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Old 07-29-2009, 07:29 PM   #1
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Default Learning Biblical Greek

So I have a goal of teaching myself Biblical Greek. I have been looking at Greek New Testaments and a parallel Greek/English version and a few introductory texts. I am familiar with most of the Greek alphabet as I have a minor in physics but I want to learn to read it.

Any suggestions on sources or where to start?

Vinnie
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Old 07-30-2009, 05:48 PM   #2
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You might consider a web page, Little Greek, by Jonathan Robie:
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/
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.
Jonathan also owns a list dedicated to biblical Greek translation, called B-Greek.
http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/
B-Greek is a mailing list for scholars and students of Biblical Greek. Our main focus is upon understanding the Greek text of the Bible. Discussion topics include scholarly study of the Greek Bible and related Jewish and Christian Greek texts, tools for beginning and advanced students of Biblical Greek such as textbooks, reference works, bibliography and research tools, and linguistic topics such as morphology, lexicography, syntax,and discourse analysis.
Good luck!

DCH

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Originally Posted by Vinnie View Post
So I have a goal of teaching myself Biblical Greek. I have been looking at Greek New Testaments and a parallel Greek/English version and a few introductory texts. I am familiar with most of the Greek alphabet as I have a minor in physics but I want to learn to read it.

Any suggestions on sources or where to start?

Vinnie
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Old 07-30-2009, 09:56 PM   #3
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http://www.greekbiblestudy.org/gnt/main.do

This website is very helpful
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Old 07-31-2009, 07:09 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinnie View Post
So I have a goal of teaching myself Biblical Greek. I have been looking at Greek New Testaments and a parallel Greek/English version and a few introductory texts. I am familiar with most of the Greek alphabet as I have a minor in physics but I want to learn to read it.

Any suggestions on sources or where to start?
You'll have to get a grammar. You'll quickly find that they are all rubbishy and badly designed.

May I highlight one thing that confused the heck out of me? Generally Greek verbs appear in dictionaries as the first person singular present indicative active. So luw = I loose will appear as 'luw'.

Some verbs do something strange in every tense except the present -- they add a vowel like a, e, etc. So philw (w=omega, long o) is the base form, but the future etc add an 'e'.

To indicate this, and confuse the heck out of everyone, the dictionaries list this word as 'philew', even tho no such form exists.

Be warned, and look out for it. The grammars don't tell you that they're doing this, or do it very quietly.

All the best,

Roger Pearse
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Old 08-08-2009, 08:59 PM   #5
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Mounce, Greek for the Rest of Us (or via: amazon.co.uk).

Designed for the reader who 1) Has no teacher and 2) Knows little or nothing about NT Greek. "Greek for the Rest of Us" has the stated aim of being able to get the reader through most commentaries without having to scratch their heads.

It also leads nicely into his introductory Grammar, Basics of NT Greek (or via: amazon.co.uk)
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Old 08-11-2009, 08:30 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Roger Pearse View Post
Be warned, and look out for it. The grammars don't tell you that they're doing this, or do it very quietly.
I think the grammars are usually written with a classroom or other academic setting in mind. My instructors drilled the whole φιλω versus φιλεω bit into me so much that it seems entirely natural now for the lexicons to give the unattested form; indeed, I can scarcely imagine doing it any other way. Maybe this is a sign of thorough brainwashing.

A book like Rick Sumner offered, explicitly intended for those not taking a class, might be the best bet.

Ben.
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Old 08-11-2009, 10:26 PM   #7
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Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I now have a ton of resources...

I can almost write the alphabet in lower and upper case and know all the names of the letters.... don't make fun of me, I'm going slow :-P

Maybe we can do a group study thing for anyone else interested?

I have a very basic lesson plan....from a source I acquired, I can post lessons one by one if anyone else is interested?

Vinnie
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