Children learning Biblical Greek? I know, it may seem to you like an impossibility for a child to learn such a language. Sadly, for many children this may be true. If during the early and formative years of a child's life, they child spend a significant amount of their time watching TV, playing video games, and engaging in other mind-numbing activities instead of exercising the mind and training it to think critically, then it will be exceedingly difficult to learn NTG. This is exactly the problem for many adults as well. Some of us have become products of our mentally-lazy and no-effort generation, and as such, we often cringe at the thought of learning a foreign tongue. We think, "Oh, that's just too hard for me, I could never do that" or "That's for pastors" or "I didn't go to seminary", etc. Anyone can learn Biblical Greek, and a child certainly has an advantage over an adult. This language is far more accessible to the average person than is commonly believed. It can be learned! Why not teach it to your child so that they can read the NT in its original language?

Please comment and offer thoughts, ideas, resources, experience, etc.

Books for Teaching Children:

Biblical Greek 4 Kids: Book 1 - Ashlyn McKnight Perkins (currently out of print)
        (Great for smaller children ages 3-6)

Greek for Children Primer A - Christopher Perrin
        (Recommended for ages 8-12)

Greek for Children Primer A Answer Key - Christopher Perrin

For those parents who have a basic knowledge and grasp of NTG and will be teaching their children, I suggest using The Basics of Biblical Greek from Bill Mounce. If the parent knows Greek, this book can serve to be a very helpful guide for children ages 6-12 who have a simple understanding of basic English grammar. This book is extremely user friendly and very understandable.

Kid's Greek from Bill Mounce
Bill Mounce is developing a teaching program to help parents teach their children the language of the New Testament, and in turn understand and study the Bible better. Yes! children can learn Greek too! It is still under development, but seems very promising and positive.

Greek Songs: These aren't just for kids!

• The following materials are freely provided by Teknia.com

• MP3 audio & PDF lyrics are linked below
  

1.     The Alphabet Song        mp3        PDF

2.     Jesus Loves Me             mp3        PDF

3.     Doxology                        mp3        PDF

Last spring I noted here that the NA28 had been released and wondered if anyone was jumping on board. I for one did not, and don't plan to. Well, now the UBS has released its fifth addition of the GNT. The differences between the NA27/UBS4 to NA28/UBS5 are minor. You can read about them here.

My personal advice would be not only to stick with the UBS4 (or UBS3), but to buy several copies of it while you can, for future use when your current one gives way, and to give away as a gift, before they are out of print. UBS5 is selling for $50-60, sure prices will come down, but it will be a few years before they do.

I also suggest buying a copy or two of the wonderful UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition while you still can. There is only one version of it left in print now!

Today we often hear the term exegetical preaching. But what exactly does this mean? What is exegesis? Exegesis could simply be referred to as: the process of drawing out of a passage or verse what is contained therein. The great enemy to exegesis is eisegesis, which is reading into a passage what is not there, by forcing one’s own thoughts into the passage and making it say something which it was never intended to say. You may have guessed it, that much of the preaching today is far from exegetical, but rather is eisegetical, men imposing their own thoughts, ideas, forced modern day applications, and agendas into the text, instead of letting the text do the speaking.

It is important to note however, that the forerunner to exegetical preaching is exegetical study. You can’t have the former without the latter. You can’t have exegetical preaching simply by picking up a commentary or two, or clicking a few buttons in the computer program. It’s not that easy. I don't want to discourage anyone from pursing the exegetical study of the Word of God. It really is not that difficult, but does require certain tools and discipline. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment.

These are some notes I took while reading Dave Black's book, "Using New Testament Greek in Ministry". I feel he does a great job of simplifying the task of exegesis.

Exegetical Process

I.    Discovering the Text

        A.      Historical Analysis
Author, audience, date, occasion, purpose, cultural and sociological influences, other related background matters.

