[B-Greek] "WRITE, WRITE WRITE' (was "Suggestions Please!")

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri May 27 13:17:14 EDT 2011


My comments focus on Louis Sorenson's second response to the query. See below.

On May 25, 2011, at 9:45 PM, Louis Sorenson wrote:

> 
> Bob wrote:
> 
> I am looking for suggestions as to what two budding Greek students might
> pursue next.
> 
> 
> My Greek study buddy and I began by working our way through Mounce’s "Basics
> of Biblical Greek." We are just about finished translating the verses in “A
> Summer Greek Reader.”
> 
> 
> What should we do next?
> 
> ........Bob...
> 
> Two things:
> 
> 1) READ, READ, READ. It does not matter what Greek you read. 
> What matters is that it keeps your interests. There are some
> really good secular Greek writings that parallel the New Testament
> Koine, such as Epictetus, Chariton. You could read Papyri
> (Colwell and Goodspeed's Greek Papyri Reader). You could read
> some of the OT narratives in the LXX which you are not totally
> versed in. The point is to read something that you don't know 
> and which will make you learn Greek better.  Plutarch's lives
> are very interesting. Some of the early Christian writings are
> also good, as are the church fathers. The Didache is really easy
> and you'll get a good feeling that you have read through one of the
> earliest Christian manuals.
> 
> 2) Write, Write, Write in Greek. How and Where? There's a site called
> SCHOLE (http://www.schole.ning.com) where you can start talking (writing)
> to other people interested in KOINE. Don't be scared. Just write a few
> words. Everyone on that site knows it's hard to start writing. No one cares
> if you spell something incorrectly or it is not gramatically correct, anyone
> who started on that path had made all those blunders, they don't care about
> making/reading mistakes, what they want/enjoy/are thrilled with is that someone
> else out there is learning Greek better and is talking to them in Greek. 
> It's what many of us on SXOLE live for. Once you start using Greek to communicate,
> it soon becomes easier and easier, and more and more exciting. Soon you'll find
> it is a really enjoyable endeavor. 

I personally think this needs some qualification, to wit: one should aim not simply at 
writing in Greek but rather at writing in GOOD Greek. I know that there's an
alterantive view here: "Go ahead and start writing -- it doesn't matter whether
you write correctly or eloquently, so long as you make yourself understood."

My contention, however, is that, if you REALLY want to make yourself understood
in the Greek language of the era that you want to emulate (Koine, Classical Attic,
Homeric, Byzantine, whatever), you should strive to emulate the writing of those
ancient texts that you admire and that you think express meaningnful content in
a style that you find clear and free of unusual or unnecessarily complex usage.

How do you do this? It wouldn't hurt to work through the earlier sections of 
the classic textbooks of Greek composition such as North and Hilliard at the
TextKit site: hhttp://www.textkit.com/greek_grammar.php -- and note that
there are answer keys for the composition textbooks offered there. The earlier
sections of North and Hilliard focus on the standard constructions, offering 
simple rules (including alternatives, where they exist) and phrases or simple 
sentences to reformulate in Greek; the later sections offer connected prose 
paragraphs from classsic English literary and historical writing. Students who 
haven't done any writing of Greek other than the translation exercises in a primer 
can acquire in this manner a command of essential tools for building standard 
and intelligible Greek sentences. Writing paragraphs is another step, precisely
because of the many Greek particles that are used to link clauses together 
(I think many would say that the standard unit of composition in English is
the sentence, but in ancient Greek it is the paragraph: PERIODOS, the
ancient Greek word for "sentence" really means something like "a complete
circuitous course from beginning to end."

What's your favorite ancient Greek author? Perhaps the Luke of the NT
gospel or Acts? Then read carefully through a lengthy connected sequence
from Luke or Acts and then rewrite the narrative, perhaps in an abbreviated
summary, emulating the style of the original author. Or take Matthew as
your model: read several chapters or narrative or read one of the five
long discourses and compose a summary of the narrative or discourse in
the same style. If you are really ambitious take a chapter of Hebrews and
read it carefully and study how the arguments are structured -- then write
something similar and endeavor to express that in the Greek of the author
of Hebrews. Paul's writing is more difficult, I think, although the more
powerful pieces of rhetoric in 1 Cor 1-4 or Rom 7-8 might make good
grist for this sort of milling, kneading, and baking a loaf of Greek text.

My own work in graduate school involved two years of required classes
in Greek composition. In the first year I worked through North and 
Hilliard myself. In the second year, my class read and discussed the
style of Plato's Symposium while at the same time writing paragraphs
from C.S.Lewis on Love and from others, including a snippet from
Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. 

So I don't think it matters precisely what you read and write, but if you
care to write something more than Pidigin Greek that's as much English
idiom and word-order as it is ancient Greek, go at it systematically and
employ authentic ancient texts, Biblical or non-biblical, as your model,
and make an effort to learn to write in the style of one or more writers
that you really like.


> 
> So READ, READ, READ (it does not matter what, even Homer would be fine - superb!) and
> WRITE, WRITE, WRITE. The two activities together will do more for you than
> reading through any grammar book. In time, you'll be ready to read those 
> grammars, but for that to be a valuable endeavor, you need to feel comfortable
> reading passages and not struggle with forms and vocabulary.
> 
> Louis Sorenson  [B-Greek Co-Chair] and enthusiast.


Carl W. Conrad, another B-Greek Co-Chair and enthusiast




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