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Koine Greek Grammar

Posted: September 12th, 2021, 6:13 pm
by Daniel Semler
Hi ya,

Does anyone know of a reference grammar for Koine ? I mean Koine rather than one of the many NT or Biblical Greek, Septuagint grammars, or even grammars of the papyri. I am thinking of something like Smyth or CGCG for Koine, a fairly comprehensive reference level work covering the diversity of Hellenistic/Koine Greek. The question that one might ask first is, is there a meaningful difference between Koine Greek and Biblical Greek ? And that is at least in part what I'm getting at. In addition though, I am wondering about a grammar that pulls examples from a wide variety of Koine texts, rather than relying heavily or even solely on the NT - papyri, no doubt the NT, likewise the LXX, some Church or Apostolic fathers, ostraca , Plutarch, Polybius and so on.Of course that would require defining a list of works considered to be in Koine, which presumably would exclude heavily Atticizing authors, works or passages. I am not sure for example whether Josephus and Philo count exactly or whether passages of theirs could be used.

Thx
D

Re: Koine Greek Grammar

Posted: September 13th, 2021, 4:44 am
by Stephen Carlson
Depends on what you mean by “reference grammar” but BDF cites the papyri and several non-NT sources.

Re: Koine Greek Grammar

Posted: September 13th, 2021, 11:40 am
by MAubrey
That's the dream, isn't it.

It'd be nice if it existed. Older grammars do make consistent citation of a wide collection of texts beyond the New Testament, but they tend to have other issues and/or limits.

Re: Koine Greek Grammar

Posted: September 13th, 2021, 5:21 pm
by Stephen Carlson
I should add that it is one thing to cite a wide variety of text, it is another to actually base the grammar on the texts. There are grammars of the papyri that are essentially Kuehner-Gerth in structure illustrated with examples from the papyri.

Re: Koine Greek Grammar

Posted: September 13th, 2021, 9:13 pm
by Daniel Semler
Stephen Carlson wrote: September 13th, 2021, 5:21 pm I should add that it is one thing to cite a wide variety of text, it is another to actually base the grammar on the texts. There are grammars of the papyri that are essentially Kuehner-Gerth in structure illustrated with examples from the papyri.
I definitely meant basing one on the texts. I'll look more into BDF. If you have an papyri grammars you could suggest that would be great. Otherwise I'll poke about on the web and see what I can find.

thx
D

Re: Koine Greek Grammar

Posted: September 13th, 2021, 9:15 pm
by Daniel Semler
MAubrey wrote: September 13th, 2021, 11:40 am That's the dream, isn't it.

It'd be nice if it existed.
Glad I'm not the only one :)
MAubrey wrote: September 13th, 2021, 11:40 am Older grammars do make consistent citation of a wide collection of texts beyond the New Testament, but they tend to have other issues and/or limits.
Are you thinking Dana/Mantey and Moulton (I haven't looked enough in this one) or older ?

Thx
D

Re: Koine Greek Grammar

Posted: September 13th, 2021, 10:28 pm
by Stephen Carlson
Mayser is/was the standard papyri grammar. It is so old (1898), you can find a copy on archive.org. It’s in German of course.

Re: Koine Greek Grammar

Posted: September 13th, 2021, 10:37 pm
by Stephen Carlson
Gignac was supposed to write a grammar of the papyri but he never finished it.

Re: Koine Greek Grammar

Posted: September 13th, 2021, 10:51 pm
by Daniel Semler
Stephen Carlson wrote: September 13th, 2021, 10:28 pm Mayser is/was the standard papyri grammar. It is so old (1898), you can find a copy on archive.org. It’s in German of course.
Clearly I'll have to refresh the high school German ... and some :)

Thx
D