Any one studying the Greek New testament?

Greek is way different than the Vulgar English.
Koiné means Common. FYI, it is different than the Modern Greek language.

Greek has a lot to it.. you know that you can spell the definite article "THE" 27 different ways and they have different meanings?..

English has 3 tenses, (Past, Present and Future)
Greek has 5!

Greek has
5 Tenses (PRESENT TENSE, AORIST TENSE, PERFECT TENSE, IMPERFECT TENSE, FUTURE TENSE)
5 Cases (Nominative Case, Genitive Case, Dative Case, Accusative Case, Vocative Case)
3 genders (Male Female and neuter)
3 moods (Active, Passive, Middle)

There is even more to it than that when you get in to singular and plural.

I love it, but what is amazing is that God's word is more than what we have in English.

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Jym Evans Iakobos 1071
Member: Reformation Presbyterian Church
Location: San Marcos, TX
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Bill Mencarow's Sermons
Still Water Revival Books

I am personally studying it at home and translating it in a Wednesday night class at my old church. We can have some lively discussions on what the text is saying! Right now we're about to start Acts 3.

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Ben Castaneda
member of Faith Presbyterian Church (PCA)
San Antonio, TX
MDiv student at WSC
Escondido, CA

"Not all prison bars are made from metal, And not all prisoners walk about in chains." -Lysander from Weatherby, Earl of Gloucester

You mean Greek has:

3 voices - active, middle, passive.

Also, 6 tenses - there is also pluperfect.

It has 4 moods - indicative, imperative, subjunctive, optative

And, I'm not sure that it's correct to say that the spelling of the definite article determines its meaning. The definite article has several different meanings, which can generally be expressed by any CGN combination.


Also, perhaps it differs from text to text, but I was under the impression that English had 12 tenses.


I'm glad you're learning Greek. I tutor it occasionally. It is a wonderful language.

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Charlie Johnson
Downtown Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, student

Awesome... i am just learning! But I love it so far!

Glad to hear it. You need persistence to get through it all. The benefits of Greek (or any other language) are exponential. Usually, in the first 2 years, while you are still studying morphology and syntax, the real benefit to your ability to interpret Scripture is small. Once you get to proficient reading and discourse analysis, you can't put the difference into words.

Self-study can be rough. Kudos to you brave sould. If you run across tough spots or have questions, send me a message. I'd love to work through it with you.

Thank you so much!
Here are my tools.
Strong's Concordance
J.P. Green's Interlinear Bible
a Parsing Guide
I have a copy of the Byzantine Textform NT
and some other reference material...
If you have a chance see some of Jim Brown's articles.. he teaches Greek and was my inspiration to start studying.

I'm sort of bummed that you left out the subjunctive.

(Sure, most people haven't heard of it, but it is alive, as it were.)

And those three tenses are actually nine, if you break them out into Progressive, Perfect/Simple, and Perfect/Progressive.

Throw in conditional formations, and English could almost be confused with a Romance Language!

Seriously, blessings on your study. It is very rewarding.

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Raymond Victor Bottomly
Providence Reformed Baptist Church, Tacoma, WA

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

See --> fred greco

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Rev. Andrew J. Barnes
Husband of Dena
Father of Oliver
Master of Bruce
Pastor of Tchula Presbyterian Church

What can I say, I like blogs!

I think it's awesome your studying these languages..

I'd like to learn Latin, so that I would have a reason to use this old Latin Dictionary I have sitting here on my book shelf..published back in 1918 or the works of Horace

Or even German, so that I could read The Elements of the German Language book I have..

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Bobbi Clark
Covenant Member
Pinewood Pres. (PCA) Middleburg

When I kept Silent, My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. Psalm 32:3

Dunno, think it might be out of date?

I'm putting a lot of time and energy into Latin right now.

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Lance G. Marshall
Pastor
Georgetown, Indiana

Whitefield;

I didn't think Latin changed..unlike the English Language where people tend to change the meaning of words all the time..

Though I'm sure some of the German Language may have changed since this other book was published back in 1888...but maybe not???

I've never actually spoken to someone who is learning Greek. (and I guess technically, I still haven't). But this thread makes me want to learn Greek. I've never before even dreamed I could.

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Rangerus
Southern Baptist
Austin, TX
Teacher and Volunteer
1689 LBCF & BF&M 2000

T'was a joke about it being a dead language

I did a fast paced intro course last summer. I have to wait till this summer to pick it back up because I am up to my eyeballs in Latin passive verb paradigms right now.

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Traci
Lynnwood OPC
"I have taken all my good deeds, and all my bad deeds, and cast them through each other in a heap before the Lord, and fled from both, and betaken myself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in him I have sweet peace."--David Dickson

If it were me, I would have included it.