        B.      Literary Analysis
Canonical – place in Bible itself
Remote – paragraphs, chapter, or even entire book
Immediate – verses or paragraphs that immediately precede or follow the text

II.    Understanding the Text

        A.      Textual Analysis
Attempt to determine the original wording of a document – Textual Criticism

        B.      Lexical Analysis
Determine the meaning of the words in the text – Word study

        C.      Syntactical Analysis
Involves attention to clauses and other unites that are larger than individual words. Also includes matters of tense, voice, mood, person, number, and case of individual words. Helps to determine an author’s thought patterns. Syntax is concerned with the meaning of words in their combination with other words.

        D.      Structural Analysis
Concerned with the ways clauses and larger thought units are placed in relation with each other. Cannot be translated into another language, because translators must use the grammatical system of the target language. Diagramming a passage can be helpful in determining its structure.

        E.       Rhetorical Analysis
RA is an attempt to clarify our understanding of the biblical text through a study of its literary techniques.

In the past I’ve talked about the reasons someone should study Greek. I’ve also talked about the correct motives for studying Greek. Actually, you'll find those two topics strung throughout this website. Here I’d like to share some simple thoughts about reasonable goals in Greek study. If we don’t set goals for ourselves, we are likely not to make much progress. That is especially true of myself. The following is an extract from Dave Black’s wonderful book “Using New Testament Greek in Ministry”.

• R-1 is elementary proficiency. Anyone can achieve this goal – which involves a knowledge of the Greek alphabet and a very basic understanding of some of the language aids available today.
• R-2 is limited working proficiency. At this stage you can read uncomplicated but authentic prose in Greek that contains common words and basic sentence patterns. You will still rely heavily upon on dictionary.
• R-3 is professional proficiency. Here you can grasp the essentials of standard but uncomplicated prose without the use of a dictionary.
• R-4 is full proficiency. At this final stage, you can read anything written in the foreign language without a dictionary. A very large vocabulary is the key that unlocks the door to this level.

A Few Thoughts:

R-1 is basically what a lot of pastors and Bible study leaders do. It is to learn enough to conduct word studies and use computer programs. As one friend once told me, it is learning enough Greek to "be dangerous". I would discourage anyone from pursuing this type of study. This kind of study boils down to using a concordance and/or a computer program. Most exegetical fallacies stem from people who really do not know or grasp the language, but rather pick up enough to "be dangerous" and make claims about Greek which are often incorrect. For more on this, please this post: Exegetical Fallacies

R-2 is the stage where most students are who have had at least one year of Greek, or completed an introductory Grammar book such as those from Bill Mounce or Dave Black. This is a good place to be, but by no means a place to rest and become content.

R-3 is, according to Dave Black, the place where many seminary and Bible college professors are. At this stage one may read the GNT daily in a devotional way, but still comes across the occasional word or phrase that must be looked up. This is attainable after 2-3 years of study, if the student is diligent and consistent.

R-4 should be the goal for all Greek students. It will take much dedication, consistency, and time to reach this place, but it is possible. I would say about 5+ years for the serious, devoted student. The thing which really seperates R-3 from R-4 is vocabulary. The only way to bridge the gap is daily reading.


So what are your goals? Where are you at right now? Right now I am trying to move on from R-2 to R-3. The only thing hindering me is myself, the lack of discipline and consistency.

In a previous post I briefly wrote about the topic of Textual Criticism and recommended a few resources to help start you on your journey. If you have already watched Dan Wallace's excellent series on TC, and/or read Dave Black's NT Textual Criticism, then let me introduce you to what is probably the most significant contribution ever to TC.

Upon opening, it is not hard to see how this textual commentary is the most helpful tool on the planet for TC. Without bogging the reader down, Bruce Metzger has chosen all of the important Textual Variants in the Greek New Testament and compiled a commentary explaining the support for and against the different readings.

One of the many benefits of this work is that it addresses the significant variants between the Alexandrian and Byzantine Manuscripts (The Alexandrian or Critical Texts were used for the NASB/ESV, whereas the Byzantine were used for the KJV/NKJV). Metzger also provides excellent research and commentary on passages such as John 7:53-8:11 (the woman caught in adultery), and the much debated Mark 16:9-20, and discusses based on evidence, whether they were originally in the New Testament or were later additions.

