# learning greek at home



## Preach (May 17, 2004)

Any suggestions what the best resources available for learning greek at home? Thanks.


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## Ranger (May 17, 2004)

I suggest are Black's &quot;Learn New Testament Greek.&quot; It's easy to understand and in the best format I've seen yet. I have two other grammars that are much more confusing.

Start working through a grammar while trying to read 1 John and the gospel of John. You will only be able to pick up phrases at first, and that's okay, but eventually you will get to the point where you can read much of the New Testament without even using a lexicon or grammar for assistance (I'm not there yet, but getting close).

[Edited on 5-17-2004 by Ranger]


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## alwaysreforming (May 17, 2004)

Hey, Bobby:
Do a yahoo search and you'll find BiblicalTraining.org (I think that's the name of it). They have some great audio teaching by William Mounce. Very good stuff.

Also, Machen's &quot;New Testament Greek for Beginners&quot; is good.


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## Christopher (May 18, 2004)

Here is the site for tons of Greek sites.

http://www.virtualseminary.net/cgi-bin/page.cgi?greeknewtestamentpage

virtual seminary is a good site for finding stuff like this.

BiblicalTraining.org is correct. For those who do not know this site there are seminary lecturs by some big names here that you can listen to for free. In fact I am listening to Ronald Nash right now.


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## Christopher (May 18, 2004)

in my opinion, better than the website I have given is the Parsons Greek Tutor cd-rom. It is interactive and great. I used it for extra drill when I learned Greek at sem. You can learn basic greek through this. I highly recomend it. It even has audio to help you hear what it should sound like. It is great if you do not have someone teaching you.


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## BobVigneault (May 18, 2004)

I want to second the endorsement for Mounce.
It comes with a cd rom so you get to hear Mounce's lectures and there are flash card drills in the software. There are also a couple pda based flash card programs available through his site, www.teknia.com.
I used Machen in college and it's the standard but it's also a bit dated in it's method. Machen is a lot easier if you have a teacher and any Greek lessons are easier if you have a study partner. Mounce has taken the best of several methods and systhesized them. You can get the books at a great price through Overstock.com. I recommend both books.

Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar:$24.39
Basics of Biblical Greek Workbook:$12.99


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## fredtgreco (May 18, 2004)

I'm an old fuddy duddy so I like Machen, but I wouldn't even learn NT Greek - full Attic all the way!

Having said that, a HUGE advantage of Mounce is that the text is used by almost every seminary. So if you want to press on, you are using the same method

[Edited on 5-18-2004 by fredtgreco]


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## Christopher (May 18, 2004)

Ok -- so even the spell checker Scott gave us doesn't solve everything.


[Edited on 5-18-2004 by fredtgreco]


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## BobVigneault (May 18, 2004)

By the way, if you go with Machen, the book can be very pricey, go to these guys, they have a very economical reprint.

http://www.biblicalbook.com/detail.aspx?ID=1306


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## Christopher (May 18, 2004)

Fred, I thought it was funny. I had these images of you studying at sem. late at night and due to over study and filling your head you begin to lick the text books hoping that by ingesting the ink you would absorb the knowledge of your texts. LOL. Love ya brother.


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## alwaysreforming (May 18, 2004)

*Attic Greek*

Fred:
Are you serious about this? If so, why? This is the first time I've heard someone express this opinion. Was Attic Greek the language right before NT Greek? Is it very similar? Does it help you understand the NT?


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## sundoulos (May 19, 2004)

Attic Greek, which is based on Ionic Greek, precedes and is the basis for Koine Greek. It is the language of the Greek classics. At one time the study of Attic Greek was a prerequisite to studying Koine Greek. I forget why that requirement was dropped.


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## fredtgreco (May 19, 2004)

[quote:33c9052ca7][i:33c9052ca7]Originally posted by alwaysreforming[/i:33c9052ca7]
Fred:
Are you serious about this? If so, why? This is the first time I've heard someone express this opinion. Was Attic Greek the language right before NT Greek? Is it very similar? Does it help you understand the NT? [/quote:33c9052ca7]

Christopher,

I am serious. Koine is actually a subset of Attic Greek. If you know Attic you can easily read Koine, and also Plato, Aristotle, Homer (which is only slightly different than Attic, it's Ionic), and basically all the other classics. If you just learn Koine, you would only be able to read any Classics with great difficulty.

Attic was actually still in use far into the 3rd-4th century A.D. in literary materials (see Dio Cassius and others who wrote in the post-Christ period)


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## Christopher (May 19, 2004)

Fred, in my last post I was refering to what you edited out in my first post about you &quot;licking Machen.&quot; I thought it was funny. Love ya brother.


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## panicbird (May 19, 2004)

Fred,
What books would you recommend for learning Attic? I know Koine already, but it would be nice to know more.

Lon


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## fredtgreco (May 19, 2004)

[quote:24b784e4d4][i:24b784e4d4]Originally posted by panicbird[/i:24b784e4d4]
Fred,
What books would you recommend for learning Attic? I know Koine already, but it would be nice to know more.

Lon [/quote:24b784e4d4]

Lon,tr

If you already know Koine pretty well, you should probably just try and read some simple Greek with a grammar handy (hint, the optative has more uses than &quot;God forbid!&quot; )

I'd recommend Herodotus, or some of the easier short Platonic dialogues (Apology is good) or even some Homer. Get a text and a translation that you can look at to help you along.

If you want to look at a good simple textbook, I used and enjoyed &quot;Greek: An Intensive Course&quot; by Hansen and Quinn.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0823216632/104-9923635-7308756?v=glance


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## panicbird (May 19, 2004)

Thanks Fred!

Lon


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