Essentials of New Testament Greek - Revised - Case Question

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Matthew Friend
Posts: 13
Joined: December 10th, 2020, 11:48 pm

Essentials of New Testament Greek - Revised - Case Question

Post by Matthew Friend »

Hi Folks:
I have several Greek Grammers now (Mounce 4th, Plummers Beginning with Greek, and Deckers. Back when I first learned (and sadly last used) greek for Seminary I used a book by Summers (Revised by Thomas) called Essentials of New Testament Greek. "https://www.amazon.com/Essentials-New-T ... B07SKZMFYT.

Anyways here is my question. All the other texts I have focus on the Five Noun Forms. The Essentials grammar though focused on the 8 functions of the nouns. This confuses me some. Why do other (beginning) grammars focus just on the forms? Should I ignore this text? Do any Interlinears like Logos or Accordance actually have a greek interlinear that gives the functions?

Thanks for any input.

Matthew

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Matthew Friend
Nebraska, USA
M.Div AGTS, S.T.M - Liberty Seminary
Jason Hare
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Re: Essentials of New Testament Greek - Revised - Case Question

Post by Jason Hare »

Those who hold to an eight-case system today are few and far between.

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Jason A. Hare
The Hebrew Café
Tel Aviv, Israel
Barry Hofstetter
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Joined: May 6th, 2011, 1:48 pm

Re: Essentials of New Testament Greek - Revised - Case Question

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Yes, the "8 case" system is based not on morphology, but on usage, and has never really been didactically productive. It really stems from a few earlier grammarians who found Sanskrit to be amazingly helpful in their understanding of Greek, and wanted Greek to be more like that... :)

When I teach Latin students Greek, I do have fun talking about how Greek somewhere along the line lost its ablative case and how the genitive and dative "took over" the functions of the ablative. One student once said to me as we were learning the genitive of agent with ὑπό that she never thought she would miss the ablative.
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.
Matthew Friend
Posts: 13
Joined: December 10th, 2020, 11:48 pm

Re: Essentials of New Testament Greek - Revised - Case Question

Post by Matthew Friend »

Thank you for the replies Jason and Barry. I've forgotten most of what I learned (about 20 or so years ago) in Greek class so I won't have to put too much effort into not allowing what I learned to confuse me. I still have an old Greek Software program from back then (Greek Tutor by Parsons) that I've re-installed and is based off of the 5 case system. I love that program though I had to install a 32 bit Windows virtual machine in order to run it.
Matthew Friend
Nebraska, USA
M.Div AGTS, S.T.M - Liberty Seminary
Jason Hare
Posts: 951
Joined: June 2nd, 2011, 5:28 pm
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
Contact:

Re: Essentials of New Testament Greek - Revised - Case Question

Post by Jason Hare »

Matthew Friend wrote: December 11th, 2020, 4:51 pm Thank you for the replies Jason and Barry. I've forgotten most of what I learned (about 20 or so years ago) in Greek class so I won't have to put too much effort into not allowing what I learned to confuse me. I still have an old Greek Software program from back then (Greek Tutor by Parsons) that I've re-installed and is based off of the 5 case system. I love that program though I had to install a 32 bit Windows virtual machine in order to run it.
So funny that you mention that! I used Greek Tutor back about 20 years ago just for fun. I mean, I had already memorized the first 20 chapters of Mounce before I went off to college and officially enrolled in Greek class, where they had Greek Tutor installed on the computer. I just played around with it.

However, I did use Hebrew Tutor when I started Hebrew the following year, and it actually came in really hand. Just last year, I found the virtual machine version of Hebrew Tutor online and installed it, and it's fun to look back on with fondness. :)
Jason A. Hare
The Hebrew Café
Tel Aviv, Israel
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