Took Koine Greek in a class in senior year of high school. One of the French teachers, Mr. Dozois, also taught both Koine and Hebrew to interested students on Saturdays. He was a devout French Catholic and language fanatic who knew 9 or 10 languages. He used his own materials, plus we had copies of the "Englishman's Greek New Testament," an interlinear KJV with koine beneath. Don't know if that is in print any more. The first thing he had us do after we learned the alphabet and pronunciation was to memorize and recite the Lord's Prayer in Greek.

And then several years ago two of the pastors at my church taught a course in koine. We used Mounce, "Basics of Biblical Greek." The interesting thing about that was that their pronunciation in some ways was quite different than the way I had been taught by Mr. Dozois. One of the big differences bieng the pronunciation of "x," which my pastors pronounced as "k" and Mr. Dozois pronounced like the Hebrew "ch" or "h" in Hannukah / Channukah. (As I understand it, though, no one really knows exactly what spoken koine originally sounded like.)

I also have a beat up "New Testament Greek for Beginners" by Gresham Machen I found in a thrift store.

I have enjoyed my brief stints learning koine, but boy is it hard, much harder than Latin which I also took at one point in my life. But there is something so cool about the Greek alphabet, and it is a beautiful and musical language. Especially when Mr. Dozois read passages of Scripture to us, it sounded just like poetry.

For a good intro to koine, I would recommend the Mounce books (a grammar and workbook, which also has an interactive CD).

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Jim
Elder
First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu
at Ko'olau (PCUSA)
Honolulu, Hawaii
http://www.fpchawaii.org/
"And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness." II Corinthians 12:9

I'll second Mounce. I wish it had been around when I was in college. We used Machen. Some classes also used Davis. They worked, and I thank God for them. But, Mounce is easier to see the 'scope' of the language.

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We shall not adjust our Bible to the age; but before we have done with it, by God's grace, we shall adjust the age to the Bible. - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Lawrence Underwood, Jr.
Pastor - Providence Family Fellowship / Mobile, Alabama
1644/46 LBC
My Blog - Imprimis

At my previous job, I worked at an air force base and I studied Greek with the base's chaplin who was a Lutheran. I would meet with him after work. We went through the book, Fundamentals of Greek Grammar by James Voelz. I wanted to study Greek because I wanted to understand God's word better. Moreover, I also teach 5th and 6th grade school and understanding Greek helps me to explain the word of God to them.

Just out of curiosity, are there any pieces of literature written in Koine Greek besides the Septuagint and the New Testament?

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Curt Hayashida
member, Community Bible Church (Non-denominational)
Vallejo, CA

I've done two semesters of Greek at RTS, and we used Mounce there. He's like Greek for Dummies - Just what I need! Seriously, Mounce presents Greek grammar and vocabulary in a simple, systematic way that even I can follow.

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Jacob Mearse
Reformation Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Olympia, WA
Student, Reformed Theological Seminary (Virtual)
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy
Husband to April; Daddy to Wesley, Cyrus, FaithMarie and SarahAnn.

Koine, or Imperial Koine, refers to the common Greek of the period ca. 300 BCE - ca. 300 CE.

The apostolic Fathers, the Didache, and many creeds are written in Koine. The Septuagint is Koine. Also, there are quite a few secular sources.

Although there is a classicizing tendency in some of the Patristic literature.

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Davidius
Husband of Emily
Member of All Saints Anglican Church - Chapel Hill (AMiA / Anglican Church of North America)
Student: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, German and Classics

I'm learning Esperanto...

Seriously, though, I'm looking into studying Greek as well. Coincidentally, I found the Mounce curriculum and put it on my wishlist even before I saw this thread... good to know I had the right thing in mind.

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Jonathan
Audio Engineer
Reformed Anabaptist
Ohio

Moroni's magical glasses of proper interpretation:

As a general idea, if one were to do one chapter of Mounce's book per week, how many hours of total study per week do you think is required?

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Jacob
Sovereign Grace Ministries
Covenant Fellowship Church
WTS M.A.R. in Theology student
West Chester, PA

"Grace renews nature; glory perfects grace." ~ John Owen
"Grace tried is better than grace, and more than grace. It is glory in its infancy." ~ John Flavel
Blog - The Strasbourg Inn

Surely this varies widely from person to person -- I can see it ranging from one hour to ten or twelve, depending on how easily you learn languages, whether you've studied a language with cases before, whether you are taking a class with periodic quizzes, and how thoroughly you want to learn Greek. I highly recommend getting the Mounce workbook, too! The workbook will slow you down if you tend (like me) to move on before you've really mastered the material, and even if you don't, it will probably make your study time more efficient.

