From Dave Black Online:
“Got some great news. If you’ve been to our Greek Portal you’ve noted that it is pretty barebones. Well, all of that is about to change. Matthew Myers, my new assistant, is working on revamping and significantly expanding the Greek Portal to make it, we hope, one of the leading Greek sites on the web. My prayer is that it will become a major hub of information for what is going in Greek studies today and a great resource for all students of the language.

Now, there’s a way you can help us. If you know of a website that you feel just absolutely has to be included here, please let us know. It need not be the website of an accomplished scholar either. You see, one of the things I love to do is encourage younger scholars and students to contribute to the study of Greek. Our message is simple: Greek is for everybody. So if you think you have something to contribute to Greek studies today, please let me know. I am eager to hear from you at dblack@sebts.edu [e-mail obfuscated-click on it]. Thank you.

Matthew, by the way, blogs here. Check out what he has to say about More Light on the Path – an excellent tool to maintain your Greek and Hebrew.”

Now and then I’ve been writing about how frustrated I am with Greek and that I’m not sure if I really want to do it. This last time around I did a lot of thinking and realized that part of it may be I just don’t know what I’ve ‘learned’ well enough. It’s like college where they go too fast (for me). I was never good in a classroom.

I enjoy everything more the better I am at it and the more I know whether it’s a hobby or profession. I usually treat hobbies almost like they’re a career. I’ve gone back and read through Black’s book, my main one, from the beginning a couple of times, but that’s not enough.

Someone, I can’t remember who, said to be sure to get out that workbook I have. So I decided to start over yet again and this time use the workbook. There are a lot of exercises. But I think that’s what I need. So now I’m starting Chapter 6 after having done it for a few weeks and I’m a little more positive about it, even though it will set me way back time-wise. I was originally about 4/5ths of the way through the book.

I also want to do a little learning by immersion by reading passages I have memorized in English in the Greek NT, unless some of you think that’s a bad idea for some reason.

So I hope by the time I get back to where I was, along with reading Mounce and Croy again along with it, that I’ll have a much better understanding and not feel lost because I wasn’t really learning the material like I should. There are no deadlines or semesters for me.

I’m not an expert in what I’m writing about in this post. Please forgive any mistakes in the details.

Most people seem to use Strong’s Concordance with Hebrew and Greek Lexicon if they want to look up some definitions in the original languages, which isn’t very helpful for definitions because the lexicon (dictionary), is very brief. The current lexicon that most modern commentators would use is the BDAG, which costs about $150, although there is an abridged version for about $80 which may be adequate for lay people.

But there are in-between resources, one of them called Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions for the Hebrew. As with Strong’s, these can be found to be used free in e-Sword and some other Bible software.

I rarely use these and find it much more helpful to look at 6-8 different translations and see what they did with it. If there are diversions, it can be helpful to try to find out why, or just to see which words or phrases the translation committees chose.

If one would want to look up some definitions and see the range of words that might be used, Thayer’s may be a better choice if you’re looking for a free resource.

Also see:
How NOT To Use Strong’s Concordance
How NOT To Use Strong’s Concordance – Part 2
How To Properly Use Strong’s Concordance
Strong’s Concordance – A Good Example

I’m getting discouraged with learning Greek yet again. Instead of memorizing Scripture (which is always maintained), I’m memorizing ever more difficult Greek vocabulary. I don’t read as much material as I would like (an exposition of Genesis right now, which is great) because of the time spent with Greek, although I admit, it’s not a whole lot.

I keep reading posts about how valuable it is. I don’t doubt it. Not to sound like ‘woe is me’, but on days where I’m in more pain (lower back) or having other difficulties, it’s easier to just read. In English only.

I wonder if buying a Greek reader like A First John Reader or Philippians: A Greek Student’s Intermediate Reader to see what I might be missing out on would be a good idea. I wouldn’t think either would be a waste of money. Is there anything like this online?

I’m just learning it for my own reading edification. I don’t plan on going past beginning/intermediate, like Black’s second book. Right now I can pretty much understand what’s written in commentaries which was my original goal until I decided I wanted to ‘learn’ the language.

I’m not giving up at this point and I’m not usually one to stop what I started. I’m just wondering about time spent vs. benefit and time taken away from other stuff. I know that just like with Scripture memory review, I will need to keep reading it everyday to keep it up and just to use it for what it’s intended for.

