finished with the basics

Are you learning Koine Greek, the Greek of the New Testament and most other post-classical Greek texts? Whatever your level, use this forum to discuss all things Koine, Biblical or otherwise, including grammar, textbook talk, difficult passages, and more.
Post Reply
analogmusicman
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 3:22 am

finished with the basics

Post by analogmusicman »

so now I'm finished with the basics (all of Mounce's material) and I've started going through John's gospel using my UBS rev 4 Greek NT and an "interlinear" to check my translation. (this particular interlinear has the NIV on one side of the page and the NASB on the other,real helpful,the NASB translation is more useful since it 's more "word-for-word" whereas the NIV is more "thought-for-thought" or so it seems)
whenever I finish the NT I'll probably go for 2nd year Greek. any suggestions for a good text? Wallace?

tnx,

Bert
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 1889
Joined: Sat May 31, 2003 2:28 am
Location: Arthur Ontario Canada

Re: finished with the basics

Post by Bert »

analogmusicman wrote:so now I'm finished with the basics (all of Mounce's material) and I've started going through John's gospel using my UBS rev 4 Greek NT and an "interlinear" to check my translation. (this particular interlinear has the NIV on one side of the page and the NASB on the other,real helpful,the NASB translation is more useful since it 's more "word-for-word" whereas the NIV is more "thought-for-thought" or so it seems)
whenever I finish the NT I'll probably go for 2nd year Greek. any suggestions for a good text? Wallace?

tnx,
Wallace is a good text but it is not a text to work through like Mounce. I think it is meant for reference. There are a multitude of first year texts or primers but not very many for further study. If you want to stay with Koine, there are some readers with notes (I gather you have finished Mounce's reader).
-A Beginner's Reader/Grammar for New Testament Greek by Ernest Cadman Colwell and Ernest W. Tune. ISBN 1-56563-599-x (Inexpensive but good.)
-Koine Greek Reader by Rodney J. Decker. ISBN 978-0-8254-2442-7
-A patristic Greek Reader by Rodney A. Whitacre. ISBN 978-1-59856-043-5

I have another good suggestion but this doesn't concern the text but your method. Do away with the intralinear to help you. I tried it but it didn't work for me. The "crutch" is way to close to the text. I found it much more effective to use the Greek text and if you get stuck, use the English Bible to help you out.
All the best.

User avatar
AVRAHAM
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 32
Joined: Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:25 am
Location: United States

Re: finished with the basics

Post by AVRAHAM »

analogmusicman wrote:so now I'm finished with the basics (all of Mounce's material) and I've started going through John's gospel using my UBS rev 4 Greek NT and an "interlinear" to check my translation. (this particular interlinear has the NIV on one side of the page and the NASB on the other,real helpful,the NASB translation is more useful since it 's more "word-for-word" whereas the NIV is more "thought-for-thought" or so it seems)
whenever I finish the NT I'll probably go for 2nd year Greek. any suggestions for a good text? Wallace?

tnx,
I agree that the Interlinears don't help much. I don't like NIV or NASB either. Nor do I like USB4. I always go NA27. But to each his own...

I never like Mounce's actually. It was really hard for me. I just used the uber simple Dobson's. After that I just started reading the GNT, LXX, and Patristic and non-canonical writings instantly. I just kept a lexicon handy and looked up words I didn't know. In about 2 months I amassed a vocabulary that was almost complete.

I also used the e-Sword software with the GNT with number references, to look up a quick (though insufficient) definition.

easternugget
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 71
Joined: Sat Apr 15, 2006 4:22 pm
Location: Jackson, TN
Contact:

Post by easternugget »

Get Zondervan's Reader's Greek NT. It has all vocab under 30x footnoted. I use it for reading and I pick up vocab as I see things repeatedly and in context. It has a font that requires getting used to and the footnotes are in a big paragraph, but you can get it for $20. UBS has an amazing Reader's NT out as well which has a nicer font, section titles (nice for finding passages, though they do have some interesting spelling errors in the English), and the footnotes are easier to read in columns and contain the parsing for the word as well.

I would say get Wallace and learn the categories in there, and read and translate some of the smaller books. We did 2 Thessalonians and 1 Peter my second year of Greek.

Post Reply