Jonathan Robie wrote:[A]lmost nobody here thinks using an interlinear ... is ... good
Since I've been mentioned indirectly as an
adverb, let me also welcome you to the forum.
Jonathan Robie wrote:If you're shocked by the differences between translations and the interlinear, be suspicious of the interlinear first.
Also, if are ever sure that your own understanding of Greek is better than a scholarly translation committee, and you have no other reason to be sure except that you are sure, then being suspicious of your certainty is probably also warranted.
Translations are all in some way and through some steps (e.g. adjusting word order, using idiomatically appropriate tenses, etc.) derived from the Greek text, while an interlinear doesn't follow that full process (leaving the English as "something like encoded Greek").
As with training wheels on a bike, the long-term goal is to get beyond the need to use them. There are various strategies to achieve that. Working through abstract grammar is one of them.
Some people hold to the idea that students should have exposure to a language for half a year or more, before attempting formal study of it, and then their study will go much more smoothly. It is possible that an interlinear could be thought of as an opportunity for that to happen. It sounds like you've been at it for a while, so perhaps now is a good time to start looking at the language itself.
In a sense an interlinear is like an extended bilingual phrasebook, and as you can well imagine from any travel phrasebooks you may have encountered that type of arrangement has limitations for learning to deal with the language in terms of it being a language that exists in its own right beyond the text of the phrasebook. For many years I had a facsimile copy of Tonnies Fonne's Russian-German Phrasebook (Pskov, 1607), which I used to read for amusement, and while interesting in itself, it never let me
understand that dialect of Russian, but was a good way to relax. As for the tourist who has a need to get around in the second language environment while they are trying their best to go to classes and learn the language, so the interlinear lets those who have a need to deal with the Greek text before their own ability is up to the task. If someone was still using the phrasebook after years and years in a foreign country that would raise eyebrows.
Whatever the steps that you are taking along your individual path to mastery of the Greek, the total reliance on the interlinear, (and probably later on the formal grammar) that you are now displaying, is something that you need to work hard to overcome. Master the things that come easiest to you first - pronunciation, parsing or sentence structures - the aim being to make each one of those interlined parts of the interlinear redundant as your learning progresses. Asking questions like, "What do I need to know, so that I don't need this interlined information?", or "What would I need to know to be able to create this interlined information myself?", will lead you on the right path, in most cases.