This is part of the Exegetical Insight of Chapter 7, each written by a different author, from William Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, this one written by Verlyn Verbrugge. I’m going to do a bit of explanation to make it more understandable to those who know nothing about Greek (which is practically me), to try to put it into my own words, which is very risky, and expand on it. So let me know where I get it wrong.

The typical Christmas card greeting is, “Peace on earth, good will toward men” taken from, Luke 2:14b KJV “on earth peace, good will toward men.” This is what the angels sing to the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem.

Since the 1600s when the KJV was written and revised, many more older transcripts (closer to the originals, which isn’t necessarily better but in this case they are numerous) have been found. Because a letter was dropped in the manuscripts used to translate the King James/Authorized Version, the word for ‘good will’ or ‘favor’ changes from the nominative (subject), to the genitive (generally, possessive).

Verbrugge says, on pg. 43 of the 2nd Edition:

[T]he peace that the angels sang that belonged to the earth as a result of the birth of Christ is not a generic, worldwide peace for all humankind, but a peace limited to those who obtain favor with God by believing in his Son Jesus (see Romans 5:1). What a difference a single letter can make in the meaning of the text!

ESV “on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

NIV “on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

NLT “peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

NRSV “on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

I thank God it’s not like computer programming where one wrong character will bring the whole thing down! I’ve had my share of those experiences. These improvements made in translations don’t change any major doctrine (teaching) of the Bible and in fact goes directly against the arguments of those think the Bible is handed down and changed by each generation. Scholars and archeologists are actually going the other way and getting closer to the original manuscripts. We can be confident that the Bible contains God’s Word which is comprised of accurate truth which brings salvation to those who hear or read it, believe what it says and trust Jesus Christ for their salvation as opposed to being a good enough person or whatever ideas of their own one may have.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 NLT
But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

For more context of the original verse:

Matthew 10:34-42 NLT
“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword. 35 ‘I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 Your enemies will be right in your own household!’ 37 “If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. 38 If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. 39 If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it. 40 “Anyone who receives you receives me, and anyone who receives me receives the Father who sent me. 41 If you receive a prophet as one who speaks for God, you will be given the same reward as a prophet. And if you receive righteous people because of their righteousness, you will be given a reward like theirs. 42 And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.”

Matthew 24:6
And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately.

Jesus came to bring us peace with God.

Acts 10:36
This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel– that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

Romans 2:9-11
There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil– for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. 10 But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good– for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.

Romans 5:1
Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.

Romans 14:17-18
For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. (emphasis added to keep you awake)

Here is a great photo in a post titled In the Original Greek… Click on it to see a larger one.

(This one is spreading quickly.)

I wanted to add something to what Seth Ehorn said. One of the best exercises I’ve done in my limited amount of time I’ve spent so far on exegesis (serious in-depth study) is printing out a passage in 6-8 translations covering a variety of styles and comparing them, which is part of Gordon Fee’s protocol in his book New Testament Exegesis. If there’s is a question with a particular word or phrase, you’ll see how the various translations rendered it. This is more illuminating than just ‘looking it up in the Greek’, which for most people is usually the outdated Strong’s, which will usually just give you a wide semantic range of options that requires context anyway. The word in question doesn’t mean all of those things listed, just as in an English dictionary, which is where the multiple translations come in. If you haven’t tried it, I know you’ll like it.

HT: Brian Fulthorp via Facebook

One more post on Greek before I lose a lot of people. If you go to David Black’s web page, a professor, scholar, fence mender and the author of New Testament Greek, and scroll down to Wednesday, October 20 you’ll find a little article on how to “stick with it”.

Highlights:

• Pray
• Use an interlinear if you have to (considered anathema to many teachers)
• He dropped out of his first Greek class!

www.daveblackonline.com/blog.htm

Greek Language and Linguistics blog let’s us know about a paper in a post called Randall Buth on Hellenistic Pronunciation. This is out of my territory so feel free to comment on it. Esteban taught me pronunciation and I use some sort of a reconstruction, even though it’s a guess, along with one or two Spanish type rules. I can’t understand why the Erasmian way is taught in this day and age but I won’t go off on that again especially because it’s above my pay grade. The big disadvantage to this is how hard it is to use audio based tools where they use the now dorky sounding Erasmian pronunciation rules.

The interesting thing for me is nearly everything mentioned in this paper as far as pronunciation is what I do. Esteban taught me well and my little nuances happen to match this.

