Some thoughts on (re)learning NT Greek

Textbooks, Graded Readers, Beginner Resources and links, Teaching aids, etc.
Post Reply
Mitch Tulloch
Posts: 56
Joined: November 4th, 2017, 2:52 pm
Location: Winnipeg, Canada
Contact:

Some thoughts on (re)learning NT Greek

Post by Mitch Tulloch »

Hi everyone,

I joined B-Greek six years ago as I had wanted to re-learn NT Greek (I had taken a beginner's course in it many years ago) but after a few posts I realized I was getting in way over my head (I had tried reading "The Greek Verb Revisited" for example) so I decided to step back and just lurk for a while. But a year ago I finally decided to get serious after I finally found a textbook I felt comfortable using, namely Dr. Shirley Rollinson's free online book (http://www.drshirley.org/greek/textbook02/contents.html). For various work/life reasons it's taken me a whole year to work through this book but I finally finished it a few weeks ago -- and then went back and reviewed the grammar sections again without re-doing the exercises. So I thought I'd share briefly some random thoughts I have about my experience of trying to learn NT Greek in case others here want to comment or add suggestions.

1. Dr. Shirley's book doesn't deal with current linguistic issues being debated concerning Koine (e.g. aspect, deponency, the perfect tense etc) but IMO the begining learner really doesn't need to worry about these matters. What's great about her book though is that it's fun and it makes heavy use of the Greek New Testament. I found it much easier to work through than N. Clayton Croy's book "A Primer of Biblical Greek" which I previously purchased and gave up reading after working about a third of the way through.

2. At first I tried making notes and writing out paradigms and vocabulary lists and memorizing them. But then I threw out my notes and decided to just look for "clues" as I read and memorize them. What I mean is that it's a lot easier for my brain to remember that -εις tacked onto a verb means "hey you guy, right now" than memorizing the present indicative active paradigm. Or that a final -ς on a verb often signifies 2nd person singular while a -τ- in the ending often means 3rd person singular. Does it look like aorist but the augment seems to be missing? Probably a participle. Is there syllabic duplication near the beginning? Likely perfect. Is that ξ in the middle part of the verbal stem? Hey, I think it's probably an σσ in the stem! And so on. For example just yesterday I finally understood what crasis meant as I puzzled over the words καμοι and κακεινος while trying to read through John 17. Such little "discoveries" stick way better in my brain than "vain repetition of endless paradigms" :-)

3. Which brings up another discovery I made (and which has been repeated many times by others in this forum) which is that the best way to really start making progress learning NT Greek (after learning some basic rules of grammar and some common vocabulary) is to simply read a lot of Greek. The more you read, the more language clues you pick up. I find now I can randomly open my GNT and stick my finger on a verse and more than half the time I can figure out what it says. And if I recognize the verse (e.g. from reading my ESV Bible) then this actually helps me learn the meaning of unfamiliar words in the Greek version of the verse.

4. In a similar vein I've finally discovered once again what others have often said in this forum, namely that Interlinears are a hindrance to learning, not a help. So I chucked my Interlinear in the garbage and since discarding that crutch I've discovered I'm not actually lame, I can walk -- though I still sometimes have to stumble into a lexicon to make progress :-) But seriously, while interlinears may seem useful for doing theological "word studies" I now believe that such studies are pretty much useless without broad familiarity of the underlying language. That's because "context is king" (as someone on this discussion board once said) so simply learning a Greek word and all its various shades of meaning and the different possible meanings of the form in which the word occurs in a verse does not IMO offer much insight into what the meaning and theological importance
of the verse in which the word occurs. Just my two cents.

5. But while I can (sort of) walk now, I certainly cannot run. Although I can open my Rahlfs Septuaginta at random and about half the time puzzle out at least half of the verse my finger points to, I have much less success performing this exercise with Michael W. Holmes's "The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, 3rd ed." In other words, working through Dr. Shirley's book and reading my GNT has given me a degree of basic competency in reading my GNT, but it hasn't produced any noticable degree of fluency in me for reading Koine literature generally. Why is that? I think what's probably missing is that I'm beginning to be able to read Koine, but I'm not learning to speak or write it. So what I'm thinking of doing is some exercises like this: (a) read a short GNT passage (b) look up any words or grammatical constructions I don't understand (c) write a brief dialog or essay or story in Koine that uses some of what I've read and learned. But doing this kind of think will depend upon my time and energy, so we'll see -- if I do it and feel it helps, I'll try to post something about my experience doing it.

6. Finally, after grinding through 2/3 of Dr. Shirley's book and starting to worry I might not finish it, I had to stop and ask myself a hard question: Why am I trying to learn Greek? What is my goal or purpose? Well, after finally gaining some basic competency reading Greek, I've discovered that as I read my GNT (or occasionally my LXX) I actually think about the text I'm reading in a fresh new way. It often impacts me more powerfully than if I read it in an English translation. So I've discovered what my real goal is in learning Greek: to enable the Spirit of God to speak to me personally more clearly i.e. for devotional reading. And this discovery drives me on to want to continue learning Greek :-)

Thanks to everyone in this forum for the valuable insights and instruction they provide. Now that I've de-lurked myself, I'll post in an appropriate forum when I have a question or thought for discussion.
Cheers,
Mitch Tulloch
Post Reply

Return to “Resources”