Koine Greek vs. Modern Greek... Similar?

What is the overlap between spoken Greek today vs Koine Greek of the Bible?

If one learns to read/write Greek can they communicate in Greece today?

Has anyone ever tried to use their Koine in Greece travels?

Most modern Greeks that have an appreciation for classical Greek would be able to get the gist of what you were communicating in Koine Greek.

If you learn the Greek alphabet that is a start. You will need to master a lexicon and grammar to communicate effectively. Some studies indicate about half of the near 5000 Greek words in the NT are spoken by modern Greeks. Another work claims 92 percent: https://goo.gl/lerHJZ

Ask Mr. Religion said:

Most modern Greeks that have an appreciation for classical Greek would be able to get the gist of what you were communicating in Koine Greek.

If you learn the Greek alphabet that is a start. You will need to master a lexicon and grammar to communicate effectively. Some studies indicate about half of the near 5000 Greek words in the NT are spoken by modern Greeks. Another work claims 92 percent: https://goo.gl/lerHJZ

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Awesome awesome - thanks!

Have you, or anyone you know, tried to use their Koine in day to day life in Greece? If so how did it go?

It does not overlap much if at all from what I gather. However, Buth and others are advocating a modern or close to it pronunciation of Koine as they believe that actually has not changed much.

Yes, I have read posts from Greek citizens that eschew the whole Erasmus issue with pronunciations. I just find it odd that folks would claim no change in phonetics happens as language evolves over a thousand years.

Jason, I have no friends or know of folks using Koine to navigate within modern Greek society. This is probably due to the fact that while someone like myself with a competent knowledge of Biblical Greek does not practice it as I would, say, in my knowledge of Japanese, wherein I could go an entire day speaking only the language and even dreaming in it when serving was a Japanese linguist for the Army Security Agency in Japan in the early seventies.

That said, I have heard stories, that may be apocryphal, of biblical Greek profs that would conduct entire classes speaking only Koine Greek.

I spent a month in Greece after having studied ancient Greek (more classical than Koine at that point). One of the problems is that most classical Greek training involves a Latinized pronunciation of the vowels. This makes communication almost impossible with modern Greek. I once cited the first five lines from Homer's Odyssey to a fluent Greek speaker, and she didn't understand a word of what I said. I think the relationship of classical (and Koine) to modern Greek is much like Old English to modern English.