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Little Greek

ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
(Acts 2:12)

This page contains information on resources for learning Greek. It is maintained by Jonathan Robie. Make sure you check out Little Greek 101, our online New Testament Greek tutorial.

Contents


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What is a little Greek?

A "Little Greek" is someone who is still learning Greek. The phrase originated when someone on the B-Greek Mailing List suggested that "a little Greek is a dangerous thing". I replied that I am a Little Greek, and I am dangerous, but so are some of the Big Greeks. Most Greek grammars say a few things that are completely wrong, and most noted authorities on the Greek language have said at least one stupid thing. But there is good news: even Really Incredibly Awesome Big Greeks can be Little Greeks too, as long as they realize one thing:

Ἔχομεν δὲ τὸν θησαυρὸν τοῦτον ἐν ὀστρακίνοις σκεύεσιν, ἵνα ἡ ὑπερβολὴ τῆς δυνάμεως ᾖ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ μὴ ἐξ ἡμῶν.
(2 Cor 4:7)

Those who don't know aren't dangerous; those who insist they do know are very dangerous. This is just as true for Really Big Greeks as for Little Greeks. Each of us knows only in part; if we want to profit by studying Greek, we must have the humility and the patience to learn one step at a time, to be corrected by others, and be open to the Spirit who guides us in all truth.


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Teaching yourself Greek

Since I post a lot of messages on the B-Greek Mailing List, and occasionally mention that I am self-taught, many people ask me how I taught myself Greek. I started by getting a copy of the Greek text from the Internet and translating 1 John one verse at a time, comparing it to existing translations. If you already know a foreign language, and have a Greek text that includes parsing codes, such as the CCAT UBS text which is available on the Internet for free (see below), this just might work for you, too. Most people, though, will want to start out with an introductory text. I think this should be supplemented by daily reading in the New Testament.

So if you want to learn Greek, my advice is:


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Introductory Textbooks

If you want an introduction to New Testament Greek, I hope you will start by taking a look at Little Greek 101. However, you will still want to get an introductory textbook for these reasons:

Of course, Little Greek 101 also has some advantages:

So ideally, you will probably want to use both Little Greek 101 and a couple of introductory textbooks. I still haven't found the perfect introductory text for Greek. No introductory text for Greek is anywhere near as good as most widely used texts for modern languages like German or French. Many widely-used Greek texts are really pretty awful: impossible to read, just plain wrong on some of the grammar, lacking in systematic exercises.

But there are some reasonably good introductory grammars, including these:


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Read Greek every day

I'm personally convinced that the best way to learn to read Greek is to read Greek every day, and spend time learning the Grammar as you find time.

Here is my basic approach to daily reading. I don't do all these things every day, but all of these things are helpful enough that I do them regularly, and I will do them all for a text that I'm working through thoroughly:


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Greek New Testaments

The authoritative Greek text used by most Bible translators, scholars, and seminaries is the Nestle-Aland text, which is now in the 27th edition. The same text is also used in the United Bible Society's Greek New Testament, 4th edition, which is what I use (well, actually I still use the 3rd edition). These two editions use the same text, but have different approaches to listing the variant readings found in the manuscripts. The cheapest place to get either of these is the American Bible Society (1-800-322-4253).

You can also find many Greek New Testaments online. Here are two that I like:


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Lexicons

A lexicon is just a dictionary. Greek scholars prefer to use the term lexicon because they know the plural and you don't. I use three lexicons:


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Grammars

A solid grasp of grammar is absolutely essential to understanding any language, and using the right reference grammar makes it much easier to grasp Greek grammar. Unfortunately, Greek grammars tend to differ in their use of vocabulary, and most of the ones I will recommend here use linguistic terms and approaches from the last century. There are grammars which use more modern linguistics, but so far I'm not convinced that these have as firm a grasp on the Greek language. These are the grammars which I recommend:

Edgar Krentz, whose opinion I value, suggested this: "Add to your grammars the four volume grammar of NT by James Hope Moulton, W. F. Howard, and Nigel Turner. It is one of the best." I have never used this grammar myself, so I'm posting this as his recommendation.


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Cheating: verse-by-verse aids to grammar and vocabulary

Ideally, we would all speak Greek as fluently as our native language, reading with perfect understanding without external help. I've been hoping to receive this as a spiritual gift, like the gift of tongues, but I haven't worked out the details yet.

So I cheat. There are a variety of aids that will help you understand what a confusing word or construction means. The good ones direct your attention to the details of the Greek that may be hard to understand, teaching you the significance of difficult forms so that you will learn to recognize them next time. The bad ones give you a translation into English instead of helping you understand the constructions in the original Greek. An interlinear translation may be one of the worst, since it gives no help in identifying the grammatical structure of the Greek, but it gives you the feeling that you have understood the passage when you haven't.

Here are my favorite ways to cheat:


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