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Greek Grammar: Beyond Basics

Greek Grammar: Beyond Basics

List Price: $39.99
Your Price: $26.39
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Invaluable sourcebook for advanced Greek students
Review: Any student of Koine Greek will greatly benefit from this well-written and exhaustively researched volume. Alongside your BAGD, you will find this text invaluable. Wallace not only shares his considerable knowledge gleaned over decades of teaching, but he manages to keep the content interesting and even (gasp) fun!

Affectionately known as "big green" among my seminary classmates, Wallace's advanced grammar has made our study of the GNT both easier and more complete. Kudos to Dr. Wallace on this fine work.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A necessity, but prepared to work!
Review: Daniel Wallace has a God given gift for knowledge and understanding of the New Testament. I have heard him in a debate and read many of his articles on his website. He seems to make the New Testament come alive.
The Grammar is divided up into different morphological forms [Nominative, Genitive, Aorist, Present, etc.] and the syntactical functions of each are discussed in great detail. Most helpful are the "Key to Identification" sections and the lists of clear examples.
I consult this grammar with great regularity along with A.T. Robertson and Blass-Debrunner-Funk. It is so wonderful to see someone like Daniel Wallace showing how to be careful with the biblical text. Through the notes on his examples, he shows how we can often times think that the meaning of a text is "obvious," yet we only think it is obvious because we are being careless about our interpretation. Wallace calls us, as interpreters of the New Testament, to accurately exegete the text on the basis of sound syntactical analysis. He says that the vast majority of students do not see the relevance of syntax in exegesis, and it is the task of this book to show this.

Again, highly recommended to anyone wanting to "rightly divide the word of truth."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Great Grammar
Review: I actually found this book years ago when I knew no Greek at all and was looking for grammars of the Attic dialect. I had no idea that I would one day commit myself to the understanding of the bible. It is actually through an advertisement in the back of this book that I found the whole Zondervan line, including William Mounce's fantastic introductory grammar. Now, years later, as I prepare for seminary, I find that I am already equipped with most of the Greek textsbooks that I will need there.

This book is a real treasure. Long before I could read any Greek I combed over the excellent essays at the beginning about the nature of New Testament Greek and the issues of teaching and learning Greek in his "purpose of this book" essay. Also, the book is designed as a reference, giving you everything you ever wanted to know about cases in one swoop, then verbs in one swoop, etc., yet Wallace keeps the various components of the Greek language distinct from one another and is very meticulous in assuming greater knowledge from the student as one works through the book, indicating that it is designed to be methodically worked through from beginning to end in seminary courses. The result is a teaching aid that is a well-indexed reference, usable for one's entire lifetime. Also, Wallace includes a number of examples with each of his paragraphs, and each of the examples is translated from the Greek. This is a wonderful boon for someone like me who, though having started Greek 4 years ago before before learning any foreign language, has since learned to speak German and read Hebrew fluently, but never got the time to acquire great fluency in New Testament Greek. My daily biblical studies have prompted me to do many advanced word studies and pose a number of syntactical questions involving Greek, yet I have never really attained the vocabulary or fluency in the language as one who can just pick up a Greek New Testament and read it. In this respect, Wallace's clear language and numerous translated examples have helped me to no end.

I guess what I am trying to say is that this book is very user-friendly and makes a wonderful companion even to beginning students in the language, or for pastors whose Greek has gotten rusty.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A TREASURE FOR YOUR LIBRARY
Review: I think that what makes Wallace's text such a treasure is that not only does Wallace have a command of his subject which is breathtaking but he has wit and humor. I have enjoyed his text and have found myself being taught with a sense of joy and delight. If you love Greek, the New Testament, and learning, you can't help loving this book. You might notice that Wallace quotes Robertson on the sticky aspects of Greek. See my reveiw of Robertson.
Hopefully Helpful,

KIM M. RUSHTON

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: More Detail Than You Ever Wanted To Know
Review: I used this book side by side with Wallace's shorter book covering the same material. Though it was tough reading at points and seems at times to rabbit trail, this book gives the background and in-depth discussions of the topics that the shorter work does not. This seemed to help me retain the information better since I was working with larger concepts on which to hang the specifics. Just my humble opinion. Your results may very.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Is it a grammar or an Evangelical apology ?
Review: Please do not misunderstand the provocative title of my comment: I am not saying that this book is worthless and that you should avoid buying it.

