Rating: 
Summary: I am reading the GNT!
Review: I bought Mounce's BBG, the workbook (which is absolutely necessary) and a copy of UBS4 text in lieu of taking the class at seminary. It was $ for the class and under $ for the books. I just did the math. I wondered how far I would go. I started Dec. 26, 2002 and here I am in July 12, 2003. I am now on Chapter 33 out of 35.I have read through - very slowly and haltingly 1 John and James and am up to Revelation 8- (this is totally on my own, but a result of trying to put into practice the principles of the book.) Along the way I picked up some other books - Rogers and Rogers Linguistic key - basically a verse by verse parsing guide and linguistic commentary (it has lots of mistakes so you need to be careful!); Trenchard's Vocabulary Guide, and BDAG lexicon Before this, I had a GRAMCORD computer module that gives parsings for every NT word. Before this I had no idea what to do with it. Obviously I have not quit yet! So that is a good recommendation right there. The other day I had an epiphany. I read through Revelation 5 directly from the Greek text and looking up words in Trenchard in 1½ hours! I do my personal Bible reading first in the Greek text and only look at the NASB and NIV afterwards. So I feel that I have made some progress. The book will only make you memorize 320words or so. But remember that nouns and adjectives have 4 major cases with lots of declensions and verbs have zillions of forms and conjugations - so those 320 words will keep you busy. When I got to Chapter 33 on imperatives about a month ago - I realized that I was very fuzzy on the verb forms so I did a complete review of Chapters 15-32 (it took a month.) Now I feel more confident. Since I have no other formal Greek training - I can't tell you how Mounce compares with others, but I am really reading the Greek text and that is just too cool! If I had to do it over I would. Every one of the books that I have listed above has helped me. If you can get a GRAMCORD module it really helps when you just aren't sure what to make of word form - and especially when Rogers seems to be so way off! I try to use the tools as a last resort now - but in the beginning when I had no idea of what I was doing - they were completely indispensable.
Rating:
Summary: I am reading the GNT!
Review: I bought Mounce's BBG, the workbook (which is absolutely necessary) and a copy of UBS4 text in lieu of taking the class at seminary. It was $$$ for the class and under $$$ for the books. I just did the math. I wondered how far I would go. I started Dec. 26, 2002 and here I am in July 12, 2003. I am now on Chapter 33 out of 35. I have read through - very slowly and haltingly 1 John and James and am up to Revelation 8- (this is totally on my own, but a result of trying to put into practice the principles of the book.) Along the way I picked up some other books - Rogers and Rogers Linguistic key - basically a verse by verse parsing guide and linguistic commentary (it has lots of mistakes so you need to be careful!); Trenchard's Vocabulary Guide, and BDAG lexicon (at $$$!) Before this, I had a GRAMCORD computer module that gives parsings for every NT word. Before this I had no idea what to do with it. Obviously I have not quit yet! So that is a good recommendation right there. The other day I had an epiphany. I read through Revelation 5 directly from the Greek text and looking up words in Trenchard in 1½ hours! I do my personal Bible reading first in the Greek text and only look at the NASB and NIV afterwards. So I feel that I have made some progress. The book will only make you memorize 320words or so. But remember that nouns and adjectives have 4 major cases with lots of declensions and verbs have zillions of forms and conjugations - so those 320 words will keep you busy. When I got to Chapter 33 on imperatives about a month ago - I realized that I was very fuzzy on the verb forms so I did a complete review of Chapters 15-32 (it took a month.) Now I feel more confident. Since I have no other formal Greek training - I can't tell you how Mounce compares with others, but I am really reading the Greek text and that is just too cool! If I had to do it over I would. Every one of the books that I have listed above has helped me. If you can get a GRAMCORD module it really helps when you just aren't sure what to make of word form - and especially when Rogers seems to be so way off! I try to use the tools as a last resort now - but in the beginning when I had no idea of what I was doing - they were completely indispensable.
Rating: 
Summary: The best . . .
