Introduction to Classical & New Testament Greek: A Unified Approach

by Michael Boler

The defining feature of this textbook is the treatment of classical and New Testament Greek as one language using primary sources. All the example sentences the students will translate are real Greek sentences, half of which are taken from classical literature and philosophy and half of which are directly from the New Testament. The advantage of this approach is that it highlights the linguistic, literary, and historical connections between classical Greece and early Christianity. Rather than having students memorize isolated tables and artificial sentences, Michael Boler spent years combing through thousands of pages of literature, philosophy, and scripture to find short, powerful sentences that not only teach the grammatical concepts in each chapter, but also contain seeds of wisdom that will spark wonder and discussion.

Introduction to New Testament and Classical Greek is born out of classroom experience in a Catholic liberal arts university whose students were disappointed to be forced to choose between textbooks that taught classical Greek in isolation and ones that focused exclusively on the New Testament. By the end of this book, students will have read over 200 lines of scripture and an equal amount of ancient literature from Homer to Aristotle. They will also have the grammatical knowledge to continue to read classical and New Testament Greek. Each chapter contains a section at the end that delves deeply into the etymology and background of the words and passages encountered in the respective chapter. Professors will thus be able to use these chapters as a bridge to philosophical, theological, historical, and literary topics that will enrich the class.

Genres: Language

450 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Jake Brinkman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good idea but its execution leaves much to be desired. I am by no means an expert in Greek although I am not a beginner either; I've read several introductory books on Ancient Greek as I enjoy comparing them and was excited to read this one as I was interested in the unified approach to NT and Classical. The author clearly knows his stuff and put a ton of work into this; there is much to be commended but overall this book leaves much to be desired. I wouldn't recommend it above other Greek primers for a teacher and certainly wouldn't recommend it for self study as there is no translation key for the translation exercises. It seeks to motivate and interest Greek students by using phrases from Ancient Greek sources, but unfortunately can crush that motivation without any quick way for the student to tell if they are doing the exercises correctly.

[Nathaniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will be better when the answer key is released!