greetings

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James Bell
Posts: 14
Joined: January 26th, 2012, 12:54 pm

greetings

Post by James Bell »

I'm james bell. I began studying greek on my own two years ago in response to a question I could not answer; whether the comma in Luke 23:43 should be before or after the today. I still cannot answer that from the greek. I worked through about five beginning grammar books, difficulties noted that the grammar books typically had no answers to their exercises to help self independent learners. I am spending about 2 hours a day reading the new and old testament. Many times I don't fully understand what I read, so I underline the words I don't know, then go to another interlinear New testament and check my understanding of the verse, I'm slowly getting better, I'm on my sixth read through of the new testament. I'm also working through brentons lxx, finding it harder and much more underlining of new vocabulary and sometimes i note, that I understood little, but I keep on reading anyway.
I am really looking forward to writing with other people with an interest in God's word, and being able to ask lots of greek questions. My computer is a kindle fire.
Jonathan Robie
Posts: 4158
Joined: May 5th, 2011, 5:34 pm
Location: Durham, NC
Contact:

Re: greetings

Post by Jonathan Robie »

Greetings - it's great to see you here! There are plenty of people here who are self-taught, so you are in good company. I'm one of them.

We'll try to wean you from that interlinear ;->
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
Barry Hofstetter
Posts: 2159
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 1:48 pm

Re: greetings

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Χαῖρε, Ἰάκωβε…

Your dedication and perseverance is certainly admirable. I have the benefit of classroom education, and I wonder often if I would have the discipline of doing what you are doing right now. I am theoretically teaching myself Sahidic Coptic right now, and keep laying off it for long periods of time, going back to it for a short while... :o

Let me suggest that it would be better to slow up a bit and lay of the interlinears (I'll spare you my "interlinears are the true spawn of Satan" speech). It would be better if you were to look at a short passage, and look up the words yourself in a real lexicon (interlinears provide contextual glosses which are not generally helpful for learning the language). Read the entire range of meaning for each word that you look up, and see which meaning best fits the context which you are reading. Memorize the entire range of meaning for common words. Keep your grammars as references so that you can see how the syntax and grammar really work in context. One good thing that you seem to be doing is reading through the text before you look at anything else -- keep that discipline up. If after going through this you still have questions, refer to a good translation (I suggest the NASB because of its tendency to adhere to the pattern of the original -- it shows a little better how the underlying Greek fits together). Then go back and read it again, without consciously trying to define words in your head and so forth. Yah, this takes much longer, but I think bears much more fruit in the long run.

There are also springing up various online Greek courses either for free or for a surprisingly reasonable rate. You might want to check out some of the materials on youtube. I am taking Michael Halcomb's Conversational Greek course. I am reasonably fluent in reading ancient Greek (I've had just a bit of practices, you see), but being forced to think and speak in the language takes it to a whole new level, and it's been quite a blast.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
Paul-Nitz
Posts: 497
Joined: June 1st, 2011, 4:19 am
Location: Sussex, Wisconsin

Re: greetings

Post by Paul-Nitz »

Your SIXTH read through the NT! Wow.
I had once heard that if a person used an interlinear and read every day for 3 years, he would become proficient. I'll be interested to hear how it goes for you. Keep us updated in the "Teaching & Learning" section of this forum.
Paul D. Nitz - Lilongwe Malawi
Barry Hofstetter
Posts: 2159
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 1:48 pm

Re: greetings

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Paul-Nitz wrote:Your SIXTH read through the NT! Wow.
I had once heard that if a person used an interlinear and read every day for 3 years, he would become proficient. I'll be interested to hear how it goes for you. Keep us updated in the "Teaching & Learning" section of this forum.
Paul, give such a person a text not written in the NT, and see how he does with it. My guess is that there would be problems.

When I was tutoring Latin at WTS, I gave some students a text from Vulgate 1st Maccabees as their final. It drove them nuts -- they could tell it was from somewhere in the Bible, but they couldn't tell where... :o
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
James Bell
Posts: 14
Joined: January 26th, 2012, 12:54 pm

Re: greetings

Post by James Bell »

Thank you for your encouragement. I am pleased that there is hope for us self learners. I recognize that I may never obtain the fine points needed for a super precise translation. Nevertheless I am determined to learn. I must learn this language. I recognize that to be truly fluent takes many years.
I have taken the advice about the NASB bible and bought one. The comment on being able to read without a translation, something outside of the new testament is interesting..I have Brentons greek and English LXX. At this time the pentateuch is readable without the translation on the side, Proverbs is not...I am not stuck on only the new testament....I'm working my way through the Old Testament and the Apostolic Fathers, Holmes edition. Swetes Introduction to the Old Testament in greek has many greek quotes and most of them are hard. The letter to Philocrates from Aristeas is in the back of this book....As was mentioned it is hard and I am not trying to read it now. But I will try. I must learn...I am sure that to learn well I must not be limited to the New Testament. Still I'm trying to say that I am confident that with practice, practice, practice, and study the greek language can be conquered, after all every member on this forum is showing me that it is possible and attainable. Thanks again for the encouragement.
James Bell
Shirley Rollinson
Posts: 415
Joined: June 4th, 2011, 6:19 pm
Location: New Mexico
Contact:

Re: greetings

Post by Shirley Rollinson »

James Bell wrote:I'm james bell. I began studying greek on my own two years ago in response to a question I could not answer; whether the comma in Luke 23:43 should be before or after the today. I still cannot answer that from the greek. I worked through about five beginning grammar books, difficulties noted that the grammar books typically had no answers to their exercises to help self independent learners. I am spending about 2 hours a day reading the new and old testament. Many times I don't fully understand what I read, so I underline the words I don't know, then go to another interlinear New testament and check my understanding of the verse, I'm slowly getting better, I'm on my sixth read through of the new testament. I'm also working through brentons lxx, finding it harder and much more underlining of new vocabulary and sometimes i note, that I understood little, but I keep on reading anyway.
I am really looking forward to writing with other people with an interest in God's word, and being able to ask lots of greek questions. My computer is a kindle fire.
Welcome, James.
Keep reading - that's the best way.
I've started an online Greek Textbook at
http://www.drshirley.org/greek/textbook/contents.html
which might be a help for the grammar.
For help with translation and analysis of the LXX you might try
http://www.motorera.com/greek/text/greek.html
James Bell
Posts: 14
Joined: January 26th, 2012, 12:54 pm

Re: greetings

Post by James Bell »

Thank you Shirley for the advice. The motorera.com/greek/text site is wonderful. It will be great for the Lxx and the early church fathers. I like it that I can quickly find the definitions and parsings of the words.. I had bought the book "the Greek of the septuagint a supplemental lexicon, by Chamberlain" and rarely used it because it took to long to look up the words, then I got the kindle lexicon by John Barach. This I used frequently, but the motorera site is even way better.
James Bell
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