From: Don Wilkins (dwilkins@ucr.campus.mci.net)
Date: Fri Dec 11 1998 - 21:53:41 EST
At 10:37 PM 12/11/98 +0000, John M. Tait wrote:
...
>This doesn't mean that some knowledge of Aramaic wouldn't be of interest -
>perhaps someone could suggest a suitable grammar?
The grammar I used was Alger Johns, _A Short Grammar of Biblical Aramaic_,
but I can't recommend it highly because it was, indeed, short and not very
helpful for extensive comparisons of idioms (it did cover the basics and
things like the relative pronoun DIY). Also, I think it assumes a previous
knowledge of Hebrew, but that's not unreasonable.
...
>What about reading in non-Biblical Hellenistic Greek? (By the way, I'm not
>familiar with the abbreviation TLG.)
>
>While I'm brain picking - I would appreciate some suggestions on good Bible
>software (original language texts; LXX; concordances, lexicons and search
>facilities) for the PC.
The TLG is the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae CD, the massive collection of Greek
literature from Homer well into the first millenium A.D. You can obtain it
from UC Irvine, at the TLG website if you like. The Packard Humanities
Institute (PHI) CD's are also very valuable and well worth the money, as
they cover large collections of papyri and inscriptions. The main drawback
to these sources is that they have only the Greek, without translation, and
if that is a problem the next best alternatives are the on-line Perseus site
and the Loeb Classical Library, which is available at many libraries.
Incidentally, I don't mean to suggest that *I* have no need to consult
translations; I take advantage of translations as well, viewing them as
commentaries, and I strongly encourage others to take the same attitude. I
just mean that the TLG and PHI CD's would not be good investments for
someone who does not have a good reading knowledge of Greek. As to
Hellenistic Greek, it is hard to think of sources that are specially
applicable to NT. You might find the TLG _Canon of Greek Authors and Works_
handy to give you a dated and topical listing of works (available both on
the TLG CD and as a separate publication). Carl, Edgar et al. have also made
good recommendations, and you might want to consult them.
BTW, I think John made some good points in his post and I appreciate his
comments.
Don Wilkins
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