Studying Biblical Greek

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Athanasius25

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Hello!

I’ve been attempting to learn Koine Greek. So far I’ve worked through Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek and I’m about half-way through Wallace’s Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. I’m wondering if any of you have any insight as to where I should go from here once I’ve finished Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. I don’t really feel confident enough in my abilities to be able to just translate the New Testament myself if anyone has any suggestions for supplemental material.

I saw Mounce has another book The Morphology of Biblical Greek not sure if this would be the next step?

Also, if anyone has recommendations for good commentaries from a Catholic perspective that I could make use of with the Greek I have learned

I apologize if this post seems a little all over the place but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
 
Don’t forget to thank God the best way you can, for what he has given you - the access to the ancient texts you are discovering.
 
Athanasius25 said:
Hello!

I’ve been attempting to learn Koine Greek. So far I’ve worked through Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek and I’m about half-way through Wallace’s Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. I’m wondering if any of you have any insight as to where I should go from here once I’ve finished Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. I don’t really feel confident enough in my abilities to be able to just translate the New Testament myself if anyone has any suggestions for supplemental material.

I saw Mounce has another book The Morphology of Biblical Greek not sure if this would be the next step?

Also, if anyone has recommendations for good commentaries from a Catholic perspective that I could make use of with the Greek I have learned

I apologize if this post seems a little all over the place but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
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Find a priest to give you private lessons. I took 4 semesters of lessons with 3 other women from a Canon Lawyer who specialized in Languages in Seminary. He charges us $400 per semester, once a week. Money well spent. Good luck!
 
I once started a NT Greek correspondence course with good effect,I had already qualifications in Classical Greek which helped greatly. I have a very old Bible here;English on one side, Greek on the other.
 
Athanasius25 said:
Hello!

I’ve been attempting to learn Koine Greek. So far I’ve worked through Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek and I’m about half-way through Wallace’s Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. I’m wondering if any of you have any insight as to where I should go from here once I’ve finished Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. I don’t really feel confident enough in my abilities to be able to just translate the New Testament myself if anyone has any suggestions for supplemental material.

I saw Mounce has another book The Morphology of Biblical Greek not sure if this would be the next step?

Also, if anyone has recommendations for good commentaries from a Catholic perspective that I could make use of with the Greek I have learned

I apologize if this post seems a little all over the place but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
Click to expand...
McLean, Hellenistic and Biblical Greek: A Graduated Reader is pretty decent.
 
You probably are already doing this, but Read your Greek NT daily, out loud if possible, for a generous amount of time or multiple sessions even; If you are not fully confident of your vocabulary, get an interlinear Greek/English NT. It is not “cheating” to do this; it is like having an instant lexicon on the line below the text being read, so you can understand as you read, and learn new vocabulary as you read.

I read mine at bed time, perhaps a chapter a night. But you may have time to read more. Keep at it until you do not need to change the words into English to know what is happening, but you understand without translating. It is like being right there with the writer and he is telling you things in person. Then keep at it your whole life.

You will find many great new things by reading regularly.
For instance in John 8, “Go and sin no more” is actually, “Go from this instant and no longer miss the mark.”
“Sin no more” focusses you on keeping an eye out for sin and avoiding it. But “no longer miss the mark” focusses your eyes on the mark, on looking for virtuous ways to do all your doings. Also, the word for “Go” in this verse is not the same used for Satan and for Peter when they were to go away or get behind me. Why? Jesus was not sending her away, but he was starting her on a mission, a journey.

You will notice all these only by regular reading, so that you see these types of things.
 
It is a lot of work and it takes a long time. It is also easy to forget if you ever stop working at it. John (the gospel and epistles) tends to be the simplest, Luke and the LXX tends to be harder (larger vocabulary, harder syntax). I took classes, I don’t know how I could motivate myself to dedicate the time without that structure.
Grace and peace,
Bruce
 
John definitely seems to be an easier place to start from the passages I’ve worked with so that’s probably what I’ll end up doing. Also, I’ll look into the McLean Graduated Reader as well.

I already have an interlinear that I’ve been using with my workbook that I think I’ll start to incorporate with my daily reading.

Thanks for the insight everyone I appreciate your responses
 
Athanasius25 said:
Hello!

I’ve been attempting to learn Koine Greek. So far I’ve worked through Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek and I’m about half-way through Wallace’s Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. I’m wondering if any of you have any insight as to where I should go from here once I’ve finished Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. I don’t really feel confident enough in my abilities to be able to just translate the New Testament myself if anyone has any suggestions for supplemental material.

I saw Mounce has another book The Morphology of Biblical Greek not sure if this would be the next step?

Also, if anyone has recommendations for good commentaries from a Catholic perspective that I could make use of with the Greek I have learned

I apologize if this post seems a little all over the place but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
Click to expand...
These Commentaries by St. Thomas Aquinas seem made to order for you! They are large Quarto size volumes with the New Testament in Greek, Latin and English at the head of the page, with the commentary below in both Latin and English (St. Thomas Aquinas’ Latin, and the English translation.)

Even if you weren’t studying Greek, you could hardly do better for such great Commentary. Also notice this publisher also has the Gospels of Matthew and John as well as the Book of Job currently in print, in matching format.
 
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