I thought I brought this up before on this blog but I didn’t find anything. I hope it’s of interest to somebody (and I don’t expect more than one or two) especially if just starting out.

Also see:
Greek/Latin Audio.com – Greek Recordings

I’ve used Audacity to slow down these recordings so that it’s easier for me to follow along.

Here is a blog called ἐξήγησις (ntexegesis.blogspot.com) written by Professor Ardel Caneday that goes through issues of exegesis in the Greek New Testament.

HT: Douglas Mangum

I find it rather disastrous to fall behind in vocabulary.

–David Black

I know this from experience! Print out flashcards right away. If you have a paper cutter that works great. If not, use a scissors and do them one chapter at a time. Over time divide them into piles. One for those you know well, one for new ones that you’re still learning and one for those that are in between. I just used the book but you can’t separate those that you know well from those you need to go over more often. And memorizing them in the same order all the time doesn’t help either.

There are many software options out there too. I’m one who would rather use technology and the computer than old fashioned stuff but for vocabulary, plain old paper flashcards seem to work the best for me.

Just do it.

Learn to Read New Testament Greek, Third Edition by David Alan Black

This book and the companion workbook are review copies sent to me by the publisher, B&H Publishing Group of LifeWay Christian Resources, via NetGalley. I appreciate the opportunity to review these materials.

This review is written by someone learning Greek on their own. I hope this is helpful for someone in the same situation or for someone who is brushing up on Greek learned in the past.

I have looked extensively at a couple of the other popular beginning Greek grammars although I won’t be doing any direct comparisons.

Regarding the aesthetics, the hardcover is very sturdy in addition to being very appealing to look at. The black cover is a nice tie-in to the author’s last name. The paper is high quality, crisp and white which takes to a highlighter very well. The conjugations are in gray shaded boxes which helps them stand out and makes them easy to locate when wanting to go back and review them. The only thing I don’t like is that the font chosen for the Greek is a little less formal than what most of us are used to seeing which takes a little while to get used to.

In a word this book is efficient. There are no chapter overviews, introductions, summaries,  what you’ll learn in the next chapter, etc. which is usually annoying anyway. The author gets right down to business in each chapter. Each of the 26 chapters are short enough that you don’t need those things.

This doesn’t mean the book’s information is skimpy. You will learn a lot of the important terms so that when you read a more technical Bible commentary or read what others write about Greek, you will have learned or at least have a reference for the terms at the beginning level which are explained well.

The exercises for the first 17 chapters of the book are made-up sentences in Greek that the student translates. All of the words in the sentences are from vocabulary that has been learned previously in the book.

Starting in chapter 18, Bible verses are used for the exercises. When there is a word in a verse that hasn’t been learned, the English gloss (a short basic definition) is listed in parenthesis next to the Greek word. This is much nicer than at least one other book where the extra vocabulary is listed on another page, sometimes requiring a page turn so that one is constantly flipping back and forth. There is an answer key for the exercises in the Appendix at the end of the book.

For more extensive exercises there is a companion workbook, sold separately. There is no answer key in the workbook, but if you write to the publisher, they will send you one in PDF format. The workbook (which was a pleasant surprise since I didn’t expect it to be sent to me) has all sorts of exercises coming at the Greek from many angles.

Verbs are introduced in chapter 2 and all of the indicative verbs are covered by chapter 17. There are various methods for introducing verbs in the books I’ve seen. I like having them introduced early so that they can be reviewed frequently as time goes on. There are very helpful charts of the indicative verb forms in the middle of the book. I wish I would have known this earlier so that I could have referred to it as I went along but it wasn’t mentioned earlier in the book. There is also a very helpful large fold-out complete Greek Verb Chart glued to the inside of the back cover.

There are a couple of very important items that were put in footnotes which I think should be in the main part of the text. (There are very few, thankfully, and they are at the end of each section where they are easy to see.) In particular is footnote iii. on page 31 which mentions that kai can mean “both”, “also” or “even”. So be sure to pay close attention to the footnotes.

I believe this book is a very efficient way to learn beginning level Greek. I would think it would be especially useful for someone reviewing Greek that they’ve already learned. I like to use more than one book to be able to read things explained in different ways, but this book is my first choice for the primary book to study and I highly recommend it.

Buy it from Amazon.com

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: B&H Academic; Third edition (March 1, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0805444939

What I need encouragement for is how useful learning beginning Greek will be.

