Read it in Greek: An Introduction to New Testament Greek

by L. William Countryman

In American seminaries today, there is a very limited amount of time available to most students for language study. And yet, a working knowledge of the original language of the New Testament is imperative for informed exegesis of the biblical texts. Written with this difficult situation in mind, Read It in Greek offers a concise, one-semester introduction to the Greek language of the New Testament. / Taking a unique, inductive approach to the study of Greek, this text focuses on reading the Greek-1 John is read through from beginning to end-yet also teaches enough syntax to enable students to interact with all of the New Testament. The book also integrates into the language course lessons in exegesis of the Greek text, resulting in immediate, usable skills that will allow students to look behind the facade of modern-language translations and to follow discussions in technical commentaries and other scholarly works. Students who go beyond the first semester to further study of the language will find it easy to refine the general concepts taught here. Those who do not will have begun reading the Greek New Testament and will have the resources necessary to continue doing so. / Originally published as The New Testament Is in A Short Course for Exegetes, this volume continues to be one of the best resources available for quickly-yet effectively-introducing students to the reading of New Testament Greek.

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1993

About the author

Bill Countryman is a retired seminary professor and Episcopal priest (still assisting at Good Shepherd Church in Berkeley, CA). He and his spouse, Jon Vieira, live in Oakland, CA, where he tends the garden and writes mostly poetry these days.

I'm a lover of poetry, classical music (with a particular fondness for choral and chamber music and for late-ninteenth-early-twentieth-century orchestral music. I spread my reading broadly: poetry, fiction, history, theology.

And I blog on gardening, reading the Scriptures, and whatever else interests me at billcountryman.com.

Reviews

[Cassie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got this book, hoping that it might be a good way to quickly review some of the basics of Greek grammar. Not so. I think that this overview of New Testament Koine Greek is too rudimentary to really be helpful to anyone, even/especially people who primarily study the New Testament. I'm a Greek student, although I primarily study Attic Greek, and I couldn't help but feel that this book glossed over some of the nitty-gritty (but still important) grammatical concepts. I was really bothered by the participles that were constantly left dangling. During the chapter on the Genitive Absolute, Countryman says that equivalent phrases in English don't sound very good, but I posit that they might have sounded better if he had construed the circumstantial participles.

Here's the deal: in Greek, the grammar matters. In order to have a good understanding of a Greek text, it's important to be able to identify the grammatical form and function of every single word in the sentence, and it's not always clear by looking what each word is doing. The oblique cases (Genitive, Dative, and Accusative) have tons and tons of usages, most of which aren't even touched on in this book. Some of those usages require prepositions, which is also not touched on. This sort of thing matters when you're trying to understand the text.

I don't know what Countryman's educational background is, but it read to me that he didn't know enough of the grammar to be offering tips. He wanted to simplify something that is by nature incredibly complex, and he really missed the mark. If you're interested in studying Greek, I'd recommend starting with Greek: An Intensive Course by Hansen & Quinn. It's a much larger book, and it's certainly not as friendly, but it will help you learn the language. This book will not.

[Cordellya Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the worst book I have ever studied from to try to learn a language. Most language textbooks introduce learners to the alphabet and then basic words. They build from basic words into sentences and paragraphs. This method models the way children learn their first language. Countryman introduces the Greek alphabet and then skips to translating phrases and sentences. Very little is provided by way of vocabulary. Further the discussion of how different verbs are conjugated based on their gender, number, and tenses is so hard to follow that if I hadn't already studied multiple languages then I would have been lost. I would not recommend this book for students who want to learn Koine Greek.