I have several grammars, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to use them.
Each of them seems to use different vocabulary from the others, and there are
significant differences in the interpretation each gives to the different forms.
The grammars I am using now are:
Blass, Debrunner, und Rehkopf
Very detailed, great for reference, lots of scriptural examples, lousy
for reading
Machen
Not a lot of detail, very concise, either you believe him or you don't,
nice tables.
Robertson
Detailed, quite old, lots of examples, great reading, very traditional.
Richard Young
Easy reading, the only grammar I have which uses language familiar to
someone
who has learned modern languages.
I like BDR, Robertson, and Young because they have enough examples that I can
follow their arguments, but I find that all three sources differ significantly
on the meaning of the Greek tenses (if they can even be called that), and have
rather different classifications for the use of various grammatical forms. For
instance, when Carlton Winberry mentioned "Double Accusative", I could find it
in only one of the indexes. I then used the scriptures to link to the equivalent
discussions in the other grammars, and found each treatment quite different from
the others.
So how do I use these grammars to enable me to read Greek as a living language?
Jonathan