Learn Greek

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Hello all! I’m new here and maybe this question has been asked many times before. I’ve been interested in learning biblical greek or at least enough to do word studies. I can find very little in the way of Catholic books on the subject. Can anyone recommend texts I can use that are Catholic or Protestant texts that are not biased?

Thanks in advance!

Jcopper
 
Thanks!
Isn’t it odd that there aren’t more materials on this issue written by Catholics?

Jcopper
 
Jcopper said:
Thanks!
Isn’t it odd that there aren’t more materials on this issue written by Catholics?

Jcopper
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Not really - Latin has been the language of Catholics in the west for over 1800 years, so many works originally written in Greek have been translated (into Latin) already; so by learning Latin you get access to virtually all orthodox literature that has been written in Greek and that written in Latin.

More recently, when there was a renewed interest in the original Greek manuscripts, there were already many excellent Greek grammars, etc. written by non-Catholics, so that it would have been somewhat redundant to duplicate their efforts. Think of it as an ecumenical division of labor: Catholics teach Latin, and non-Catholics teach Greek and Hebrew. (That’s an exaggeration, I know).

Actually, of course, there have been many Greek scholars in the Catholic Church for centuries, but I think that a lot of the older grammars, etc, were written in Latin, and not English, so they are less useful to us modern non-Latin speaking Americans. This is true for other biblical languages as well: I have a Syriac vocabulary written in Latin.
 
Jcopper said:
Isn’t it odd that there aren’t more materials on this issue written by Catholics?
Click to expand...
American Evangelicals are obsessed with “the original Greek” because they think it contains edifying secrets obscured by translation, which creates a huge market for entry-level academic resources by Evangelicals for Evangelicals.
 
Jcopper said:
Thanks!
Isn’t it odd that there aren’t more materials on this issue written by Catholics?

Jcopper
Click to expand...
This is all I can think of, 2 from Max Zerwick S.J.

'Biblical Greek ’ by Max Zerwick S.J. 185pp
amazon.com/Biblical-Scripta-Pontificii-Instituti-Biblici/dp/8876535543/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282255982&sr=1-1

-and-

‘A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament: Unabridged’ Zerwick S.J. 839 pp
amazon.com/Grammatical-Analysis-Greek-New-Testament/dp/8876535888/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
 
greekbible.com/

This site is the best resource bar none. you select a passage, and its all in greek. clicking on a single word will bring up a popup with all the info regarding the word in english…its definition, tense, whether its a noun verb or adj, etc.

I also own this book, its an interlinear greek-english new testament…

http://www.deepershopping.com/imagelib/productimages/000/000/008/8267_large.jpg

it has the original greek and a literal word by word translation which is very difficult to understand because it lacks the literary flow in english. but it also has the revised standard edition text on the sides for easy reading.
 
Thanks all! These are a great start and great suggestions. I really appreciate it.

Ion,

Good point about Latin being the official language of the Church and all the major works having been translated into Latin. Actually, it’s funny, but it appears that (at least) one of the works that John7 recommended by Fr. Zerwick was translated to English from Latin.

Apollos,

Unfortunately, the Protestant’s obsession with the original Greek, and their distrust for the previously acclaimed Latin translations, necessitates a Catholic interested in apologetics to learn Greek in order to combat their erroneous interpretations (e.g. the whole Petros/Petra debate). I have also found it difficult at times to discuss the Bible with certain Protestants because of differences in English translations. They tend to say things like “that’s not what my bible says.” Whether its NIV or KJV, they tend to distrust “Catholic” versions. It would be good to get down to the Greek (if you can get them to believe that the Bible wasn’t originally written in English, that is).

Thanks again to all for the suggestions. I know they will be great helps.

Jcopper
 
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