Greek Vocabulary: Seminaries get this wrong (but you don't have to)

Why do students give up on Greek? I'm convinced one reason is the way they are taught to learn vocabulary by colleges and seminaries. But there is a better way and in this video, we'll take a look at it and explain why it is superior to the way taught in seminaries and how seminaries and colleges can begin to transition students to it.

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[theoglossa]

"We should not require students to learn vocabulary by occurrences. Do not go beyond 20 occurrences. Learn vocabulary book by book instead."

Thanks for this!

[TheStrataminor]

As a person fascinated by languages, and of course Koine Greek, this is an interesting approach. I lately have been simply reading vocab as it occurs in the books itself so glad to hear that this is a good idea. I do agree on a standard body of vocabulary though, the main 600 to give you some 'bare bones' and confidence. Also if you look at various lists of frequency words, they often vary, and are not always in agreement! Another great lesson here from Dr Darryl!

[LuisGonzalez-qhtm]

Thank you sir!, this will keep me learning and completing my first year of Greek. Appreciate your hard work, may the LORD bless your service to all.

[alexandersmith]

During first year Greek, I learned the core words with Mounce. Then I spent last summer learning words 25x or more and translating sentences throughout the Bible with a text by Van Pelt.

Now having been a month into your method, I am now able to read 1 John. Your approach definitely works. Keep up the great work!

[danieljarchow]

Thanks for making these videos! It's been really helpful for me getting my Greek back after not using it for 9 years. I've been using Burer and Miller's "A New Reader's Lexicon" to learn the vocabulary of the NT starting with 1 John. It's amazing how enjoyable it is when you know the vocabulary. It makes you feel fluent and you can get the feel for the language and process the meaning better. This has been a game changer!

[gabrielhammons]

I am just about to finish my second year of Greek at FBBC&TS and I was already beginning to feel like reading greek fluently was a hopeless cause for this very reason. I am excited by this idea and interested in learning more about it. Thanks for all your hard work Dr. Darryl.

[faithfulapologetics]

As someone who has over the last decade tried off and on to learn Greek this is very helpful! I have BibleWorks and the ability to make vocabulary lists based on books of the Bible in the Greek New Testament (Logos obvious had the ability as well, and eventually I will upgrade to Logos). This should really help!

[paulakahn]

Totally agree. I've never learned vocab by occurrence. Learning all the words in the text that I'm reading brings immediate rewards and keeps motivation strong. Keep up the great work Dr. Burling. You are in my prayers.

[TigerU]

This has been true to my experience, thanks for another great video!

[stephensiu]

So true. Cannot agree more. It is much more enjoyable to be able to read through without needing to look up words all the time. I retain most of the grammar since my 1st seminary course in early 2000. It is a game-changer.

[NicholasproclaimerofMessiah]

In my opinion, this video gives excellent advice.

I'm terrible at raw memorization; I require specific significance in order that I may remember something. For me, it's more important that I can correctly assess the Greek, rather than that I personally have words memorized. So, for me, my focus is on getting excellent results from the application of tools. This does not look impressive to others, but it lets me put energy into careful accuracy. I am good at careful assessment, but terrible at raw memorization.

As I have better awareness of what is going on with the Greek, I become more able to memorize it. This is a slower process, but it is also more careful and gives me better footing for assessing the abstract nuances of linguistic expression.

[nathanieltitus]

I'm taking Greek in seminary right now, and using Mounce's BBG. My vocabulary is up to chapter 29

[phesperanto]

I am learning Greek with the text without translation and a text with the translation. I try to find words in French link to Greek. I also divided the words into prefixes, roots and suffixes than I try to find connection with French or Dutch or even English. I don’t have French words for each Greek word but I find a lot. If I don’t find: a try to connect the words with it first meaning. I think you are right to study the vocabulary book by book.

[larrykreeger]

It’s not intuitive but I think you’re correct.

[glennindustrious]

This has given me a lot of food for thought. I am still very much at an intermediate level. I have been explicitly seeking to learn words by occurrence and I have well worked the NT frequencies through 15x. (I stopped for a while at 15x and worked the cards many times over but also to look up and read the actual occurrences of these words in the NT). My intention has never been to keep going 'as low as I can go' to say, 5x, or even lower. I recognize the great number of words between 15x and 5x. Instead, I'm out to get to around 12-10x but I am okay with the thought of spending months to get to 10x as long as I am also working in the NT text.
I do think, however, that one can work to get their vocabulary a ways under 20x and still be working the individual vocabulary of a book under study, both to excellent profit. For instance, I was leading a study in Galatians and working its vocabulary as I was simultaneously working frequencies. I use the Sakae Kubo A Reader's Greek-English Lexicon of the NT for the vocabulary of individual chapters. In other words, I work the chapter's vocab but I also try to push ahead a few words in the frequencies. Little by little can result over time in some deep progress.
But I do get and take your point in this video. I just wonder if 20x is not enough--close, but not enough. As little as pushing ahead to 17x-16x has--for this non-expert who is still very much a learner--pushed me to a point where the number of words I need to look up isn't too distracting from the flow of attempting to read a passage. Certainly, it would be quite the misuse of time to work vocabulary frequencies down to 1x and then and only then try to read the NT.

[giannirussso]

Hey Darryl, could you make a video of a list of the difficulty of books of the Greek New Testament for reading (taking into account things like vocabulary, grammar, syntax, etc.) and go on explaining why you (subjectively) chose the books in such order and why you think book “x” is harder than book “y” etc? I think that would be very interesting and greatly helpful for us viewers! Thank you!

Greetings from a biblical language major at The Master’s University

[jacobh]

What are some of the tools to get word list for each book in the GNT?

[Kayokak]

at present, I'm learning the words for 1 John. It might be because i'm part of one of your greek courses :P

[barryhoffman]

It sounds like good advice. However, what you're assuming is that people who read the Bible with "tools", e.g. readers editions, are not doing so consistently. I use readers editions of both the NT and OT and I read them daily. When I make it through the entire book, I start over again. I try to read at least 1 chapter a day each of the NT and the OT. The result is that every time I read it through I find myself looking at the running lexicon less and less. Why? Because by repetition I have picked up more and more words. There are even a lot of hapax legomena that I recall without having to look at the lexicon. I doubt that I will ever be 100% fluent in Greek or Hebrew and not have to look at the running lexicon. That's not my goal. Rather than try to become totally fluent in either of these languages, I would prefer to spend time picking up another language, e.g. I'm working on Aramaic now and once I get done I might take a look at Syriac or Latin. I consider readers editions a godsend.

[life-is-excellent]

I followed the link to student mastery class to get the PDF with vocabulary book by book, but it only leads to the masterclass subscription page. Too bad.