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Evie B.
New Members Class, RPCNA, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. -- Isaiah 43:18-19 (ESV)

I took a year of Greek 5yrs ago and our class used Mounce's grammar/workbook. Mounce, keeps it as simple as possible. I still use that old grammar text book for reference!! Mounce has truly been a blessing to the Church. Check this out it is!!

MP3 Files for gnt (by Anonymous) | Christian Classics Ethereal Library

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Scott Shahan
Member of First Evangelical Free Church, EFCA
firstfreesf.org
Sioux Falls, SD

Better is the sin which humbles me, than that duty which makes me proud.
Thomas Watson

I speak pig-latin.

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Ben Franks

I attend: Ketoctin Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC)
in Purcellville, Virginia
I'm a member of: Heartland Community Church (PCA)
in Wichita, Kansas
I blog here (along with my Dad): http://rrfranks.blogspot.com/
And I'm a student here: www.phc.edu

"Remember the speeches we have spoken so often over our mead, when we raised boast on the bench, heroes in the hall, about hard fighting. Now may the man who is bold prove that he is."-Aelfwine at the Battle of Maldon

I never, ever, ever thought I'd say this, but... I like Hebrew better.

We're into participles now (in Greek, I mean). At the break last night, I leaned over to my classmate who's also been in Hebrew with me since last Fall and said, "Aren't you glad that Hebrew participles aren't like Greek participles?" We're nearly done with Jonah and you can probably count on one hand the number of participles we've run into. (Though all those waw consecutives are boring from a first-year standpoint -- it's just a series of "And Jonah said..." followed by "and the sailors [did x]..." followed by "And [x]...". Repeat ad nauseaum.) At church we're going through the Psalms so I don't bother with using my Hebrew Bible (it being poetry and all), but sometimes when we're reading through the text and there are words I know the Hebrew for, I can kinda see what the Hebrew must be like.

I took Latin before I took Greek and it's interesting to see all the similarities in the languages -- and the differences. Greek is definitely harder (and weirder!). The most complicated Latin prose I read was a bit of Cicero's Somnium Scipionis, but, all in all, you can definitely see the different minds at work in Rome and Greece in the way the languages work.

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Jennifer Petrik
Member, Grace Reformation Church
Associate Member, Escondido Reformed Baptist Church
Student, Westminster Seminary California (M.A.H.T.)
Woodland/Escondido, CA
per caliginem

Jen, this makes me want to study Hebrew! (And to actually learn Greek, too.)

We just started Mounce in one of our Sunday School classes.

A blessing after just two weeks! Can't wait to learn more!

Conrad

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Conrad W. Judy, Jr.
Ruling Elder, Eastern Shore Reformed Presbyterian Church, Centreville, MD
April 1st, is the High Holy Day of Atheists - Ps 14:1 The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."

I am resuming Greeks studies after a 10+ year layoff. My studies were in Attic and Homeric Greek and so I am not going totally from scratch. Another important thing is knowing parts of speech. If you don't have a basic grasp of sentence structure in your first language it makes it tough.

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Zack Flummerfelt
Evangel Presbyterian (PCA), layman
Wichita, KS


As of September 12, 2009 I am married to dear Jlynn!!

Is that kosher?!?!

I'm glad to hear of your current infatuation with Koine Greek. May it turn into a lifelong love of serious academic study of God's Word.

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Ben
Chaplain, US Army
Ft. Riley, KS
TE Ohio Valley Presbytery, PCA

I understand that this is one of the two free Greek audio recordings on the internet. It read by a woman named Marilyn Phemister. Unfortunately, the pronunciation is not that fluid in my opinion, as she has a heavy American accent as she reads the Greek.

The other free audio is Greek/Latin New Testament Audio Readings. This has links to Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. The Greek here is read by a man in a wonderfully fluid manner and no apparent accent. He uses a modern Greek pronunciation convention.

Both audio files are from the Westcott-Hort text.

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Tim Lindsay
member, Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, Halifax, NS, Canada
Living in Cape Town, South Africa
"under the Southern Cross, at the foot of Table Mountain, not far from the Cape of Good Hope"

Wow! Thanks Tim! I did not know about this.....very cool... also I do know that there is a Greek Class on itunesU from Dallas Theological Seminary, where you can download all the lectures and then watch them. That class also uses the Mounce Grammar. I have watched these videos several times over and they are most excellent!

And I did not know about DTS Greek classes on iTunesU! Thanks for this!

The thing about Greek and Hebrew is to continually use it, possibly daily if you have the time. I try to read and translate in my nightly devotions

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Lukester
Seminary Student
Pilgrim OPC
Bangor, ME

Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,for those who are called according to his purpose.