A few notes about using this commentary:

• In order to fully utilize this tool, the UBS4 GNT is needed. It is linked to below.
• Also, at least one year of Greek Grammar is needed to be able to use this. In other words, you need to have a working knowledge of the language.

A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (Companion to the UBS4 Greek NT) - Bruce Metzger

The UBS Greek New Testament 4th Edition

In the past I posted two other reading plans for the Greek New Testament:

• GNT in a Year

• Sectional Reading - Moving Towards Comprehension

This plan below was put together by Dan Wallace, and I really like it. I appreciate the simplicity and focus of it, as it takes you through the books of the GNT in increasing order of difficulty. For most of us, reading a group a day, as is suggested, will be more than draining, though a chapter a day certainly is feasible.

by Dan Wallace

This list is organized along two lines: 1) easiest to most difficult, and 2) approximately 10 chapter segments which bear some semblance of unity (e.g., either literary [pastorals] or historical [James-Galatians]). If you do 1 group/day, you’ll read the whole NT in a month.

John 1-11
John 12-21
1 John; 2 John; 3 John; Philemon
Mark 1-8
Mark 9-16
Matthew 1-10
Matthew 11-20
Matthew 21-28
Revelation 1-11
Revelation 12-22
1 Thessalonians; 2 Thessalonians
Ephesians; Colossians
Philippians; Romans 1-8
Romans 9-16
1 Corinthians 1-10
1 Corinthians 11-16
Galatians; James
1 Peter; 1 Timothy
2 Timothy; Titus
Jude; 2 Peter
2 Corinthians 1-7
2 Corinthians 8-13
Luke 1-8
Luke 9-16
Luke 17-24
Acts 1-10
Acts 11-19
Acts 20-28
Hebrews 1-7
Hebrews 8-13

If you are a Christian then you believe that all Scripture is inspired by God. You believe that He is behind every word, directing every word, and that He has preserved His word for us today. But have you ever thought about how God inspired the Bible? Have you thought about how the Holy Spirit guided the men to write down the precise words which God wanted them to write?

Should we just blindly accept the Scriptures?

For some, the response to these questions would be, “I just believe the Bible and take God at His word” or something to that effect. Some people just accept everything, no questions asked. Some would say that my questions in the previous paragraph are overly critical and could breed skepticism. But is that true? Should we just simply accept things of such importance and magnitude without knowing why or how? I do not believe so.

We believe and accept the gospel by faith, but as Christians we should seek to understand as much of it as possible, and know why we believe what we claim to believe. The same is true of the Scriptures. We don’t just tell people, “believe in the gospel”, we have to first explain to them what the gospel is and why they must believe in it. The same is also true of the Scriptures. It is not right to say, “The Bible is God’s word, period. Just believe it and don’t ask any questions”.

As a student of New Testament Greek, I found this Psalm of David (Black) very relevant and timely. If you've spent any time studying this language then this will resonate within you. Two parts of this Psalm really hit home with me: the scourge of participles, and the comfort of appendices and charts.

My textbook is my guide, I am never in need.

It makes me learn the conjugations.

It leads me beside the declensions.

It restores my confidence in grammar.

It guides me along the paths of exegesis

For its publisher's sake.

Even though I face the scourge of participles

I will fear no evil,

For you are with me.

Your appendices and charts,

They comfort me.

You prepare an answer for me in the presence of my teachers.

You anoint my mind with wisdom.

My soul bursts with pleasure.

Surely my textbook will follow me

All the days of my life,

And I will remain a Greek student forever.

The 28th Edition of the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament is here. Peter Williams provides an exhaustive review here that will answer all your questions.

Novum Testamentum Graece 28

Are you going to jump on board, get rid of your UBS3 or 4 and NA27? What are your thoughts?

Who is your favorite New Testament writer? Some of us may have clear preferences, while others may be hard pressed to choose. Some, such as myself, like the simplicity and practicality of John. Others like the beautiful literary style of Luke. While others like the style of Paul.

Who is your favorite writer? Who are you most edified by reading? If you have one, what is your favorite NT book in Greek? Please share opinions, thoughts, reasons, etc, and let's make a discussion out of it.