Learn New Testament Greek

Rating:
Summary: Good to get the feel of Greek
Review: Other reviewers have commented that this book is slightly lacking in some more technical points (eg. accents) and long lists of paradigms. This is true, but I found it very helpful for what I wanted to learn: I wanted to be able, while studying a difficult Bible verse, to be able to look at the Greek and (with the aid of a lexicon and grammar) gain some useful extra information about it.

I don't think I'm every going to be able to pick up a Greek NT and read it fluently, at least not using this book, but it's given me a very good feel for the way Greek works. The fact that it has you reading actual Bible passages from very early one helps a lot with this. Also, a very clear discussion of the relation between grammatical form of verbs and meaning (eg. aorist) is helpful in understanding the sphere of meaning a Greek word might have.

One thing it's majorly lacking is a lexicon (its "index of Greek words" is tiresome), so you'll need to buy a separate one. But, I'd say this is a very good introduction to how NT Greek works which will either provide motivation to more formal study or be useful on its own.

Rating:
Summary: A treasure. A gem. A delight. A perfection between 2 covers.
Review: Some people love it, some people don't. So you can decide for yourself, let me tell you how the book is set up:

BACKGROUND
Greek is 'inflected' -- depending on their meaning in a sentence, nouns have several forms. The word is 'o logos'. But if you're saying it, the word is 'ton logon.' And if it's Mark's, the word is 'tou logou'. And if you're convincing someone with the word, it's ... well, you get the idea.

The word(s) = o logo, ton logon, tou logou, oi logoi, tous logous, tw logw, etc.

So having a "vocabulary" of Greek words isn't particularly helpful until you get the endings in your brain and tou logou makes you think "[of] the word" more or less automatically, without you really thinking about it.

How hard is it to learn the endings? Plenty. For nouns there are three genders, five cases, single, plural, double, all done in three versions = declensions. 230 endings, all nicely tabularized in my old Greek textbook (not this one). Verbs have tenses, moods and voices.

So all you have to do to read a sentence in Greek is figure out each word's root, identify each ending, match it with the table in your head [nominative, dative, accusative, genitive, dative, or vocative; singular or plural; masculine, feminine or neuter] ... and translate the grammar into English -- quick, you do know the English equivalent of the dative plural of 'book', right? And what's the English aorist subjunctive active form of 'go'? -- and viola, you're on to the next word.

Did I mention "the"? My old text lists 30 !! versions. Thirty ways to say "the": o, tou, ton, to, ta, tw, tous, oi, etc. etc.


METHODS
#1 TRADITIONAL Greek textbooks list tables of noun endings = "declensions." You memorize tables of endings and this helps you read Greek -- the same way, presumably, memorizing the interval of a diminished-minor-7th helps you play Bach on the piano.

If memorizing 230 noun case endings and transmogrifying accusative-ablative-optative-nickelodeons into English is the sort of thing you're good at, traditional Greek textbooks are for you.


#2. THIS BOOK uses THE OTHER METHOD. It teaches you Greek a little bit at a time, by having you practice short grammar-rich sentences. You're learning Greek not by memorizing case ending tables, but by getting your brain to recognize, without stopping to think about it, that ~ou words mean "of ~". This is the way you learned English. You speaks English good, right?

Each section (just three or four pages) introduces a new topic -- little drills on how to say 'the book' or 'the books' for eg. Then there are practice sentences and their translations -- you cover the translation with a card, read the greek, translate it yourself, then move the card and check your translation.

"You are saying." " We are saying." " They are saying." " You speak the words." -- they get tougher as you go along -- "You are writing the words and the prophet is reading the words." " They are the people saying these words."

There are 30 or 50 little drills per section. They don't repeat, they build. The sentences are never beyond the level you're at; they do a great job forcing you to grapple with the subtleties of the grammar. It's hard but not too hard, and a getting each translation right is fun and encouraging. Each week, the stuff you struggled with last week seems easy.

Will you be nuancing Paul in a month? No. You're a beginner. This is difficult stuff.
Will you build a huge list-thingy-of-words-that-you-know? No. This book stuffs grammar in your brain; plenty vocabulary too, but vocabulary isn't really what it's about.
Will you learn all there is to know about Greek? No. But you will learn plenty; the later chapters are extremely complex.

Will you learn a whole bunch, quickly and easily? Yup, you will. And you'll have fun doing it.

---
My own preference is for method #2. This is one w o n d e r f u l little book. A treasure. A gem. A delight. A perfection between two covers. A smart buy. Order once; pay twice -- it'll be worth it.


graphw logous alytheis
I write true words




Rating:
Summary: very good beginning lessons
Review: Trying to learn greek on my own has meant years of frustration. Dobson's book has been the most user friendly way to learn that I have run across. Especially with the tape. It is still a great challenge to learn this language, but Dobson's method is very accessible.