In a recent article I alluded to some issues with language study in modern theological training (though, for more on this, you should hop over to Ancient Hebrew Poetry and the conversations going on in and around there). So, I thought I’d just list out some of the major problems that I saw amongst my fellow students at the University of Texas and Harvard.
(1) “Reading” Through Perseus
By far, the most egregious error that students make is the extensive use of sites like Perseus, or software like Logos or Accordance.
DISCLAIMER: I am not at all saying that these are useless tools or that they shouldn’t be used.
What tends to happen is this. New students of these languages stumble upon these tools and realize that they have a cheat-sheet at their disposal. Rather than taking the time to properly learn the language, they run rough shod through conjugations and declensions and end up in the world of the text without anything firm to latch on to. Essentially, they fake their way through class, which leads them to fake their way through interpretation in “the real world.”
I have seen this from just about every level of student: total newbies all the way up to folks working on their dissertations (and, to be honest, even professors at major universities).
(2) Study for the Exam
When studying a language like ancient Greek it is totally possible to study just before a quiz or exam, and then faithfully reproduce all of the appropriate endings of such-and-such declension, resulting in a fat ‘A’ on the ol’ report card. I know this because I did it for my entire first year of Greek! Man, that was a mistake…
The reality is that if I had studied correctly the first time, I would not have had to go back and relearn so much in my second year. When I crammed for the test, I came out of the test with a great result on paper, but I immediately lost whatever it was I had “learned.”
We’ve heard it a million times, but it’s true: you retain so much more information when you study it several times over a long period of time. Set aside time each day to study. Drill grammar and vocabulary into your brain everyday—not just for the test.
(3) Skip to Koine
Now, there are some different schools of thought on this issue, but this is mine: the best place to start your study of ancient Greek is with the Attic dialect.
Here’s the thing, the New Testament was mostly written in a type of Greek known as “Koine.” This is an “easy” Greek (for the most part), a low style. So many students go straight to Biblical Greek, bypassing Attic (the Greek dialect prevalent in and around Athens during the time of Aristotle, Plato, and the like). The result is that when they are faced with a difficult Greek passage, they don’t know what to do (“what the heck is an optative?!?”).
When I was learning guitar, I very much wanted to learn on an acoustic guitar before moving to an electric guitar. Why? Well, the strings on an acoustic guitar are heavier and more difficult to push down against the fretboard. Consequently, I was really building the little muscles in my fingers. When it came time to wail on the electric axe—no problems. If I had learned first on an electric, then moving to the acoustic might be difficult because my fingers might not have been strong enough to play the notes.
Likewise, we should build our Greek muscles by learning a more difficult form of the language and then moving to the easier form.
“But, Stephen,” you might say, “I am interested only in Christianity. Why do I need that Attic stuff?” Well, that’s a great question. In the 2nd century AD (CE for my PC friends), a movement began in various parts of the Roman Empire to revive the style of the hallowed Greeks. This is a period commonly referred to as “The Second Sophistic.” What does this have to do with Christianity? Quite a lot! Many important church fathers write in a high “atticized” style. If you want to learn anything about them or what they thought about a particular text, you’ll need to have some Greek skills.
Conclusion
No matter what you do, practice is essential. I strongly suggest using flash cards and daily schedules. Treat it like exercise. Heck, get religious and fanatical about it. Do it with friends if that motivates you. Just find some way that keeps you doing it day in and day out.
Now that I am out of school, this is the hardest part for me. So, what did I do? I started blogging!
Update(s)
- John Hobbins has posted a sister-article on Ancient Hebrew Poetry: “How NOT To Learn Ancient Hebrew.”
- A thread about this post has been started over at B-Greek. There are some yea’s and nay’s there. Specifically, some folks think I’m a little too harsh on the use of aids (such as Perseus, or interlinears or whatever). First of all, let it be known that I myself use these! However, if I had known about them when I first started learning Greek, I could easily have seen myself falling into the trap of an over-reliance on them. Thanks for all the comments!
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Another point on (3) is that most students are already so familiar with the NT that they do not really end up translating the text.
Good point, Bryan!
To amplify Bryan’s comment, when I was a T.A. for a Greek syntax class, the professor gave a large chunk of Matthew’s passion narrative to translate on the final. I can’t tell you how many students stumbled through it importing details from the other Gospels when they couldn’t quite figure out what the Greek in front of them was saying! If I had saved those exams, it would have made an interesting study in Synoptic relationships and/or the transmission of oral traditions :-)
Really stellar post. Great advice.
Point 3 made me smile as I remembered practising my Koine Greek with a friend on the train travelling to class and having some young Greek-Australians tell us that we shouldn’t waste our time on it because it was waaaaay too hard! They were wearing the uniform of one of Melbourne’s Greek Orthodox schools, so I expect they were expected to read the New Testament in Koine and it was worse than reading Shakespeare or even Chaucer for modern English speakers. :-)
I agree wholeheartedly with 1. and 2., but I suspect that skipping straight to Koine is a reasonable course for those who do not intend to make a career in academia. A good knowledge of Koine can help you judge when commentators are making reasonable points and when they are indulging in wild flights of fancy based on the English rather than the Greek text.
Great suggestions, Stephen! Regarding Point 3…I myself came to NT Greek through the Attic. I have fond memories of reading Greek lyric poetry with my professor over tea in his basement office. Classic Greek definitely builds out vocabulary and forces exposure to some complex syntax and forms.
I also appreciate that you identify problematic practices, whether or not they are associated with digital tools. I’ve been guilty of cramming and of regurgitating memorized passages, neither of which aids in actual learning and neither of which depends on digital technology.
Greetings
I have done some study on the Greek of the first century most of it was learned at home with the family then to a broader education in the street and byways of the day with the merchants and military traffic.
It is not a high language used in religious matters but rather the religious used the street language to communicate with the people from Spain to India. I doubt if the learning of grammer was important to everyday life of earning a living. To sum it up the learning of modern first century Greek is a far cry from what the writers of the first century had to deal with.
My own work has shown if one learns the lexical meaning of the Greek words as they are put down in any good text one can easily understand what the writers were trying to convey.
In what I call grammer Greek the same word has many different meaning and it that isn’t enough then add or remove what is necessary to convert it to English from a language of phrases and even phrases inside of phrase which the English can’t handle so they revert to to all types of translating to cover what the English grammer Greek is unable to handle
With the omission of many words, phrase and even the reversing the Greek phrase to make religious sounding verses when in truth it isn,t that way at all.
Go to my site and take a look at a lexical translation without grammer and form, just English words added to make the Lexical meaning flow to make it readable.
Remove the above section if it is against your position to talk about my work of seven years of effort to make a Lexical translation.
Jerry Collins