On the contrary, I think that Wallace's grammar is an invaluable work worth every dollar you spend for it. First of all, unlike other grammars, this one is as thrilling as a detective novel. Of course, unless you are deeply interested in NT exegesis, you will probably find Wallace's huge treatise anything but gripping. But if like me you are an impassioned reader of the Gospel and its original text, you will surely love this book.And the good news is that it is not for advanced learners of koine Greek only. In fact I started using it with minimal knowledge of Greek and I have little doubt that a complete stranger to the language of Luke and Paul could also glean immensely useful information from its pages provided he be a serious student of the Scriptures.

Having said that I must warn potential buyers and readers that Wallace is not an objective grammarian and linguist at all. Unlike a real scientist, he does not put aside his own religious and philosophical convictions aside and look at the NT dispassionately. What he does almost sistematically is to advance his own Protestant views of Christ and atonement and other crucial points with the help of Greek grammar. Fortunately, he does state the opinion of scholars who disagree with him but he gives them minimal space. Most of the time he does not even quote them!

A perfect example of Wallace's bias is the discussion on the use of the prepositions "uper" and "anti" in relation to the question of atonement. He mentions the fact that W.Bauer translates these prepositions by "on behalf of" rather than by "instead of" but he does not illustrate or expatiate on Bauer's point of view. Instead the reader is presented with several pages of arguments in favor of his own opinion, so that the naive reader may end up thinking that the translation favored by respected scholars like Bauer has no solid ground under it. And that is only one example among many, many others.

Of course, one could argue that many dubious points of Greek grammar simply cannot be cleared without a previous choice and that all exegesis must involve a certain amount of eisegesis. This may be true but Wallace really goes too far. Does he write for only for his small chapel? Aren't there Catholics and eastern Orthodox and Jews out there too?

Strangely enough this is a BCE(before common era)/CE(common era)book. Does Wallace not realize that these acronyms are basically anti-Christian and contribute to the secularization of our culture?

I say to all Christian authors: FOR GOD'S SAKE USE BC AND AD !!!

So my advice to you is: buy this grammar. But be sure to buy another one to know the two sides of the Biblical coin.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome
Review: This book is everything Mounce was not. It's simple, organized and uses soo many Biblical references it can be used as a reference book on difficult grammatical passages! This book covers the basics and the not-so-basics, it's really the only Greek textbook you need.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A necessity, but prepared to work!
Review: This book may come as a shock to the student who turns to it fresh from first-year Greek. It is thick. It is dense. It is complicated. It is also cautious and tentative in places, pointing out that in some areas Greek grammar is either not fully understood or is undergoing re-examination. That last lesson may be worth the price of the book alone, if it brings about a proper attitude of humility in the exegete.

Although self-described as a textbook, it is difficult to read straight through. I prefer to graze short sections at a time to get acquainted with the layout and topics. Mainly I use it in conjunction with Scripture study by consulting the (very useful) index of keyed passages. The other indices, however, are cumbersome to use since the entries are not sufficiently subdivided -- you may have to turn to seven or eight pages before you find the information you need.

You haven't attained basic proficiency in NT Greek until you are broadly conversant with the subject matter of this book. Keep it next to your Greek Testament.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Fantastic Exegetical Help!
Review: This is the book that I used in my Greek Exegesis Class at Seminary, and it is the most helpful and up-to-date book on the market. Most helpful is both the Syntax Summaries section near the back, and the index of Scripture, which is very helpful if you'd like to reference his exegetical work on individual passages of Scripture. Dan Wallace is perhaps one of the most brilliant NT grammarians alive today. There are a few annoying aspects (if you have conservative evangelical presuppositions i.e.) such as his acceptance of 'plenary' meanings among a few other minor things. These aside however, it is still the best intermediate Grammar there is, and I would enthusiastically recommend it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The REFERENCE
Review: This is the reference as far as exegesis is concerned.

Also, if you have a matter to be learned deeply, this book will be of great benefit.

Despite I don't agree with the author on all subjects treated, I think he has a moderate approach towards grammar and exegesis. His admirable knowledge of Greek don't lead him to be proud nor haughty.

Whatever your position, get this marvelous grammar as a day by day companion.


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