NT Word Study
Posted: August 12th, 2018, 6:21 am
I have been a member of the B-Greek forum from 2015, having begun self-learning NT Greek from about March that year. I almost always check out “Introductions” and share in the thoughts and motivation of people from around the world who are inspired to understand the NT in its original language (form). I have a number of scholarly reference grammars and lexicons and other books, which I am getting more out of now than early on. My emphasis when reading is on understanding.
I mostly choose to read from my “Word Study Greek English NT” by McReynolds, an interlinear New Testament. The thought of using an interlinear might put some readers heckles up, but this particular one gives a “first principles” translation which, might not always be the best but even so I have found it an invaluable tool in reading through the NT book by book. The great thing this book has, is the inclusion of a Greek Concordance and without this, it would be just another interlinear and possibly not as good as some.
I have only recently, marked out a thumbnail-like index on the concordance, for quicker reference. I divided the height and width of the concordance section into 8x3=24 sections which equates to the number of letters in the Greek alphabet. I gathered all the pages for “α“ and “red inked” them in a strip 5 to 10 mm long in the top 1/3 of the first (top) section of the eight equal sections dividing the height of the book. Then the same for “β” but in the next section down (2nd) and so on to “θ” at the bottom (8th) section. Gathering the pages for Iota “ι”, I marked the mid 1/3 of the first section (shared with Alpha) and continued the same with kappa down to Pi in the last section (with Theta). Similarly the pages for rho “ρ ”, I marked the bottom 1/3 of the first section (with Alpha and iota) and continued the same with Sigma down to Omega, the last section (with Theta and Pi). Having marked the book, I then had the delicate task of writing each letter of the Greek alphabet in its correct position down the eight sections and within the three subsections. The whole process took about two hours but well worth it.
One of the fascinations I get from the concordance is the ability to look for the root verb that is in “combination” with a preposition, for example “παράγγελλε” as in 1 Tim 5:7. The word άγγελλε has the familiar form άγγελλω in the concordance but this word is only used once in the NT in Jn 20:18, in the form “ἀγγέλλουσα”. While looking up παράγγελλω in the concordance there will usually be a lot of other “παρα” modified root verbs above and below on the page and an interesting study can be had from noting the effect of the preposition on the meaning of root of those verbs. This sort of study also leads on to morphology. There are a lot of “παρ” modified verbs where the root verb begins with a vowel and so the last “α” is dropped from “παρα”. A university course would go into these things in detail but the I have gained a lot through repeated reference via this concordance.
Another fascination is checking for “lost verbs” of the NT, that is verbs whose root form doesn’t appear in the NT but which do appear in the NT as a form in combination with a preposition. So I regularly find myself looking first for the root verb in the concordance before looking for the preposition-verb combination which has been used in the NT in some form or other, where I happen to be reading.
A third fascination is in becoming aware of synonyms in Greek.
I haven’t at this stage made a reference diary with a catalogue/index, for noting down discoveries but I’m thinking it might be time.
I mostly choose to read from my “Word Study Greek English NT” by McReynolds, an interlinear New Testament. The thought of using an interlinear might put some readers heckles up, but this particular one gives a “first principles” translation which, might not always be the best but even so I have found it an invaluable tool in reading through the NT book by book. The great thing this book has, is the inclusion of a Greek Concordance and without this, it would be just another interlinear and possibly not as good as some.
I have only recently, marked out a thumbnail-like index on the concordance, for quicker reference. I divided the height and width of the concordance section into 8x3=24 sections which equates to the number of letters in the Greek alphabet. I gathered all the pages for “α“ and “red inked” them in a strip 5 to 10 mm long in the top 1/3 of the first (top) section of the eight equal sections dividing the height of the book. Then the same for “β” but in the next section down (2nd) and so on to “θ” at the bottom (8th) section. Gathering the pages for Iota “ι”, I marked the mid 1/3 of the first section (shared with Alpha) and continued the same with kappa down to Pi in the last section (with Theta). Similarly the pages for rho “ρ ”, I marked the bottom 1/3 of the first section (with Alpha and iota) and continued the same with Sigma down to Omega, the last section (with Theta and Pi). Having marked the book, I then had the delicate task of writing each letter of the Greek alphabet in its correct position down the eight sections and within the three subsections. The whole process took about two hours but well worth it.
One of the fascinations I get from the concordance is the ability to look for the root verb that is in “combination” with a preposition, for example “παράγγελλε” as in 1 Tim 5:7. The word άγγελλε has the familiar form άγγελλω in the concordance but this word is only used once in the NT in Jn 20:18, in the form “ἀγγέλλουσα”. While looking up παράγγελλω in the concordance there will usually be a lot of other “παρα” modified root verbs above and below on the page and an interesting study can be had from noting the effect of the preposition on the meaning of root of those verbs. This sort of study also leads on to morphology. There are a lot of “παρ” modified verbs where the root verb begins with a vowel and so the last “α” is dropped from “παρα”. A university course would go into these things in detail but the I have gained a lot through repeated reference via this concordance.
Another fascination is checking for “lost verbs” of the NT, that is verbs whose root form doesn’t appear in the NT but which do appear in the NT as a form in combination with a preposition. So I regularly find myself looking first for the root verb in the concordance before looking for the preposition-verb combination which has been used in the NT in some form or other, where I happen to be reading.
A third fascination is in becoming aware of synonyms in Greek.
I haven’t at this stage made a reference diary with a catalogue/index, for noting down discoveries but I’m thinking it might be time.