Good resource to help with reading Greek

[mrderek]

Hi there

I'm new to Accordance and have been loving using it! I'm currently in my second year of theological education and have been studying greek. I was wondering whether anyone knew of an accordance resource that breaks down the Greek New Testament verse by verse and helps with understanding the grammar.

My lecturer suggested that in order to properly understand grammar, sentence constructions etc you really need to invest into commentaries. But being a student, I don't really have that amount of money at the moment. The book 'A grammatical analysis of the Greek New Testament' by Zerwick and Grosvenor was suggested to me as a good starting point which is not too expensive. Sadly it's not available on Accordance. Would anyone have any not-so-expensive alternatives which are available on Accordance too?

 

I have BDAG so understanding vocabulary isn't too much of an issue.

 

Thanks!

 

Derek

[R. Mansfield]

Derek, the New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament is structured very much like Zerwick. Think of it as a more Evangelical version :-)

[Abram K-J]

Yes, to add to what Rick said, the "Key" is also more interpretive in its conclusions (i.e., reads more theology from the text), but it's no less helpful grammatically, so if you're looking for something specifically in Accordance, you might appreciate having it.

 

"Max and Mary" is hard to top, though! Maybe some day in Accordance....

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Hey Derek,

 

I would suggest that some of the best resources for specifically taking apart the grammar are indeed not in Accordance. There are a number of readers that take passages from the NT (and beyond) and break them down as they teach grammar or reinforce it. The best of these in my opinion is Rod Decker's Koine Greek Reader, but Mounce has one (A Graded Reader of Biblical Greek) and Wallace also has one as a companion to his Greek Grammar.

 

Beyond that (I know you didn't want commentaries but ... at least EGGNT claims it's not really a commentary as such), there are commentaries aimed directly at the text rather than all the historical, and surrounding information that might be brought to bear on the text. Alas the two I know of are both incomplete. EGGNT is really good and is like Zerwick with explanatory notes. Alas only three volumes exist - the one on James is the one I'm familiar with. Baylor's Handbook on the Greek New Testament is apparently also well liked and seems to have a similar aim but I've not used it myself. You can get a good feel for what it's like by using Amazon.com's Look Inside on one of the volumes - 1 Peter has one. The Baylor format, if consistent which I would expect, seems to address one of my concerns about the EGGNT format but otherwise they appear to be similar in intent. Of course buying a whole set is expensive, but individual volumes can be had inexpensively enough.

 

I've not used the work above that Rick points to but there is a blog post about it in the archives : http://www.accordancebible.com/Studying-Philippians-1-With-The-GNT-Key

 

Thx

D

[waynedturner]

This year I began with a resolution to read the New Testament through in Greek each year. I follow the schedule I have on my Bible Commentary website (http://www.bibletrack.org). I am now finishing up on I Corinthians. I've had a good working knowledge of Greek for a few decades now, and I had memorized all words used 10x or more. However, if you don't read Greek continually and regularly, you don't really know Greek. I learn so much every day I read, and I've studied through the Bible every year since 2003…adding to my commentary notes each year. Now I realize how little I really knew about Greek, and I'm still not there, but I'm closer than I was last January.

 

I have most of the grammar books others have mentioned. I do refer to them from time to time. However, there's nothing like just reading. I open a window with the Greek text on the left side, and I usually have the Young's Literal translation on the right side. That translation seems to capture the proper essence of infinitives and participles.

 

You probably have A.T. Robertson's Word pictures as one of your Accordance resources. It's an old resource, but he does explain grammar nuances. Also, you probably have the Greek parsing guide. I sometimes use that resource, but not very often. Vincent Word Studies you probably also have with Accordance. I occasionally refer to that, but don't usually find it very helpful. All of these resources came included with one of the packages I bought from Accordance.

 

Sometimes I go to <http://classics.uchicago.edu/faculty/dik/niftygreek> and look at his parsing charts. They are quite helpful as refreshers, and they are free.

 

I recently bought the Mounce Analytical Lexicon. I thought I would use it more than I do. It's a crutch that I'm better off if I don't use (or use sparingly) in my daily reading.

 

The "instant details" in Accordance is about all you really need to read, assuming you know your parsing charts.

 

I hope this helps some.

 

Wayne

[mrderek]

Hi there

 

Thanks for that! I agree, in order to understand the Greek better, I need to invest time into reading it regularly. I'll take a look into the New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament

 

 

Assuming I was going to spend money buying a commentary series, besides EGGNT do you have any suggestion regarding commentary series that go verse by verse over the original language? I mention commentary series because that'll be a lot cheaper than getting individual. I noticed some go on sale e.g. NICOT, NICNT, Word, NIGTC etc. (I come from an evangelical background).

 

Thanks for your help!

[Λύχνις Δαν]

I have Ellingworth on Hebrews - NIGTC. I've not read much of it yet. There is a ton of information in there for sure, authorship, information on extant sources, dating, how it became part of the canon etc. etc. EGGNT doesn't have this information and deliberately not. NIGTC is not a work focussed on verse by verse examination of the Greek language alone, rather it's a technical commentary (I think that's the classification that's used) on the epistle from the Greek text - does that distinction make any sense ? As such I didn't think it was quite what you originally asked about. That said NIGTC is available on a volume by volume basis which I prefer and you will get a good deal about the Greek out of the work.

 

But I agree with Wayne, to read a lot is essential. I reached a point where I decided I was reading too much grammar and too little Greek. Now I try to read Greek ( I drill the relevant vocab a bit first) and muddle through more by context taking a shot at understanding as I go. I then go over it again and refine my understanding. Decker's reader teaches that technique.

 

Thx

D

[davidmedina]

I found this website from William Mounce very helpful https://www.teknia.com/foundationalgreek

[Douglas Fyfe]

If you're learning Greek then the NIGTC is great for working through the many options. I've only spent a decent amount of time in their 1 Corinthians commentary, but found it useful for understanding how the options were actually different.

 

Pillar is good too for discussing Greek grammar (I have spent most time in Hebrews and 1 Corinthians - possibly because their authors were my lecturers!) and is probably more confessional - they say what they think it means whereas NIGTC leaves you with a bunch of options.

 

Hope my 2 cents worth is helpful.

[R. Mansfield]

Rod Decker's Koine Greek Reader is mentioned earlier in this thread. It is now available for Accordance!