I’m a baby Greeker and most likely always will be. As mentioned before I’m thoroughly going through Greek for the Rest of Us.
I want to take advantage of Amazon’s Bill Me Later offer and I’m thinking about getting The Zondervan Greek and English Interlinear New Testament (NASB/NIV) by the Mounces. I’ve looked at the sample of Philippians and think it looks great but I don’t have experience with interlinears. I like having the Greek in its original word order and think it’s pretty brilliant how Mounce Sr. did a translation underneath it. What you do you think? This will set me back for my commentary budget but I would think it’s essential.
Do I need a dictionary in addition to this?
I’ve also been looking at Logos software. At $260 it’s way beyond my budget but it looks fantastic. Should I start saving for it? I’ve been an e-Sword user for quite a while and love it but Logos would be a few steps up. I’m not sure if it’s worth the money or not. (I’m an unfortunate Windows user so Accordance isn’t an option. And let’s not get into that you-know-what debate.)
I’ve been posting rather rapidly lately. I usually like to give people plenty of time to comment but I have a lot of questions lately.
I’m a baby Greeker too – just started learning. But I’m using a reader (The UBS Reader), with built in lexicon, along with Mounces basic Greek course. From previous experience with learning languages, if I’ve got the English there, I get lazy, so I’ve been avoiding interlinear bibles.But maybe the advice of more learned Greekers is of more use to you
. I’ll listen in for tips as well.
Jeff,
I don’t know if you read it, but I reviewed the interlinear you’re talking about in August. One of the nice features is that the Greek portion of Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words is included in the back of this Bible so if you do make the decision to go with it then you won’t be forced to go out and buy the dictionary separately.
And as far as Logos is concerned, I have Libronix on my computer and a couple of free things that I came across, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to shell out the money for any of the Logos packages. If they want to send me something for free though I’d gladly use it.
Nick I read that back in August and completely forgot about it. That was very helpful. I really think the Mounce is the one for me unless somebody convinces me otherwise, especially since the dictionary is in the back. I didn’t realize that’s a whole other book included.
After going to the eye doctor (for the first time in my adult life) and memorizing his parsing codes I should be good to go.
Even Mounce’s basic Greek course is probably farther than I will be going.
Comments on this or Logos are still welcome.
Jeff
Jeff, Logos has a good payment plan system too, just so you know and many of the tools will bring you closer to the Greek text than strongs or any numbering system can.
Also, I could get you 25% off if I refer you since I already own a package.
Mike
Thanks Mike. That would be great. I’ll see what happens around my birthday and Christmas (close together) and see if I have any money from that.
Jeff
well, you have my e-mail in the comments, so if you want to after Christmas, let me know.
Jeff,
I spent hundreds of dollars on books to help with greek, and I didn’t get this one. Instead of this one, I would recommend getting Mounce’s Interlinear for the Rest of Us, as well as his dictionary. They are both easy to find on Amazon, but if you need me to I can provide the specific links.
Also, I use Logos pretty often and it works well. I think it is the best one to use as far as having a digital library goes. I also use e-sword on occasion, but Logos is pretty awesome. It all really depends on how many resources you can afford to buy.
One source to consider Max Zerwick’s Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament (Loyola University Press; 5 Revised edition, 1996).
As far as software I prefer Bibleworks to Logos. I’vce used both and the only reason I would ever use the new Logos is for it’s reverse interlinear which has soem pretty cool features for looking up how what the different Greek words are behind certain English words in the ESV. It’s pretty cool. But Bibleworks is a lot less clunky and the format is realy straightforward.For books you should definitely read some that focus on linguistics and NT Greek.Check out:Max Turner and Peter Cotterell’s “Linguistics and Biblical InterpretationMoises Silva’s “Biblical Word’s and Their Meaning”D.A. Carson’s “Exegetical Fallacies” also has a little bit of stuff that’s helpful.I’ve also have “How Biblical Languages Work” by Silzer and Finley which has much of the same info but written to be a little more accessible, but I haven’t read enough of it to recommend it. Still you may want to check it out.Those will help you from making some common fallacies when it comes to determining the meaning of words. Seriously I can’t stress how important it is to get out of the popular word study method that is really common in studying the NT.If you don’t have a good lexicon I think Louw & Nida’s lexicon based on semantic domains is really good, especially for the price.If you don’t have a good grammar you should invest in that too. I can’t really recommend a good one but people seem to like Walace’s intermediate grammar.Good luck.Bryan L
Jeff, try the Hebrew and Greek Dictionary edited by Mounce. I think it’s fine, but the paper is too thin right now. I hope Zondervan will correct that issue in future printing.Ok, I just noticed Nick recommending the same. Well, there you go!
You guys are giving me a lot to think about.
I like the idea of how basic the Interlinear for the Rest of Us is but I can’t help but think I would like the extra stuff the later Mounce interlinear has and it seems that it would be just as easy to use. If I want to practice pronunciation or learn any vocabulary the Greek would be easier to read as the top line.
Isn’t it strange that Bibleworks doesn’t have TNIV? It also doesn’t have The Message or ISV but those two aren’t a big deal. Bibleworks would also be about $150 more for me taking into account a discount I could get from Mike for Logos. It does seem to have a ton of original language stuff.
Thanks for all the recs for the other resources. Overload.
TC I didn’t quite understand your comment. Isn’t the dictionary included in the Zondervan interlinear that Nick mentioned (recommended?)?
Sorry again about the formatting not working. Are you doing two “carriage returns” (pressing Enter or Return twice) for paragraphs?
Jeff
I use two returns and it doesn’t register using Firefox. I have to go back and edit each comment to add the breaks back in. For some reason the initial comment doesn’t register the returns, but the edit does.
I have a copy of the NASB/NIV Greek Interlinear and I love it. I would recommend it to anyone. Also, StudyLight.org is a nice resource, it has Hebrew and Greek Interlinears online for free.
I’ve been using the Studylight and also the standalone ISA. Both a little clunky but they’ve been doing the job.
Jeff
In my personal unsolicited opinion – one should completely avoid any interlinears and things during one’s first year of learning Greek.
I’m not actually learning Greek, only the alphabet, pronunciation and some general grammar as taught in Greek for the Rest of Us which is just to help with knowing why translations are different, basic exegesis and having somewhat of an understanding of what commentators are talking about. So it’s baby Greek for me at the most.
If I were going to learn vocabulary, paradigms etc. I can see where an interlinear would get in the way.
Jeff