I’ve gotten to like learning it somehow and I’ve even gotten interested in how the language works, which is highly unusual for me. I hated learning Spanish. I’m not a nerd like many of you. I do have a feeling that God is leading me along this path and that it will be ‘profitable’ but I still have doubts.

But when I read posts like this I think about how paltry my learning will be and how much I’ll be able to read, understand and benefit from after going through Black’s beginning book (which I’m a little more than half-way through) plus a very basic linguistics book (probably also by Black) and maybe just a little of something else. I really don’t want to spend much more time than that on the language. There is so much other stuff I want to read and learn.

I’m normally somebody who goes all out with whatever I do. I can’t just do something as a light ‘hobby’ or it isn’t as much fun. I know I’m free to learn as much as I want. But like I said, I just don’t want to spend that much time on it.

Any words of encouragement for me and anyone else in the same situation?

I’ve been using Croy’s A Primer of Biblical Greek. Partly because it was suggested along with Black’s by Mike Aubrey and partly because it includes passages from the LXX in the exercises and maybe a couple of other reasons I can’t remember.

I’m a NetGalley reviewer and I requested Black’s new 3rd edition of Learn to Read New Testament Greek. After I requested it they said they’d be asking for my class size and where I teach. Ha. So I wouldn’t be getting that one. But then a week later I found it in the mail along with the workbook too! I feel guilty but I’m going to do a good review for them especially since I bought Mounce’s also.

In looking through Black’s book I like it better. It’s more efficient but at the same time explains terms that Croy’s doesn’t. As an example, in an exercise in Croy’s book, I didn’t understand how someone could be taught by the word if ‘word’ is a dative. But in Black’s book it explains that it’s an instrumental dative. However Black’s will leave out things that aren’t as important like rules of accenting which are put in an appendix.

I find myself learning more in less space in this book. It’s probably a little less comprehensive so when I’m done I’ll go to Croy and Mounce.

I got Mounce just to get a really rounded education and to do a good comparative review of Black’s and it’s very good of course but there’s just a little too much stuff going on compared to Black. I like how Mounce as the Exegetical Insight at the beginning of each chapter which I’ll be reading. Black also helps more with exegetical skills.

Look for a review in the future.

I’m going through France’s commentary on Matthew. There is a very truncated introduction because the commentary is already 1200 pages long and he wrote a previous book called Matthew: Evangelist and Teacher which he expects you to read. So I checked out An Introduction to the New Testament: Contexts, Methods and Ministry Formation by David A. deSilva from the library for the second or third time. Since I had book money I decided to finally just buy it. My little library is sorely lacking in reference materials. This came highly recommended by Mike Aubrey and others and since I was able to take a look at it I knew I would like it. It was “A 2005 Gold Medallion finalist!” One of the things I really like about it is it “integrate[s] instruction in exegetical and interpretive strategies with their customary considerations of authorship, dating, audience and message”. (added emphasis)

Our group Bible study is going to be studying Ecclesiastes, which was my suggestion so I’m very glad about that. I already had Eaton’s Ecclesiastes and decided to spend another whole $6 and by Kidner’s (used) just to get another look. I may do a brief comparison at some point. I found that I like the NLT Study Bible’s treatment of Ecclesiastes better than the ESVSB mainly because the NLTSB is more thorough with more quantity of helpful information. I love Ecclesiastes and love it even more now.

I’ve been “learning” Greek using Croy’s beginning grammar book. I had been thinking it might be nice to get Black’s and/or Mounce’s just to get a well rounded treatment and possibly help me learn some things better by having them explained differently. I’m a NetGalley reviewer and requested Black’s Learn to Read New Testament Greek. After I requested it I saw that it’s only for teachers. But they sent it to me anyway. And not a galley but the book with the workbook! So I thought in order to do a good review of it, I might as well get Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar to do a good comparison of all three. In reading some of the Amazon reviews of the Mounce I see that it’s good for people who are self teaching. I did not know that as Johnny Carson would say. So I’m looking forward to all of this. I’ll say that the Black book is beautiful. You’ll see a review of that in the future.

After Matthew I’ll be going through John with the help of Carson’s The Gospel According to John: An Introduction and Commentary (Pillar New Testament Commentary).

I think that brings my slowly growing library to well over a hunderd (sic) books. I bet you’re jealous. My library is smaller than yours and I’m content (Phil 4:11-13).

Here is a video posted on the Koinonia blog in a post titled (entitled?) Con Campbell discusses how his book fits with Wallace’s, Mounce’s, and other texts.

