Peter Kirby

The Amazon site says "Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks." So I encourage anyone who is interested in this group study to purchase the "Greek for the Rest of Us" book as soon as possible. It is $23.09 from Amazon. (For those in the U.S., add something to get your order above $25 and the shipping is free. It is also at amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk.)

If you want to put time into learning Greek with us (at least three hours per week) but you are incapable of buying the book, e-mail me (at peterkirby --@-- gmail . com) and let me know your circumstances.

best wishes,
Peter Kirby

Amaleq13

How soon do you hope to start?

Ahab

Here is a good site for those interested in learning Greek or improving their Greek reading skills:

http://www.textkit.com/

Peter Kirby

I would like to have a subforum set up before February. So long as people are waiting to receive copies of the book, we can postpone the coverage of its contents. In the meantime, there could be chatter, general questions, and discussion of what we want to do and how.

best,
Peter Kirby

Diogenes the Cynic

Do you want stick to a specific, uniform lesson plan as layed out in these books or do you want something freer which would allow alternate text books to be used?

Peter Kirby

The idea that I've been thinking about is that we follow the lesson plan of Mounce's books (starting with 'Greek for the Rest of Us') and that those who are participating regularly would probably have Mounce.

The "Greek for the Rest of Us" book is rather unique among introductory texts in that it is not a grammar reference (more like a primer perhaps) or a vocabulary builder. It teaches "about Greek" without making you learn the language. There is a lot of merit to this approach: or, at least, it seems so to me, as my primary exposure to Greek has been through continual use of the language in books, articles, footnotes, and commentaries concerning the New Testament. What Mounce attempts to do in this book is to enable one to do Bible study with tools that use Greek (such as a commentary on a NT book).

There will be many who follow along without a book, or at least without this "Greek for the Rest of Us" book, and I want to accomodate them. (Let me know who you are by e-mail, by the way.)

Now... what should we do? Perhaps we could assign certain tasks to different people.

Every chapter has exercises. I feel that everybody should at least have the chance to do the same exercises, in order to see how their answers compare with others, and more importantly (as it is group learning), to ask questions about the exercises that they might have. So the task of a person (or multiple people) is to type out the exercises. It is a simple-enough task, once I help out the volunteer(s) with learning how to type Greek.

The other thing that I feel everybody should have is an outline of the chapter. I will do the outline/summary/abstract for chapters 1-4. (I may do more, but I am hoping to get volunteers for some of the other chapters.) This summary should indicate the topics covered in the chapter and convey the information vital to understanding what the exercises are about. It is not, however, so extensive as to be a substitute for the Mounce text.

Now, with the summary and the exercises from Mounce, it will be possible to figure things out if one already has a basic grammar for Greek, whether online or in print. Here's an idea for another type of volunteer: pointing out free online resources relevant to each particular chapter. (The TextKit site is a great start; now we need just to reference the specific parts relevant to each chapter as we move along.)

Any further thoughts? Other people who want to participate? Would anyone be kind enough to volunteer for some of the tasks above?

best,
Peter Kirby

Mathetes

This sound like a great idea. I already know Greek to some extent, but I'll check it from time to time, and probably buy the book. I can't commit to go there regularly, though.

TextKit is very good, but it's not specifically Koine, but more oriented towards Attic and Homeric Greek.

Vorkosigan

Peter, a clarification: Do we buy both of Mounce's books?

Peter Kirby

Another resource would be Davis's Beginner's Grammar of the Greek New Testament.

I am glad to have people pop in periodically, especially if they might just respond to some of the questions posted by others (or post their own).

I am likely to note the stages of our group study on my blog, so subscribing to that blog feed would keep one up-to-date.

best,
Peter Kirby

Peter Kirby

I plan to go through Greek for the Rest of Us before anything else. So if you buy something, buy that book.

Once we get through that book, we will move on to Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, also by Mounce. So you can wait to buy that book later if you like, or you can get it now (it's a good book by all accounts).

(Optional is the "Basics of Biblical Greek" Workbook, which I have. It is designed to go along with the grammar.)

best,
Peter Kirby