[b-greek] Re: Greek computer programs (plus learning strategy for first-year Greek)

From: Michael Hanel (ekim11@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Apr 18 2002 - 22:14:48 EDT


I'm new to the list and (perhaps - depending on the background of others
here) somewhat new to Greek, I started it two years ago now, but someday I
hope to be a teacher of it, so maybe I have a different perspective on the
issue....

If you're working on learning Greek on your own (so this is more a generic
answer than a specific one), all I can say is Gott bei Dir! You're much
more intelligent and dedicated than I might have ever hoped to be!
Assuming that many here are involved in church work to some extent, my
best advice would be to get together with local clergy to keep up on
Greek. If you're new to it, I am sure some of the local guys would be
willing to work w you in it, as I am sure they would enjoy the refresher
themselves. I guess as far as learning it goes, it seems like it would be
pretty difficult to try to learn the language w/o some sort of fundamental
grammar. If you're asking about learning Greek thru a program like Bible
Works, etc. then it seems like you're working backwards to get the Greek,
but you'd really be losing a lot if that was the only method. If you don't
own a basic grammar, Wallace's _Beyond the Basics_, Metzger's _Lexical
Aids_ (for a pretty good treatment of basic vocab), and BDAG lexicon,
you're missing out on the most fundamental tools of the trade. Granted
there are other txts out there and probably some that other people prefer
over the ones I listed, but I think those things are a good start.

Sometimes the helps are obstacles to really getting into the text, but as
far as that goes everyone should have reference material ready to try to
check out problematic verses/parsings/etc. Ultimately I think you should
be able to go through a verse and not just be able to know the case of the
noun or the voice of the verb but to know why it's in that kind of
construction and what the construction means. That's something BibleWorks
is not going to be able to give and why it's good to have some of those
other resources.

It's kind of foolish to throw away the work of others and become your own
island. Especially with BDAG now, BibleWorks is a pretty smart choice.
I've had it for 5 months, and haven't got into all of the complexities of
it, but it is very easy to use. Cut, copying and pasting in all the
languages is easy and not too problematic. Tech support has also been very
good. It seems like they work hard to keep people happy and are doing as
much as they can to continue to make BW an even better tool for exegesis
and interpretation. I am sure BW has its limitations, but a monolithic
program like logos also has its drawbacks.

for another thread, i'd be interested to know how people not in scholarly
institutions (i.e. presently taking greek classes) keep up with their
greek

Michael Hanel
Concordia University
Seward, NE

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