New Testament Greek vs. Classical Greek

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DARKastheRAIN
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New Testament Greek vs. Classical Greek

Post by DARKastheRAIN »

I'm planning on taking a course in New Testament Greek in college. If I learn New Testament Greek will I be able to read ancient Greek texts like the Odyssey and the Iliad or are they from too different a time period?

Markos
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Re: New Testament Greek vs. Classical Greek

Post by Markos »

If you learn NT Greek you will only be able to read the Apostolic Fathers and the Septuagint and maybe Epictetus. With a little extra work on vocabulary building and learning some new forms that are not found in the Greek NT (mostly duals and more optatives) you could read Plato. To read Homer will take more work. You will have to learn many more forms and the vocab will be incredibly difficult at first. But it can be done. Homer I guess is sometimes included under the rubric "Classical" but Plato is much closer to the Greek NT than either are to Homer. Homer is by far the best Greek and learning him should be on your to-do list.
οὐ μανθάνω γράφειν, ἀλλὰ γράφω τοῦ μαθεῖν.

oberon
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Re: New Testament Greek vs. Classical Greek

Post by oberon »

DARKastheRAIN wrote:I'm planning on taking a course in New Testament Greek in college. If I learn New Testament Greek will I be able to read ancient Greek texts like the Odyssey and the Iliad or are they from too different a time period?
The Odyssey and the Iliad are written in a dialect perhaps as different from Attic Greek as Koine Greek is. Some people learn Homeric Greek first, and then have to learn more for Attic Greek. There is a Greek textbook by Paine that begins with NT greek and goes on to Attic. Any dialect of ancient greek will give you the basics to learn the rest.

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