Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light… http://read.ly/Isa50.10.ESV2010-05-17
Monergism Books Monergism.com is one of the best collection of online theological resources out there. If you haven’t been to the site and looked around then you don’t know what you are missing! I also just signed up as a Monergism Books affiliate this week. Basically it means that if you buy a book from their bookstore they give me a cut which I can in turn use to buy books! You pay the same price either way, so hey why not! They only know to credit me though if you use my link, which I added to the right side bar.
Greek & Hebrew Reader’s Bible
John Dyer, who I am not familiar with, created this online Greek and Hebrew Bible . . . for free! It reminds of Zhubert.com, but it also has Hebrew and not just Greek like Zhubert. If you mouse over words you can get a quick dictionary definition of the word and also case information. This site looks perfect for someone getting started in Greek!
Believin’ Stephen
Now I just recently heard Believin’ Stephen for the first time. This is Timothy Brindles little brother. If you aren’t familiar with Tim, you should be. Believin’ Stephen just recently released 19 tracks titled The Perseverance MixTape which you can down for FREE right here. The songs don’t seem to conform to an overarching theme that well, but overall I am liking it and looking forward to what else comes out of Believin’ Stephen.
A conventional interlinear New Testament provides an English translation directly below each Greek word in a Greek New Testament. This tool is called an interlinear because the English words are placed between the lines of Greek. Since the English words are merely translations of individual Greek words, the English words are out of grammatical word order, do not constitute any particular translation, and cannot easily be read. Their only use is as a reference. This is not to say that conventional interlinear New Testaments should not be used. One simply must be aware of their purpose and limitations.
A reverse interlinear displays an English translation as the primary text and then weaves the corresponding Greek words between the English lines. So the word order of the English translation is untouched, but the Greek words are rearranged to correspond with the English. This means that the English lines are readable and the text can be used as a working everyday English New Testament.
Furthermore, since Greek is not as dependent on word order as English, often the Greek found in a reverse interlinear is also readable. This means that there is nothing prohibiting someone from reading the English lines and then growing accustomed to reading the Greek lines as well. One of the features of this reverse interlinear is that the Greek words are numbered according to their original order. This provides an easy reference to the original for situations where the Greek word order could make a difference.
In a few weeks I will be joining a study group with some other friends to begin learning Greek. If you are in the Seattle area and also interested in learning some Greek make sure you read to the end. I have wanted to learn Greek in the past, but I am becoming more and more aware of its necessity if I am going to grow in exegesis.
Exegesis is basically getting the meaning out of a passage. The meaning of a passage can shift greatly just based on the interpretation of one or two words. Often the Greek behind our English translation has clues as to which direction to go in exegesis, but if you don’t know how to work with Greek then you are out of luck.
The book that we have chosen to work through is Greek for the Rest of Us by William D. Mounce. Mounce isn’t a slouch either. To note just a part of his work, he was the Chairman for the translation of the New Testament for the ESV.
The purpose of Greek for the Rest of Us is to equip the reader for “using Greek tools without master biblical Greek.” The book is divided into six sections that are meant to be covered in six weeks.
Week 1: Getting Acquainted with Greek The first week looks at the Greek language in general, its alphabet, pronunciation and concludes with a section on the translation of the New Testament from Greek.
Week 2: The Building Blocks of Language The second week focuses on English grammar including nouns, verbs, clauses and phrases. It closes with a section on phrasing titled “An introduction to Our Bible Study Method”.
Week 3: How Do We Modify Ideas This week covers conjunctions, adjectives, phrases, clauses and fine-tuning phrases.
Week 4: How Do We Describe Action Here we get into Greek verbs and their forms, present indicative, future indicative, imperfect, aorist, and the sweet smelling perfect indicative. It closes with a section going over paper and electronic tools for Greek.
Week 5: What Else Is in a Verb? Covered in this week is the participle, subjunctive, infinitive, and of course the lovely imperative. The last section for this week is on word studies.
Week 6: How Do We Describe Things? The final week brings us to the nomative, vocative, accusative, dative and genitive with two closing sections on how to read commentaries and a brief history of textual criticism.
Now if you, like me, don’t know what most of those terms mean don’t worry – That’s why this book was written!
Finally, it has been said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In fact, Mounce says this in his preface as a cause of concern with teaching “a little Greek” to someone. Mounce rebuts that concern though with his view that it is a little arrogance, not knowledge, that is dangerous.
This book will only provide an introduction to Greek, but with it I should be able to make better use of Bible tools that I am already using and begin using tools that I was unable to use without a basic understanding of Greek.
The class will be taught by one of our elders, Scott Golike. There is some teaching from Scott on The Resurgence if you would like to see what he is like (check out the talks on Hermeneutical and Exegetical Integrity!)
There is also some more room for folks in the Seattle area. If you would like more information please contact me at dwayne@4handsclapping.com.
Believin’ Stephen
