Poll: what have you read in Greek?

[Jonathan Robie]

What have you read in Greek?

[MAubrey]

Most of the New Testament and quite a bit outside the New Testament...? I might have read all the NT, I honestly don't know. It's not something I've ever felt the need to keep track of. In terms of quantity of text read, I could probably choose the largest option as being the most comparable.

About half (?) the LXX, some Pseudepigrapha, some Epictetus, some Apostolic Fathers, some Polybius, some Aristotle, some Strabo...some John Chrysostom.

[Devenios Doulenios]

The entire NT, several times; in LXX, several Psalms, Genesis, first half of Exodus, 1 Kgs. 18—2 Kgs. 24, second half of 2 Chron. First half of Didache in the Apostolic Fathers (currently reading). Plato's Symposium (the only non-Koine so far, and I found it difficult).

Perhaps it would be good to have a follow-up poll, "What have you read outside the Greek Bible?"

Δεβένιος Δουλένιος

[Barry Hofstetter]

Since I'm a professional, so to speak, I don't think it would be fair to list everything I've read or was forced to read at one time...

But I thought I'd share what I'm doing with my intermediate/nearly advanced student this year. Last year I read with them (there were two who hit intermediate at the same time) Lucian's True Histories. Since our year is divided up into four "marking periods (equivalent to 4 academic quarters), I decided to spend each marking period in a different Greek author, to give him a good survey course before he's off to his college career. I even posted a question about it to the Classics List for suggestions, and got some very good responses (I asked "What would you want this student to have read in Greek before he darkens your door?"). So, this marking period we have done selections from the GNT. In two weeks, we'll start with Plato, the first book of the Republic. The third marking period will be Homer. I'm still up in the air about the 4th, though. Any suggestions? I'm thinking maybe a bit of Xenophon?

BTW, for Plato and Homer, I am using Geoffrey Steadman's work, which includes vocabulary and grammatical commentary suitable to the intermediate student on the facing page, similar to Pharr's Vergil, if there are any Latinists out there (used Hayes & Nimis for Lucian, same concept). I highly recommend these texts for the busy autodidact, as well as for making it a bit easier on intermediate students to acquire reading proficiency.

[Alex Hopkins]

A while back Barry asked for suggestions re his intermediate/nearly advanced student and what he might get the student to read next.

Any suggestions? I'm thinking maybe a bit of Xenophon?

It's been a while since you posted that, Barry, and I'm wondering if you had had any further ideas?

Just to throw in a few suggestions... How about some Epictetus, which is not too hard, is close to NT chronologically, and the chapters are comparatively short? Another text that came to mind, mainly because I read it comparatively recently, is Lysias 12, Against Eratosthenes. Con Campbell used sections 4-21 as one of the texts examined for his Verbal Aspect, the Indicative Mood, and Narrative, which was the immediate prompt for my own reading; so it could be used, aside from its own intrinsic interest, to consider aspectual theory. But the other suggestion which I'd make for your consideration is that you introduce your student to the papyri. They're fascinating, there are plenty of short documents - which means as teacher you can tackle few or many according to the student's progress without that frustration of either rushing a longer text or simply having to leave out sections, and they're linguistically significant. There's now a large amount readily available on the Net, too, which may help. I think students benefit from an awareness of the papyri, and they make for very interesting reading.

Alex Hopkins
Melbourne, Australia

[Mark Lightman]

what have you read in Greek? τί ἀνεγνώκατε Ἑλληνιστί?

I’ve read the usual suspects: Apostolic Fathers, Epictetus, Homer, Plato. καλόι εἰσιν. But there are others. As Lennon-McCartney said, “Some are dead and some are living.” I want to read some living authors, so on Schole.ning.com I have read the Ancient Greek of Louis Sorenson, Carl Conrad, Donald Cobb κτλ. But the question should be not only whom have you read in Greek, but whom have you HEARD in Greek. Most Ancient Greeks got their Greek the way Hamlet’s father got the poison that killed him; through the ear. So, through Skype and through sharing audios and through the phone and every now and then στόμα πρὸς στόμα I have spoken Ancient Greek with about a dozen people, Erasmians and Buthians, Americans and Italians and Indians, men and women, novices and experts. My general rule is that I will speak Greek with anyone who has an opposable thumb. And when I cannot find someone to speak Greek with, I will speak to myself, early and often. In that sense, I suppose the Ancient Greek speaker I have heard the most often is…me. Scary thought.

[James Bell]

I have read the readers greek new testament, by Goodrich 5 times, almost finished with the sixth time. Each time I read a chapter I record the time it took me and then I see if I am faster the next time. This time it is taking me about 79 hours to read the NT. I have read all of the lxx now except for proverbs, Jeremiah, and the apocryphal. Some of the writings from the apostolic fathers by holmes too.
At this time I noticed this thread has 680 hits and according to the poll very few people have read the entire new testament...why? Is it because of great emphasis on perfectly perfect parsing and comprehension? My style is armchair reading, if I don't get a passage I will find a good translation after I gave it my best shot, then I move on. I don't stress if I don't know all the words. Next time around I work on doing better.

[Stirling Bartholomew]

This is an old thread. Read everything in NT many times but not too fond of Acts. Mostly read outside NT now days, Attic Tragedy and occasional dabbling in Thucydides.