Reader's Editions of the Greek New Testament

[Jonathan Robie]

Recently, someone was asking about reader's editions of the Greek New Testament in another thread. I realized it might be useful to upload pictures of some reader's editions and similar resources to make it easy to compare.

These are simple pictures taken with my phone, not professional quality.

[Jonathan Robie]

A Reader's Greek New Testament: 2nd Edition Imitation Leather – October 31, 2007
by Richard J. Goodrich, Albert L. Lukaszewski.
Zondervan.

The text is the Greek text underlying the NIV.

Definitions are taken from Trenchard's Complete Vocabulary Guide to the Greek New Testament. Definitions are supplied for words used less than 50 times in the Greek New Testament.

Binding is really very nice imitation leather, the paper quality is great, the fonts are a bit funky and the ink seems uneven on my copy. There is a 3rd edition, I do not have it, it may have improved these things.

This is the smallest, thinnest of the Reader's editions I discuss in this thread.

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[Jonathan Robie]

Greek New Testament: The Text of UBS 5, Reader's Edition Hardcover – February 1, 2015
by Barclay M. Newman, Florian Voss

The text is the UBS 5.

Definitions are taken from the Barclay Newman lexicon found in the back of UBS editions. Definitions are supplied for words used less than 30 times in the Greek New Testament.

Binding is cardboard hardcover, the paper quality is excellent, the fonts and printing are also nice.

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[Jonathan Robie]

The Greek New Testament for Beginning Readers: The Byzantine Greek Text & Verb Parsing
by Maurice A. Robinson, William G. Pierpont, John Jeffrey Dodson

Yellow cover, thicker than the others, with more information on each page.

The text is the Robinson-Pierpont text, a Byzantine critical text.

Definitions are taken from Dodson's lexicon, which I prefer to the Barclay Newman lexicon used in the UBS Reader's Edition. Traditional hardcover. Pages are like the pages in many textbooks. Printing and fonts are nice.

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[Emma Ehrhardt]

A Reader's Greek New Testament (Zondervan). Definitions are supplied for words used less than 50 times in the Greek New Testament.

Small correction - unless the 2nd ed. differs from the 1st, definitions are given for words <30, not <50.

[Michael Sharpnack]

Recently, someone was asking about reader's editions of the Greek New Testament in another thread. I realized it might be useful to upload pictures of some reader's editions and similar resources to make it easy to compare.

These are simple pictures taken with my phone, not professional quality.

This is awesome, thanks for doing it. Are there any that do words that appear less than 10 times?

[Paul-Nitz]

I like the NET NA27, reviewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0OYp-84zLc

It's a diglot, English on one page, Greek on the other. The translation notes are an added bonus.

Using a diglot works better for me than a reader. I can keep my brain in Greek mode even if I need to glance at the English for a definition (this would only work with those who have English as a first language). In contrast, if I look to the bottom of a page and read something like, "Aorist Active Participle Masculine Dative Singular," I have just entirely broken out of the second language brain mode and into some mathematical/analytical nether region of my brain.

[Wes Wood]

I like the NET NA27, reviewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0OYp-84zLc

It's a diglot, English on one page, Greek on the other. The translation notes are an added bonus.

Using a diglot works better for me than a reader. I can keep my brain in Greek mode even if I need to glance at the English for a definition (this would only work with those who have English as a first language). In contrast, if I look to the bottom of a page and read something like, "Aorist Active Participle Masculine Dative Singular," I have just entirely broken out of the second language brain mode and into some mathematical/analytical nether region of my brain.

That is why I prefer Zondervan's reader. It doesn't parse the verbs for you. It gives the lexical entry and expects you to be able to do the rest.

One other comment that I will make about Zondervan's reader is that, although the imitation leather is nice, it won't be there long. I have a copy of the second edition that I leave at church and after about four years it has considerable damage around the middle of the spine where my hand holds it. The damage doesn't extend to the binding, but the "leather" has clearly worn away. Again, the only time I use this particular bible is at church a couple of hours (4) a week. Under heavy use, I would expect this to happen much quicker. Also, when the reader is not in use I always store it in the case it came in. If you leave it out or carry it around, it may deteriorate much more quickly.

[Jonathan Robie]

I like the NET NA27, reviewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0OYp-84zLc

It's a diglot, English on one page, Greek on the other. The translation notes are an added bonus.

Using a diglot works better for me than a reader. I can keep my brain in Greek mode even if I need to glance at the English for a definition (this would only work with those who have English as a first language). In contrast, if I look to the bottom of a page and read something like, "Aorist Active Participle Masculine Dative Singular," I have just entirely broken out of the second language brain mode and into some mathematical/analytical nether region of my brain.

I really like that too. But for breaking out of second language brain mode, I am working on another approach that I like better, using indentation and a few simple labels to show the structure of the sentence.

I'm working on something equivalent to a Reader's Edition that takes this approach.

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[Eeli Kaikkonen]

Now there's the new Tyndale House reader's edition: https://www.crossway.org/bibles/the-gre ... -hconly-2/.