There are a number of threads in the archives on this subject. A Google advanced search
difficulty books site:http://lists.ibib ... l/b-greek/ retreives a number of posts. (The link does not show correctly in this post, but it works on google.)
I like this one by Mark Lightman.
Jim Montesano wrote:
"My question is what is the list from the easier to the more harder books to
read in the NT, and be able to translate on the spot? Also, is there a list
like this for the Septuagint, or at least a place to start?"
Everyone's list is a little different.
JOHN (narrative is easier because you can guess the meaning as you follow the story. JOHN is also in my opinion beautiful, brilliant, artful Greek, easy for beginners but satisfying for advanced readers)
REVELATION (a little tricky in terms of vocabulary but the syntax and word order is simple and close to English (because it is close to Hebrew)
MARK (a little harder than JOHN because it's less polished)
1 JOHN (easy in both vocab and syntax)
MATTHEW
ACTS 1-12 (the first half of Acts is much easier in terms of vocab and syntax)
2 JOHN
GALATIANS and PHILLIPIANS and PHILEMON and 1 CORINTHIANS (I find these to be much easier than the rest of the Pauline corpex)
LUKE (much more complex syntax than the other Gospels)
3 JOHN (quite a bit harder than 1 JOHN, with several tough constructions in a short letter.)
1 THESSALONIANS and 2 THESSALONIANS
COLOSIANS and EPHESIANS
ROMANS (hard I think because the subject matter is subtle and complex)
JAMES (in my opinion the most satisfying Greek in the NT; hard but not frustrating)
1 PETER (hard because it is good Greek)
JUDE AND 2 PETER (hard because it is bad Greek)
1 and 2 TIMOTHY and TITUS (much less fun to read than the rest of Paul)
ACTS 11-28 (lots of hard vocab, some tricky classical constructions in the speeches, and hard to keep straight all the travel)
HEBREWS (word order is a challenge)
2 CORINTHIANS (for some reason by far the hardest. I think Paul was deeply agitated when he wrote it. It has taken reading through it about five times to
appreciate it, but it was awful the first few times.)
As far as the LXX goes, I have not read it anyway near as much, but I would say the Genesis 1-15 is pretty easy and the Psalms are generally not that tough.
A lot of the LXX is easier than the NT, but I found WISDOM 8 to be harder even than HEBREWS.