From: Jonathan Robie (jonathan@texcel.no)
Date: Mon Oct 19 1998 - 10:58:49 EDT
At 08:40 PM 10/18/98, Paul A. Sue wrote:
>I'm trying to learn NT Greek on my own, and would like to solicit
>advice as to what books would be useful from your own experience.
>Feel free to suggest other works that you value.
My Little Greek home page lists the resources I find most helpful. You can
find it at:
I'll comment on the resources you mention below:
>Greek Texts
>===========
>- Synopsis of the Four Gospels
>- UBS4
>- [NA27]
>- Hodges/Farstad, "The Greek NT According to the Majority Text"
You need either UBS4 or NA27. Either one will do. The Synopsis isn't
essential for reading the New Testament, but it will be helpful if you want
to compare readings across gospels. You can look at the English version of
the Synopsis and decide for yourself whether you think a Greek version
would be helpful. At any rate, if you are just beginning, one Greek text is
probably all you can handle anyway!
>- Septuaginta
>- Hatch & Redpath, "A Concordance to the Septuagint"
The Septuagint will be harder for you to read than the New Testament at
first - the grammar and vocabulary differ enough to be troublesome. You'll
want a Septuagint eventually, but not at first. If you start reading the
Septuagint, the best Septuagint Grammar I've found so far seems to be
"Grammar of Septuagint Greek", by F.C. Conybeare and St. George Stock.,
published by Hendrickson. It includes readings with extensive enough notes
to help with the hard stuff. I'm not saying this is a particularly great
textbook, just that it is better than anything else available. The sections
with the readings are very helpful; the presentation of syntax is pretty
dense, and hard work.
>Textbooks
>=========
>W. Mounce, D. Wallace, D. Black, R. Young, G. Stevens,
>J. Brooks/C. Winbery, E.V.N. Goetchius (?) {any others??}
For the first steps, Little Greek 101:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/koine/greek/lessons
Mounce has a solid presentation of the grammar. Sometimes he oversimplifies
to an extent that is bothersome (i.e. when he describes the Genitive), but
he has workbooks and solved problems are available, so it is a very useful
book. So go ahead and get Mounce. Both Mounce and Wallace are a little
doctrinaire, IMHO, so keep this in mind when you use them.
Brooks/Winbery is a very nice book, very simple and to the point in its
presentation. But it is not introductory.
>Grammars
>========
>Robertson, BDF, Dana/Mantey, Chamberlain, MHT, Guthrie & Duvall,
>K. McKay, S. Porter [Verbal Aspect], B. Fanning, J. Greenlee,
>E. Burton, Brooks & Winbery [Morphology], C.F. Moule [Idioms],
>S. Porter [Idioms],
If you are "trying to learn NT Greek", all of these are for later, except
for perhaps Dana/Mantey, which is essentially a simplification of
Robertson's grammar.
Robertson's larger grammar is extremely useful, but very hard to read at
first. Fanning is very useful, but out of print (drat!), and you won't need
it until you've gotten into verbs in some depth.
>Linguistics
>===========
>Barr, J., "Semantics of Biblical Language"
>Beekman, J & J. Callow, "The Semantic Structure of Written Communication"
>D. Black, "Lingusitics for Students of NT Greek"
>D. Black, "Lingusitics & NT Interpretation"
>P. Cotterell & M. Turner, "Linguistics & Biblical Interpretation"
>J. Louw, "Semantics of NT Greek"
>M. Silva, "Biblical Words & Their Meaning"
Again, you don't need these at first. Many of these are good books, but if
you have a library handy, no need to buy any of these just yet.
>Aids/Reference
>==============
>- Computer Concordance to NA26 and UBS3
>- Kohlenberger, J. et al., "The Exhaustive Concordance to the Greek NT"
>- Moulton, W., A. Geden, & H. Moulton, "A Concordance to the Greek NT"
>- Balz & Schneider, "Exegetical Dictionary of the NT"
>- Kittel, G. (ed.), "TDNT"
>- Brown, C., "NIDNTT"
>- BAGD
>- Louw & Nida, "Greek-English Lexicon of the NT Based on Semantic Domains"
>- Metzger, B., "Lexical Aids for Students of NT Greek"
>- Moulton & Milligan, "Vocabulary of the Greek NT"
>- Thayer's Lexicon
>- Rogers, C., "The New Linguistic & Exegetical Key to the Greek NT"
>- Zerwick, M., "A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek NT"
>- D.A. Carson, "Exegetical Fallacies"
>- W. Mueller, "Grammatical Aids for Students of NT Greek"
>- Windham, N., "NT Greek for Preachers & Teachers"
>- D.A. Black, "Using NT Greek in Ministry"
If you can afford it, I would get both of these:
BAGD
Louw & Nida
I would also strongly recommend Zerwick, which I use every day as I read.
Zerwick and Rogers perform a similar function - alas, I have only seen the
older version of Rogers, which was much less useful for me than Zerwick,
but I understand that the current edition is significantly more
informative. I wish I had first-hand information on it, but I suspect it is
worth looking at.
>Textual Criticism
>=================
>- Metzger
>- H. Greenlee
>- D.A. Black
>- K. & B. Aland
I'm not well informed on this at all. I use Metzger.
>Software
>========
>- GRAMCORD
>- Greek FlashPro
>- Greek Tutor
I *love* Gramcord, it is the one Greek software package I use. But be
prepared for a somewhat old looking user-interface. Greek FlashPro is
useful enough. I'm not really overwhelmed by Greek Tutor, but I haven't
spent a lot of time looking at it, I just saw a demo at SBL one year.
Hope this helps!
Jonathan
___________________________________________________________________________
Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com
Little Greek Home Page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/koine
Little Greek 101: http://sunsite.unc.edu/koine/greek/lessons
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