Review: I can not offer enough praise for this book. It transformed Greek from an archaic and difficult language to a living language in just months of semi-strenous study. Mounce makes learning Greek interesting, exciting, fun, fluent, meaningful, and even edifies your faith in Jesus Christ. I wouldn't hestitate to reccommend this book to anybody who is serious about learning the language, the pastor or the laymen.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Greek Text for Beginning Students
Review: I have found this text to be tremendously helpful in both its presentation of grammar and vocabulary, and in its ability to convey the material in a clear concise way. It has been instrumental in my assimilation of biblical Greek and I recommend it for the beginning Greek student.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Greek Text for Beginning Students
Review: I have found this text to be tremendously helpful in both its presentation of grammar and vocabulary, and in its ability to convey the material in a clear concise way. It has been instrumental in my assimilation of biblical Greek and I recommend it for the beginning Greek student.
Rating:
Summary: This is THE Book you need!
Review: I have over twenty New Testament Greek grammars that I have tried with varying degrees of success over the years. Last year I bought this one, Mounce, after using his Teknia software on the web. It did the trick. I can now translate New Testament sections (with the help of a lexicon, sure) but the grammar is secure at last and I can thank Mounce for this. Buy this now! It is a great breakthrough.
Rating:
Summary: This Is Bound To Be A Classic.
Review: I have struggled for years with Ray Summer's Essentials book. Then after a long 2 week search I decided to get this book by Mounce. Without going into a detailed explaination, I state this book is one of the best. If you are even partially considering getting this book, then go ahead and get it. You will not be disappointed. Many greek teachers are now switching from Summer's grammar to Mounce's grammar. Mainly because this book is detailed, explanatory, helpful, thorough, and very informative. It is very thick...this ain't no cheapo "brief-descripto" grammar written by someone who had nothing to do on vacation. This book is written by an expert. Mounce has studied greek from a very young age. While most of us were throwing rocks at the neighbor's cat, William was being taught how to speak in greek. I have been using this book on a private self-study for 3 months now. I not only give it 5 stars, I give it 5 more stars.
Rating:
Summary: Well written, easy to read, learn, and review.
Review: I have thouroughly enjoyed this book, and the cd that comes with it. I enjoyed "meeting" Bill Mounce on the cd. The book is written in an easy to read format. It is also subdivided into easy to "digest" sections. I like the "learn the nouns and then the verbs approach". I have used this book on my own, without a teacher and feel that it has been a very rewarding effort. It uses passages from the Bible from the very beginning, and keeps the focus on the fact that the reason I want to learn greek is to study the Bible. The accompanying workbook is also very good and being able to download the answers has made it even better.
Rating: 
Summary: Exercise in frustration
Review: I know professors love this book, but as a student I hated it! For a seminary student with a straight A average and a BA in foreign language and education, learning this entire book in one semester has been an exercise in frustration. If you are a global thinker who needs to see the big picture first instead of all the tiny bits and pieces, this book is terrible! The CDRom attempts to address other learning styles, but is very weak. Paradigms have verb form comparisons, but often the comparison verb is a different one completely-- which is very confusing when you haven't learned (or been given)the meaning yet. The workbook does not give enough exercises to cement the grammar into your memory before giving "trick" questions to make sure you know the material. Most footnotes are filled with useless trivia that confuse the grammatical point being made AND I found the overexplanations and constant justification of why other grammars teach things differently but THIS way is better to be very irritating. The denial of the true middle voice and use of undefined instead of punctiliar is irritating when your professor disagrees with Mounce's interpretation--also confusing. The exegetical points are interesting if you can get past the conservative theology and interpretation.
Rating:
Summary: User-friendly makes Greek more accessible
Review: I last took Greek in seminary in 1989, a long time to let the cobwebs grow. I was frustrated that I had lost much of my two years of study in the language and decided to get back into it over the summer, retaking a class at the seminary. Mounce's book beats the book that I previously had been assigned, the classic by Machen, hands down. "Basics of Biblical Greek" was easy to use, went in a systematic order, and, while there are certainly some areas that could be better polished, it was quite understandable. I have found myself encouraged to continue on with the language, and I hope to get to a point where I won't need to keep flipping through my lexicon as much. I also appreciated the CD-ROM that was included in the back as it helped me to tackle the vocabulary, just one of those details that needs lots of work if you want to have more fun in the translation. I also suggest purchasing the workbook because it goes hand-in-hand with the book. Don't kid yourself: Greek is not easy. However, it's wonderful to better understand the nuances of our Bible, and that includes the languages. So if you want to learn Greek, I do recommend this book as your introductory text.
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