Nobel Prize to a President in office for four months?   Titanic is the Best  
Picture?  Really?  A Top Ten NT Greek Books List that includes Wallace  but not 
BDAG?  Really?

I agree with four of Black's picks:  Mounce, Robertson, Zerwick and Decker.  I 
don't know Funk, but I cannot  disagree with this pick.  I would replace his 
other five with  these.

1.  Since vocabulary is the biggest obstacle to mastering the Greek NT, Warren 
Trenchard, The Complete Vocabulary Guide to the Greek New Testament is 
essential.  Cognates may or may not help in understanding the  meaning of Greek 
words, but Trenchard's arrangement by cognates is very  helpful in memorizing 
vocab.

2.  In addition to his grammar, I would include Zerwick's Grammatical 
AnalysisThe best thing about it, is that his analysis is, even if at times nasty 
and brutish, always short. 



3.   Nothing is more helpful in learning the forms than Mounce's Morphology  of 
Biblical Greek, except that all that information is included in Smyth's Greek 
Grammar .  Mounce is more user friendly, but Smyth is more complete, so take 
your pick.

4.  This is cheating a little bit, because it is really the audio that is great, 
but Christophe Rico's Polis  MUST make the list.  I find that again and  again 
when I read the Greek NT, I read a word or a phrase and I hear the  voice of 
Rico or one of his readers in my mind, making the text come  more alive.  His 
short book and audio cover an amazing number of NT  words, and I hope he will do 
even more in his much anticipated sequel. 


5.   I have to include a Reader's Greek NT here.  Zondervan's First Edition  is 
still my favorite because it is so lightweight and portable, but the  most 
helpful, since it's glosses are the most complete and since it provides  full 
parsing info, is

The Greek New Testament for Beginning Readers: The Byzantine Greek Text & Verb 
ParsingNote that my list still does not include the excellent but slightly 
over-rated BDAG.  Really?

I second your prayer for a great Holiday PASIN, and please be careful out there. 


 Mark L
Φωσφως


FWSFOROS MARKOS




________________________________
From: cwconrad2 <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
To: B-Greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thu, November 25, 2010 5:27:11 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Ten Best Books for Studying New Testament Greek

Here's a list to break Phospho's heart! -- except that it isn't really funny or 
clever. Dave Black has
posted on his blog a list rubric'd as indicated in the subject-header above. You 
may access it at:

http://www.daveblackonline.com/ten_best_books_for_studying_new.htm

The books are not listed in any order of preference. Some of my favorites are 
included, but I
have my reservations about some of them. I rather doubt there would be any full 
consensus
on any "ten best," but lists like this have at least some entertainment value.

I hope that North American list-members will have a blessed Thanksgiving Day 
today, and
hopefully decent weather -- we're expecting some freezing rain in the St. Louis 
area today --
with a 35-mile drive to our place of assignation.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (ret)
---
B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
B-Greek mailing list
B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek



      


More information about the B-Greek mailing list