As someone who is a beginner in learning some Greek, I think it’s very important for me to remember that the vocabulary I’m learning are just glosses–simple definitions that don’t cover the whole range of meaning. The same would go for grammar terms.

I think this is important for those of us who look up a word in a lexicon like Strong’s and expect to find the meaning of a word or unlock any information we don’t get from an English translation. The people who translate the Bible in general are extremely knowledgeable about the original languages aside from the disagreements some people have on certain passages in certain translations (I need to cover myself for those who will protest that thought).

I think what’s most helpful for a word or phrase study is to compare it in at least six different translations of different styles ranging from the more literal (formal equivalence or whatever more current term you’d like to use) all the way to paraphrase. This will show you how different translators handled the text, especially if different Greek manuscripts were used for different translations.

Keep in mind these are comments from the peanut gallery so I hope I’m not embarrassing myself too much.

When I mentioned I was going to start learning Greek some people wanted to know how things are coming along.

I don’t know what happened, but Greek became interesting to me starting a couple of weeks ago. It’s not just something I’m trying to learn so that I can use a reader’s NT and understand a good bit of what I’m reading, but it’s actually interesting to learn how things work, understand things that perplexed me for a while and a light bulb goes off, word order (not that I understand it), how economical it is etc. This makes the exercises much less frustrating. I won’t say it’s fun, but it’s interesting.

That’s a great thing God has done because I’m not naturally interested in languages.

It’s going slow because of my age, time I’m willing to spend (although I’m working on it every day), mental energy or lack of, especially with all the medical stuff, and wanting to learn it well. I decided not to think negatively of this in any way. In fact I’m glad I’m not learning Greek in school or I would forget the majority of it by the time I’m finished racing through it at college speed.

I’m on Chapter 11 out of 32 in the Croy book.

I still don’t think I’ll go beyond Croy’s beginning book, Black’s linguistics book and Campbell’s Verbal Aspect (just because I have it) but hopefully that will be enough to really benefit from it.

Some people wanted to know which beginning Greek book I was going to go with after reading Greek For The Rest Of Us. Although I briefly mentioned what I would be getting in a previous post, on Monday I ordered Croy’s A Primer of Biblical Greek because it’s deductive in style and deals a little bit with the Septuagint. And Mike and Esteban recommend it.

I used a CBD.com gift card and had just a bit left over and came across this–
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Introductory Articles, Volume 1 for only $5. I’m sure I saw this mentioned on another blog but can’t remember where. Even though it’s a little old, with names like Bruce and Metzger among many others, I felt I couldn’t go wrong at that price. My library is sorely lacking in reference works other than NT commentaries.

I thought I would mention it in case anyone else might be interested.

• Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon (1940)¹ – no accents or breathing marks allowed
• Unicode Classical Greek Inputter¹ – click on Greek Letters, click on each letter and then you can paste this into Liddell and Scott, a word processor or whatever you need
• StudyLight Interlinear Study Bible
• The Resurgence Greek Project
• Online-Bibeln – Novum Testamentum Graece (NA 27)² – Buch-Book, Kapitel-Chapter, Vers
• Institute of Biblical Greek
• Guide to Greek Pronunciation Conventions – see links at bottom
• Recordings
• Interlinear Scripture Analyzer (ISA) – standalone software
• Basic Greek And Exegesis – Sample Chapter (PDF)³

HT:
1. Suzanne
2. Esteban
3. Bible Geek Gone Wild

Any others?

See the comments for more.

A friend of mine has a book called Sparkling Gems From The Greek: 365 Greek Word Studies For Every Day Of The Year To Sharpen Your Understanding Of God’s Word which has always intrigued me but I didn’t want to spend the time reading it every day with all the other stuff I want to read.

Many of us were introduced to the new Koinonia blog and on Monday I read the post entitled Monday with Mounce 1. In reading the article I was interested to read his take on the Greek of Romans 1:5, even though I don’t know Greek. Then for some reason, to my surprise this well-known Greek scholar goes into application. This is very refreshing and to me very valuable. It reminds me of what the Sparkling Gems book contains but this is a manageable once-a-week article (not that Sparkling Gems couldn’t be read infrequently) and it’s free.

As an aside, it’s nice to see that although he served as the New Testament chair of the ESV Bible translation he also says that the TNIV (probably) got it right in this case. Which is nice to hear, since these two translations unfortunately often have two vehemently opposing camps.