Completion of Milestone: St. John Chrysostom

[tdbenedict]

I thought I would share a big “Greek Milestone” for me. In late 2015, I set out to read all of St. John Chrysostom’s Homilies on the Epistles of St. Paul (Field Volumes 1-7). Fourteen months later --- Just got done today. On seeing the last page (page 2964 in total), I felt a little like Xenophon’s ten thousand upon seeing the sea again (Θάλαττα! θάλαττα!). 

I admit there is more than a bit of shameless self-congratulation in this post, but I don’t personally know anyone studying Greek (I’m a self-learner), so I had to share this milestone with somebody.

Volume 1 (Romans) was challenging, but by Volume 7 (Hebrews) I found myself mostly able to read homilies on sight and understand almost all of what I was reading, keeping my mind mostly thinking in Greek. I think this is partly because my Greek improved immensely during this project and partly because Chrysostom’s preaching vocabulary had become somewhat second nature. It will be interesting how much this will transfer to reading other Greek authors, or whether I have just gotten pretty good at reading Chrysostom-Greek.

One of the many lessons I learned from this project is the uselessness of grammars, at least for me in trying to read texts. The only way I can learn is by reading and if I get stuck, I look at the translation, try to remember the word pattern and meaning, and then just move on. Eventually, I hope to remember the pattern if I run into it enough times. At least for Chrysostom-Homily-Greek, that approach seems to have worked.

Now I need to figure out the next project to start in 2017 . . . . .

[Jonathan Robie]

Wow, that's impressive. And some of that is not easy Greek.

[Arsenios (George) Blaisdell]

Jonathan -

WAY long time since I have "heard your voice" on line -
Congratulations on completing your effort...
Why John Chrysostom?
Did you become Orthodox?

Arsenios (George) Blaisdell

[Jonathan Robie]

Jonathan -

WAY long time since I have "heard your voice" on line -
Congratulations on completing your effort...

Ah, I'm afraid Tim Benedict was the one who finished the works of John Chrysostom. I'm jealous!

And it's good to have you back. Sorry I didn't respond earlier, I dropped this somehow.

Why John Chrysostom?
Did you become Orthodox?

I'm as Mennonite as they come still. But I do like Chrysostom, and would like to work through more of his writings - which are voluminous!