Rating: 
Summary: Good Greek, faulty ecclesiology
Review: This book is an excellent introduction to the Greek language. It's unique heuristic approach is well thought, and carefully considered in my opinion. I thought many of the detractors of this book failed to see the reason why the exposition of the Greek verb was delayed for so long. To tell you the truth, the Greek verb is a very rich and ocmplex grammatical topic, and a difficult one for beginners who are only familiar with the verb as it is found in the English language. The advantage of this presentation is that the student is well prepared with an arsenal of helpful grammatical elements before being asked to tackle the Greek verb, He is thoroughly grounded in the basics of the noun, pronouns, adjectives. Therefore, the student will have other elements in the sentence to help him learn the verb. I thought that this was an excellent approach for students who only know the Greek language. But for students who are already familiar with a heavily inflected language, like Russian or Latin, this would be rather awkward to him, and may try his patience somewhat.The little pieces of insight that Dr. Mounce shares with us about ecclesiological meanings of the Greek that are lost in the English translation are very insightful, but sometimes fall short of really addressing the subtleties of the Greek. There are several ways that a Greek write can emphasize a topic that are not explored in this grammar, such as the apposition, and so on. Perhaps this has been deferred to a second year course, but I see no reason to do so. Also, Dr. Mounce seems to think footnotes are used like marginal notes. If something is important, it should not be relegated to a footnore. It should be incorporated into the body of the text. Foornotes are for citations, and interesting information not related to the thrust of the text in the body. And the most glaring fault! Some of these footnotes are atrociously in error. For example, there is a footnote describing monothelitism, a Seventh Century heresy. Monothelitism was an attempt to reconcile the Orthodox Christian faith with the Monophysite faith, an earlier heresy which is still present in the 21st Century in the Coptic Church. Monophysites teach that Christ has one nature, contrary to the teaching of the Orthodox Church which maintins that Christ had two natures, one divine, and one human--two distinct, but not separate (at least not in the sense of bipolar disorder) natures.
Monothelitism is an attempt to compromise between Orthodoxy and Monophysites, by admitting to two natures, but one will, hence the term. Dr. Mounce's footnote descrives Monothelitism as, "Christ havine one nature, and therefore one will." Open a dictionary of Christian Terms, Dr. Mounce! Or better yet, study the documnts of the Ecumencial Councils.
Rating: 
Summary: The simplest approach for the do-it-yourself learner
Review: This book takes you straight to the New Testament with plenty of practical encouragement. The author provides a simple approach to the difficulties of Greek grammar. Taken with the workbook, this book can take you through all the basics of two semesters of seminary Greek.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant for Basic Grammar, but Few if any Reading Section
Review: This is a wonderful book for learning how nouns, verbs, participles, etc. are formed and what they look like. He goes through each very slowly and very clearly. My problem with this book is there are no readings from the greek. I realize that there is a supplemental book, which I purchased, but even there there aren't very many examples and since they are NT examples you already know what they are supposed to say before you go through all the words. I think this book is tailored more towards people who want to translate verses instead of just sitting down and reading the Greek NT. So my advise would be to buy this and buy Athenaze by Balme or download grammars such as A First Greek Course by Smith from www.textkit.com to learn to read greek fluently. (I'm talking about the 1st edition)
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant for Basic Grammar, but Few if any Reading Section
Review: This is a wonderful book for learning how nouns, verbs, participles, etc. are formed and what they look like. He goes through each very slowly and very clearly. My problem with this book is there are no readings from the greek. I realize that there is a supplemental book, which I purchased, but even there there aren't very many examples and since they are NT examples you already know what they are supposed to say before you go through all the words. I think this book is tailored more towards people who want to translate verses instead of just sitting down and reading the Greek NT. So my advise would be to buy this and buy Athenaze by Balme or download grammars such as A First Greek Course by Smith from www.textkit.com to learn to read greek fluently. (I'm talking about the 1st edition)
Rating:
Summary: Perfect NT Greek grammar for the self-learner
Review: This is an excellent NT Greek grammar. Unlike some Greek grammars (notably Hansen and Quinn's Attic grammar, one I have experience with), this is ideally suited for the self-learner. Here's why: - Mounce tries to minimize the amount of memorization required. Greek is a difficult language, no two ways about it: but the way the material is presented can make learning easier or harder. For those of us who come at it as adults, memorization is difficult. Some grammars require massive amounts of rote memorization; Mounce takes instead the tack of giving you a number of rules to apply, then only requiring memorization where the rules don't apply. Using this method, the amount of memorization is cut dramatically, and the effort required is reduced accordingly. - To ease the remaining memorization, Mounce includes lots of good vocabulary helps. Unfortunately, vocabulary acquisition is usually another rote memorization affair. Mounce includes either derivations or cognates in other languages (drawing in some cases on Metzger's "Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek"), or silly little memorization aids. An example of the latter is Mounce's memorable word play on the word ELPIS (="hope"): "Some people HOPE that ELVIS did not die." I think I can safely say I will never forget the meaning of ELPIS. - In many ways (including the previous two items) Mounce includes the fruit of his years of experience as a teacher of New Testament Greek. Many books that I'm sure would be just fine when learning from a professor completely fall apart when an autodidact (like myself) attempts to use them. With this book, it's almost as good as Mounce being right there. - Although I would not have believed it, Mounce has successfully integrated devotional sections at the beginning of most chapters. A combination textbook/devotional? Yes, believe it or not. The section for chapter 10, for example, is simply amazing - building off John 1:14, KAI hO LOGOS SARX EGENETO ("And the Word became flesh.") This answers another big problem for autodidacts, which is that you don't have much of an inducement to continue when the going gets tough. These devotional sections (I am assuming a Christian student, of course) add greatly to your experience and make you look forward to new chapters. The end result is that this book makes it possible to learn New Testament Greek on your own to just about the same depth as you would get at a seminary. That's an amazing feat in itself. But be aware, this book has no exercises in it. Rather, you need to buy the companion workbook, which has all the exercises.
Rating:
Summary: I am Thaumazo- (Amazed, I think :O)
Review: What a nice blend of technology and user friendly text. I am taking Greek at a well-known Chicago based Bible Institute and this book is so much easier to understand and use than the text book for the class. It is very nice to have the CD so I can listen to how the words are pronounced. Mounce takes a somewhat lighthearted approach to learning Greek - something I am eternally grateful for. I hereby want to officially apologize to my 7th grade English teacher for falling asleep in class - this book has re-taught me the basic principles of English that I missed while in la-la land. ... If you have been putting off learning Greek because you thought it was going to be an uphill battle, then you need to give this book a try. I can honestly say that this book has been fun to go through! Bottom line: If you want a book that can help you learn the original language of the New Testament and want a deeper understanding of God's Word, then this book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: Learn more by memorizing less--this book delivers!
Review: When I started studying Greek, I read two standard grammars, then this one. I never went back to the other two, and I read this one three times. It is so easy to read, and so unique in its approach, that I don't know why anyone would use any other. Every college and seminary library I visit uses this grammar -- it is the new standard. If you use this book, you will not have to memorize near so much as the other grammars require. After taking eight hours of Greek at seminary, it was obvious to me that I did not know Greek at all, and so I turned to Mounce's book for help. Mounce's approach is so revolutionary (using morphology), that my previous Greek knowledge had to be scrapped. I had to start over with Greek, and I can't imagine a better way to learn than with this book. This is the book to get if you want to learn Greek.
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