News of Koine and Biblical Greek

This first post may be edited a couple times in the next couple days.

Welcome--this is a 1 John reading group that anyone is invited to participate in. I am hoping beginning readers can make use of this thread (now or in the future). Please treat novice questions with patience, and feel free to indulge in more advanced discussion. There are workbooks available for students who are partially through a textbook, so very introductory questions ...

If the verb of a Greek phrase is omitted, does it necessarily mean that it is the verb εἰμί? E.g., in some Creeds or in some works by Fathers of the Church sometimes we can see expressions like this: πιστεύομεν εἰς τὸ Πνεύμα τὸ Ἅγιον ὃ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ or something of this kind. So should we necessarily conclude that according to that text, τὸ Πνεύμα ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ ...

Example from Croy. Only ἑαυτοὺς is glossed as "ourselves", all other vocab and forms are known.

οὐ γὰρ ἑαυτοὺς κηρύσσομεν ἀλλὰ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν κύριον, ἑαυτοὺς δὲ δούλους ὑμῶν διὰ Ἰησοῦν. (2 Cor 4:5)

KJV: "For we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake."

I understood the Greek as:
"Not ourselves are we preaching, but Jesus Christ the Lord; and ourselves your servants for the ...

Anyone using Croy will find that, when future and aorist tenses are introduced, stems are usually given only for the most common verbs. A number of verbs seen in Croy do not have their principal parts explicitly given, even in Croy's glossary. I think this is a huge flaw in the book, since memorization of principal parts is encouraged in every textbook. Anyone wanting to learn the stems systematically when new forms are introduced will ...

Wilson and Vlachos 1st John Workbook:
http://www.bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/a-workbook-for-new-testament-greek/335130
used: http://www.amazon.com/Workbook-New-Testament-Greek-Exegesis/dp/0801048125
It is meant for the beginning student, and is suggested for use by students midway through an introductory course, or to be used at an accelerated rate in the final weeks of an introductory course.
"The assignments assume the student has already progressed through lesson 15 of Machen's grammar, lesson 28 of Wenham's grammar, or chapter 23 of Mounce's grammar." ...

Practice and review question #3; there is no context for the demonstrative or pronoun. Either my translation is incorrect, or I have a question on the practice sentence:

ταῦτα ἐγράφοντο ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τοῦ νόμου, ὑμεῖς δὲ οὐκ ἐδύνασθε βλέπειν αὐτά.
My translation: These were being written into the book of the law, but you were (pl.) were not able to see them.

If my translation is correct, isn't it more common to see neuter ...

Hello,

I am very hard of hearing, almost to the point of being completely deaf. Anyway, I am trying to learn Biblical Greek (on my own) without having to become fluent in it. I have Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek Book and workbook.

I must say that it is hard for me to stick with it. I get into it a little bit, then out of it. When I get back into it, I have ...

Clayton Croy's "A Primer of Biblical Greek" and Machen's "New Testament Greek for Beginners: Second Edition" share enough similarities that I would be very surprised if Croy's book was not based on Machen's first edition. I have worked through 10 units of Croy, and have looked ahead through unit 15 to make these comments, and so my comments correspond roughly to the first half of each book. I have read through Machen's 11th lesson, and ...

Question is from Croy's A Primer of Biblical Greek, Lesson V, Septuagint Sentences, No. 5:

(Gabael blesses Tobias) Καλὲ καὶ ἀγαθέ, ἀνδρὸς καλοῦ καὶ ἀγαθοῦ, δικαίου καὶ ἐλεημοποιοῦ, δῷη σοι κύριος εὐλογίαν οὐρανοῦ.

the following are glosses given for unknown words:
ἀνδρὸς - "of a man"
ἐλεημοποιοῦ - "giving alms"
δῷη - "may he give"
εὐλογίαν - "a blessing"

I believe "Καλὲ" and "ἀγαθέ" are substantive adjectives in the vocative. while ...

I'm in no way very knowledgeable ref Koine Greek but I want to ask this question: when I see a word like "hypo" in a passage, how could I determine by examining the actual text (say by reading P46 folios, for example) that hypo should be rendered as "under" or whether it is best rendered as "by" or some other word?

The issue is that I know for a fact many translations are using not ...