Some Tips for Learning Ancient Greek

#koine
#ancientgreek
#newtestamentgreek

RESOURCES

A great article on how a Latin professor learned latin after teaching Latin for years! Same things apply to Ancient Greek!

Textus Receptus Modern Greek Audio

Machen's New Testament Greek For Beginner's PDF Download

Here is the text of the prayer I have in the back of my TR:

Πάτερ μου, ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς,
ἴσθι μεθ᾽ μου ἐν ταύτῃ τῇ ὥρα,
βοήθει μοι μανθάνειν τούς λόγους σου τούς ἐν τήν Ἑλληνικὴν γλῶσσαν.
διδάσκε μοι ἵνα συνεῖναι καὶ ποιεῖν τήν ἀλήθειαν σου.
ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ υἱοῦ σου τοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ προσεύχομαι,
Ἀμήν.

[scripturial]

The tip to read and re-read is super valuable. People fall into a trap of studying a text, committing so much time into "working it out" in the Greek. And then they never go back the next day to revise what they spent so much time trying to work out. When we revise, it's so much easier the second time, and helps us remember what we learnt the day before. It also feels rewarding to be able to see that all this work is starting to pay off. If we only ever study a new text each day, its continual struggle and pain. Go easy on yourself and go back and refresh older passages you worked through :)

[exploringtheologychannel]

I stayed to the very end and I was rewarded with this jem 51:15 "Learn to love the process." Amen!

[diachronix]

Great job! This is all 100% spot on advice!
PS - Here’s a suggested revision for your nice prayer:
Πάτερ μου, ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς,
ἴσθι μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ ἐν τῇ ὥρᾳ ταύτῃ,
βοήθει μοι μανθάνειν τοὺς λόγους σου ἐν τῇ Ἑλληνικῇ γλώσσῃ,
δίδασκέ με συνιέναι καὶ ποιεῖν τὴν ἀλήθειάν σου.
ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ υἱοῦ σου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ προσεύχομαι,
Ἀμήν.

[christsavesreadromans]

You should use Anki for vocab, and get the entire vocab for a book memorized before even tackling it. That way your only focus is getting the syntax down. If you sit down and get focused for like an hour and a half or so, you can grind out 50 new words. You may not remember all of them the following day, but your retention will still be solid.

[cw]

Good video at first I was lost in the sauce but bublingo has helped me

[BiblicalStudiesandReviews]

I know you posted this a long time ago, but I watched it today (all of it 😁). I really like how you are thinking in Greek. I’m still translating in my head.

[maarkaus]

excellent advice.
On a side note, I tried talking to a Greek friend of mine using the pronunciation my ancient Greek teacher taught me to use in university, and he looked at me like I was speaking... uh... not Greek.
I don't remember what the sentence was, or what I was trying to say as I became sheepish after, but he found it amusing, and I could see he was tolerating my mangling of his language.
When I told him what it was, he said it back to me with modern Greek, and it was different enough.
That was ages ago, and I am trying to get back into it, and might go with the modern pronunciation.
For me, its more about reading than speaking. My goal is to read the NT in Greek, and if possible other texts.
Pronunciation would be good if it helps me remember, or if I happen to go to Greece some day...
Thank you for your channel.

[exploringtheologychannel]

21:00 I do the same thing. Thanks for making this video. You have sparred me from having to make it.

[exploringtheologychannel]

5:00 You are completely right. Pretending that someone who has learned 300 words can seriously pick up and read the NT with any real ability is false. However, and this is a big however, that first 300 words does get one in the door and is a huge achievement. One can use those 300 words to pick up 1 John and then from here keep moving.

[Alaedious]

Lots of great advice and tips here! Thank you for your help. 😎👍

[HonzaPokorny]

Interlinears seem to get a lot of love; what do you think about readers? Greek text with footnotes for difficult forms. The new THGNT Reader appears to be really well done.

[TheJesusNerd]

Wished I still lived in Arizona! I would be a member of your church and on your staff!!!

[vstefan]

Very helpful video full of great suggestions, I especially like the idea of making your own Interlinear. And repetition, repetition, repetition, something I've found helps heaps. LOL at reading John 1:1 over and over again, I was there around a year ago, the hardest is at the beginning when you have to work really hard only to make small amounts of progress, but if one keeps pushing consistently, it gets easier and the progress gets greater.

I really liked your prayer in Greek at the end. Can you please post the text? Thanks!

[PastorEdwinTheProverbiallife]

This was encouraging. Thank you for this video brother. Can you please post those links that you mentioned in this video? Thank you. Grace and Peace.

[uservdhdunxinfstinf]

look into Dr. Ammon Hillman. best greek philologist in the world.

[yana___]

Would Reading Greek and "Greek: An Intensive Course" (Hansen & Quinn) work well together? Mostly interested in Attic/Homeric
This vid was very insightful.

[abhinavchauhan]

Sir i really really really want to learn ancient greek but every person i came across told me the same thing
1 it will get 1 year just to understand the grammar.
2 Ancient Greek has an extensive vocabulary of active words and you *CANNOT EVER* expect to really just "read" it as if you were reading a modern language.
I am really demotivated by all of this.
I dont want to waste 7 hour daily for 10 years just so i can reach the point of *CANNOT* being able to really just "read" a book. Please help me

[billanderson]

Which Greek New Testament is that? Looks really nice

[bridgerbond]

Hey Dane, can you update the resource list? I am having a hard time stopping the video and looking up what you’re recommending. 😂

[matthew]

I like your videos and the ideas but I think this type of video would be much more helpful if you limited your time and stuck to your points. It makes it hard to follow when there is so many rabbit trails. I order Machen’s book. I like Machen’s other works so I’m excited to let my first learning Greek book come from him.

Also what about just learning modern Greek for a beginner? Seems it would be maybe easier to just learn modern Greek with like rosetta stone then move to biblical Ancient Greek after you get a good grip on modern greek? Just seems this make be a lot easier and quicker way to read and speak Greek.

If all the Greek speakers you found could read and understand your TR then why start with the harder older Greek instead of starting with the modern easy Greek moving then to the older Greek after a year or two.

If someone wanted to learn English to read older English works I don’t think I’d start them with that old English spelling, archaic wording and such. I’d just tell them to learn modern English learn with all the new modern teaching tools, learn with actually interacting with Greek media video, audio and personally online then they will easily be able to move to the harder older stuff. And this move would be more organic than forced.

I’m also interested in how the Greek Orthodox teach Greek. I know they are big on all their people learning Greek. I wonder what approach they take now days.