Learn v/s Burn?

[Danny1979]

Hi, I'm new here and this may be a strange question, but its one I'm struggling with and would appreciate any inputs/insights that would help clarify.

I've just finally finished a first run through Mounce's BBG, I've kind of got a grip on the various paradigms and the basics of how the grammar works.

However, with middle-aged memory not at its brightest, my question is should I try and keep revising all these paradigms and exceptions etc so that I can read the scriptures in the original without any aids? The alernative is to use my new-found understanding of the koine in parallel with online parsing help such as gntreader.com. I find when I do the latter, I'm not losing time on trying to figure out the verb forms etc and I can get right down to figuring out what the text is saying, now that I have some grasp of how greek grammar works.

I find that the end-result is the same, the insights from the scriptures that would not otherwise have come through in the English. So what advantage is thare really in not using parsing aids.

Would appreciate the wisdom of the more experienced b-greek hands on this question: the long winding road or the quick burn through the texts using the shortcuts?

[Jonathan Robie]

Read every day. Make sure the text in front of your face is Greek. Use tools that let you quickly look up what you don't get so you can get back to reading.

http://gntreader.com is good.

Also consider using the YouVersion app and listening to the text being read as you read it several times through, one chapter at a time. You can slow it down if you need to. For many of us, getting your ears involved really, really helps.

[Jonathan Robie]

I find that the end-result is the same, the insights from the scriptures that would not otherwise have come through in the English. So what advantage is there really in not using parsing aids.

Parsing aids make you think in a really unnatural way. Let me try an example in English.

He saw her

You could say he is nominative, she is accusative, so "she" is the direct object of the verb "saw" and "he" is the subject.

Or you could ask who did he see? He saw her. Who saw her? He did. That's thinking inside the language. And when you get to where that's what you are doing, a lot of things become more natural, you start to notice how the text says something, etc.

For instance, consider the following:

Turns out, he saw her.

Unless you get to know English organically, you probably won't entirely grok what's going on in that sentence. Going at it analytically from the outside will probably get you the exegetical insights, I guess, but you miss a lot of the richness of the language that way.

Does that make sense?

[Jason Hare]

Just a nerdy question: Does “v/s” mean “vs.” (that is, “versus”)? Or, does it mean something that I’m unfamiliar with?

[Danny1979]

Does that make sense?

yes, it does. a lot. Thanks Jonathan, though it wasn't exactly the answer I was hoping for

So, i guess i can't shelve the books just yet.

Does “v/s” mean “vs.” (that is, “versus”)?

Well, that's what i meant anyways but after a google search realized that vs. is actually the right abbreviation. Guess, I now need to brush up on my english as well