Favorite and First Greek Textbooks

[kathleenmariekg]

If you have learned Greek, what was your first Greek textbook?

What is your favorite Greek textbook?

 

[rlvaughn]

Well, I am not admitting to learning Greek -- I sometimes say I have studied five languages and can barely speak one. Nevertheless, my first Greek textbook was Essentials of New Testament Greek by Ray Summers. A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament by Dana and Mantey was second year. Both are good, so far as I know, but probably very dated.

 

[kathleenmariekg]

I find the "dated" ones to be indispensable as a supplement to the new "easier" grammars. And I am totally curious who used which books.

WVBS offers a free 35 Video course using Black's book. There is a free certificate for completing the course. I am thinking this might be a good supplement to BBN that does not have Greek.

Greek | Bible Course - WVBS School

Free Online Bible School | Studies, Courses, Videos & more

Informal Student Application | WVBS Online School

Greek Language | WVBS Store

https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Read-New-Testament-Greek/dp/0805444939/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2VMXQHAFTTOYF&dchild=1&keywords=learn+new+testament+greek&qid=1606794700&s=books&sprefix=learn+new+,stripbooks,208&sr=1-4

 

[tyndale1946]

I have Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible, The New Strong's Expanded Dictionary Of Bible Words and Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, keyed to Strong's... I don't know Greek or Hebrew but if I do have a question on any word I am not short of finding an answer... My wife is a retired English teacher and shes told I still haven't mastered the English language... And you want me to learn Greek... Oy vey!... Brother Glen

 

[kathleenmariekg]

I have Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible, The New Strong's Expanded Dictionary Of Bible Words and Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, keyed to Strong's... I don't know Greek or Hebrew but if I do have a question on any word I am not short of finding an answer... My wife is a retired English teacher and shes told I still haven't mastered the English language... And you want me to learn Greek... Oy vey!... Brother Glen

I love a good Strong's that includes the Greek pronunciation.

 

[John of Japan]

If you have learned Greek, what was your first Greek textbook?

What is your favorite Greek textbook?

I learned under two beginning textbooks, New Testament Greek for Beginners, by J. Gresham Machen (1923) and
Beginner's Grammar of the Greek New Testament, by William Hersey Davis (1923). Both were good, but Davis is tough to handle because of it's 8 case system. I taught from Machen in Japan because that was the only one available in Japanese, and it helped that I had the English edition. It's still a good grammar, but with 33 chapters kind of hard to get through in a semester. Both of these textbooks are mostly passe now.

I have taught from Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, by William D. Mounce (2009). This is an excellent textbook, with some good resources based on it at teknia.com. One thing about Mounce's approach is that he relates Greek grammar to the English grammar you already know--helpful to a certain extent as long as the differences are made clear. I think you can actually skip the textbook and learn right from the website.

For five years now I've taught from David Alan Black's Learn to Read New Testament Greek, 3rd ed. (2009), This is an excellent textbook, and I plan to keep using it. It lays a good foundation in the first chapters. The 26 chapters are achieved by such common sense things as including the future active indicative in the same chapter as the present active indicative, which makes sense because the only difference is the addition of the future time morpheme in the future.

I understand from my son that Dr. Black is working on the 4th edition, and it should be good. (Dr. Black was my son's mentor for his PhD.)

 

[John of Japan]

I have Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible, The New Strong's Expanded Dictionary Of Bible Words and Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, keyed to Strong's... I don't know Greek or Hebrew but if I do have a question on any word I am not short of finding an answer... My wife is a retired English teacher and shes told I still haven't mastered the English language... And you want me to learn Greek... Oy vey!... Brother Glen

This is a helpful way to learn Greek semantics. If you want to progress in the grammar, you could read through Mounce's textbook, which relates the English grammar to the Greek. Your wife could lecture you about that in the mean time.

 

[kyredneck]

if I do have a question on any word I am not short of finding an answer

ditto

 

[kathleenmariekg]

I learned under two beginning textbooks, New Testament Greek for Beginners, by J. Gresham Machen (1923) and
Beginner's Grammar of the Greek New Testament, by William Hersey Davis (1923). Both were good, but Davis is tough to handle because of it's 8 case system. I taught from Machen in Japan because that was the only one available in Japanese, and it helped that I had the English edition. It's still a good grammar, but with 33 chapters kind of hard to get through in a semester. Both of these textbooks are mostly passe now.

I have taught from Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, by William D. Mounce (2009). This is an excellent textbook, with some good resources based on it at teknia.com. One thing about Mounce's approach is that he relates Greek grammar to the English grammar you already know--helpful to a certain extent as long as the differences are made clear. I think you can actually skip the textbook and learn right from the website.

For five years now I've taught from David Alan Black's Learn to Read New Testament Greek, 3rd ed. (2009), This is an excellent textbook, and I plan to keep using it. It lays a good foundation in the first chapters. The 26 chapters are achieved by such common sense things as including the future active indicative in the same chapter as the present active indicative, which makes sense because the only difference is the addition of the future time morpheme in the future.

I understand from my son that Dr. Black is working on the 4th edition, and it should be good. (Dr. Black was my son's mentor for his PhD.)

