# It's Still Greek to Me (David Alan Black)



## RamistThomist (Mar 7, 2018)

Black, David Alan. _It's Still Greek to Me: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to Intermediate Greek_. Baker Books, 2004.

This is exactly what it advertises itself to be: it is a refresher guide to those students who have had at least two semesters of NT Greek. More importantly, though, it explains how language works. More importantly, the English language. This book could function as an English grammar. If you don’t know English, then Greek syntax will break you. To begin with, you must be willing to walk through the fire for English grammar. I write as an English teacher. (Nota Bene: Common Core strongly discourages teaching Grammar on the secondary level. This is the government's wisdom, may it live forever) This book might help you.

As noted above, David Alan Black assumes knowledge of first year Greek. There are diagrams at the back of the book, but usually not in the chapters. Each chapter ends with Greek exercises (sentences you should translate into English. A key is found at the back of the book). He expects you to know it. I found the following particularly helpful:

1. He gives detailed analyses of genitive and dative cases.

2.The “Tale of 12 Mice” cartoon. This explains how prepositions work. (Google it).

3. The differences between Koine and Classical Greek, and the Semitisms present in the former, for example:

NT Semitisms (Black 151-153)

* Word order (verbs tend to come verse)
* asyndeton (absence of a conjunction)
* Redundant pronouns
* Redundant use of prepositions
* Use of the positive adjective for the comparative or superlative. 
* Redundant use of “saying.”
* Introductory egeneto
* Future indicative used as an imperative
* The use of idiou (“Behold”)

The book concludes with bibliographical suggestions.

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## Dachaser (Mar 7, 2018)

BayouHuguenot said:


> Black, David Alan. _It's Still Greek to Me: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to Intermediate Greek_. Baker Books, 2004.
> 
> This is exactly what it advertises itself to be: it is a refresher guide to those students who have had at least two semesters of NT Greek. More importantly, though, it explains how language works. More importantly, the English language. This book could function as an English grammar. If you don’t know English, then Greek syntax will break you. To begin with, you must be willing to walk through the fire for English grammar. I write as an English teacher. (Nota Bene: Common Core strongly discourages teaching Grammar on the secondary level. This is the government's wisdom, may it live forever) This book might help you.
> 
> ...


Would you recommend it over the intermediate Greek Grammar by Dr Wallace then?


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## JimmyH (Mar 7, 2018)

BayouHuguenot said:


> 2.The “Tale of 12 Mice” cartoon. This explains how prepositions work. (Google it).


Tried googling Tale of 12 Mice and only came up with results for Tale of 2. Could that be a typo above ?


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## RamistThomist (Mar 7, 2018)

Dachaser said:


> Would you recommend it over the intermediate Greek Grammar by Dr Wallace then?



Wallace's is more like a reference book and encyclopedia. Black's is a handy refresher. Wallace's is more valuable in the long run.


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## RamistThomist (Mar 7, 2018)

JimmyH said:


> Tried googling Tale of 12 Mice and only came up with results for Tale of 2. Could that be a typo above ?



http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/egreek/egreek10.htm

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