Machen was my favorite book, because it is the one that I was able to practice accents, and I wanted to learn those at the time. Yes, the 8 case system of Davis was hard to use alongside the other grammars and I ended out dropping it. Mounce was always my least favorite book, but right now, my focus and priorities are different, and I might like it more.

 

[kathleenmariekg]

my first Greek textbook was Essentials of New Testament Greek by Ray Summers.

The first video of the WVBS course suggested this book as a supplement.

 

[John of Japan]

The first video of the WVBS course suggested this book as a supplement.

I wonder at this. I think you said the textbook was Black. For my students, I would not recommend going through two textbooks at once. It seems to me that would be confusing. The reason is that each author has a different approach to laying the foundation in the first few chapters. If a student reads two texts at once, they are not getting the proper foundation laid for the main textbook, but will end up mixing up the two approaches. For example, Black builds off the pres. act. ind. in Ch. 3 to introduce the future right away, but Machen doesn't get to the future until Ch. 13.

 

[kathleenmariekg]

I wonder at this. I think you said the textbook was Black. For my students, I would not recommend going through two textbooks at once. It seems to me that would be confusing. The reason is that each author has a different approach to laying the foundation in the first few chapters. If a student reads two texts at once, they are not getting the proper foundation laid for the main textbook, but will end up mixing up the two approaches. For example, Black builds off the pres. act. ind. in Ch. 3 to introduce the future right away, but Machen doesn't get to the future until Ch. 13.

The recommendation was a library of supplements, rlvaughn's Ray Summer book, Machen, Mounce, and some others).

As a newbie, I used a library of supplements including a bunch of pdfs from the 1800s. It was confusing, but one book left me lost, especially if it was Mounce. I did a bit better with Machen as the primary text.

 

[Yeshua1]

If you have learned Greek, what was your first Greek textbook?

What is your favorite Greek textbook?

Do It Yourself Hebrew and Greek: Everybody's Guide to the Language Tools (English, Greek and Hebrew Edition) (Hebrew)By Edward Goodrick
Best one to get into learning the languages as a starter!
Best after that Grammar Bill Mounce
Then daniel wallace
Then AT Robinson big daddy grammar!

 

[kathleenmariekg]

Do It Yourself Hebrew and Greek: Everybody's Guide to the Language Tools (English, Greek and Hebrew Edition) (Hebrew)By Edward Goodrick
Best one to get into learning the languages as a starter!

Somehow I have missed that this exists. Thank you!

 

[Yeshua1]

Somehow I have missed that this exists. Thank you!

Amazon has that for about 20 bucks, you learn Hebrew and Greek alphabet, and get shown how to use word studies and intro to Hebrew and Greek lexicons!

 

[kathleenmariekg]

Amazon has that for about 20 bucks, you learn Hebrew and Greek alphabet, and get shown how to use word studies and intro to Hebrew and Greek lexicons!

Logos Software seems to have the only digital edition that I can find.
Do It Yourself Hebrew and Greek

I see some used copies at my favorite online used bookstores.

I added it to my wishlist everywhere. It must wait for right now. I will use what I do have for now, and trust that God will use my lack of resources to funnel me to exactly where he wants me most for December.

If I had been able to more easily afford a new large print Scofield Bible, I would not have discovered rainbow tabs, and I see that was a critical discovery for me to make, especially because of my bad eyesight. For me, Rainbow tabs are a tool, not a crutch.

 

[Yeshua1]

Logos Software seems to have the only digital edition that I can find.
Do It Yourself Hebrew and Greek

I see some used copies at my favorite online used bookstores.

I added it to my wishlist everywhere. It must wait for right now. I will use what I do have for now, and trust that God will use my lack of resources to funnel me to exactly where he wants me most for December.

If I had been able to more easily afford a new large print Scofield Bible, I would not have discovered rainbow tabs, and I see that was a critical discovery for me to make, especially because of my bad eyesight. For me, Rainbow tabs are a tool, not a crutch.

Would really recommend starting out with this book!

 

[John of Japan]

The recommendation was a library of supplements, rlvaughn's Ray Summer book, Machen, Mounce, and some others).

As a newbie, I used a library of supplements including a bunch of pdfs from the 1800s. It was confusing, but one book left me lost, especially if it was Mounce. I did a bit better with Machen as the primary text.

Interesting. I taught for one year with Mounce, and found it difficult to teach from, but some Greek teachers think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

 

[Ziggy]

Don't forget Eric Jay, "New Testament Greek: an introductory grammar" and John Wenham, "Elements of NT Greek".

 

[kathleenmariekg]

Interesting. I taught for one year with Mounce, and found it difficult to teach from, but some Greek teachers think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

I cannot imagine that I would ever want to teach from Mounce. It was my least favorite text in the past. My goals have changed, so I need to start fresh when evaluating resources.

Machen takes time, and I did not have to schedule my education according to a 13 week college semester, that in reality usually is not that long. The reality is that college professors must hand in a syllabus that says they will teach what is "standard" or "best practice" and then pass at least a specific percentage of students without outright lying about completing the syllabus. Mounce is far easier to fake than Machen.