Greek Archives - Page 4 of 4

Mark Goodacre pointed out that the German Bible Society has added a handy “look up” feature to their Academic website. Users now can read the German Luther 1984, Nestle-Aland 27, the Septuagint, the Vulgate and the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia Hebrew Bible. The KJV is also available.

I accessed the site using Windows 7 and Firefox 6.x. The Greek text is displayed quickly and it is readable, using the SBL Greek font. (I always thought that font looked like it was in italics.) Since this is a Unicode font I copied and pasted text into Word without any difficulty. The default font is Calibri (Body), but could I change the text to SBL if necessary. To me, the Times Roman font is the best looking Greek. Hebrew pasted into Word with as Ariel, which is not a very good rendering of Hebrew. I changed the font to the Times Roman Unicode font and it looked fine and all vowels and accents.

I tested the site on my iPad using Safari. The Greek is readable, although I am not thrilled with the iPad’s font for Greek. It has accents and breathing marks, but I just do not like reading the “square font. I need to zoom in a bit on just the text for reading, but that is not a problem. I copied a sample bit of Greek text and paste it into Evernote without any problems. The Hebrew font in Safari is terrible. It is blocky and does not seem to handle all of the characters correctly. There are spaces within words, etc. I copied a verse and pasted into Evernote, and the text was formatted properly.

These criticisms a problem only on the iPad, not the German Bible Society website. I cannot see any way to change the default font on the iPad version of Safari, so the use of the Hebrew text is limited. Has anyone tested this site on an Android? Perhaps the fonts are better, I would like to hear from you.

By creating an account, a user can search these texts. Sign up is free, but I could not get the registration page in English. I guess my Reading German class finally came in handy! I tried several times to get the search to work, but was unable to use the feature. I tried changing to a Greek Keyboard, searched for logos, log*, etc. Each time I received no hits.

If you do not have access to a Greek or Hebrew Bible via Logos or Olive Tree, check out the Bible Society’s web page. This is a very handy site for students who need access to a word or phrase for a paper but have not yet invested in Bible Software.

I received two recent books from Zondervan in the mail this week. Both are valuable tools for studying the Greek New Testament.

Constantine R. Campbell, Keep Your Greek: Strategies for Busy People, 90 pages, $9.95.

This little book is an answer to the most common question a Greek teacher is asked: “What should I do to keep up on my Greek after seminary?” As sad as it is to admit, even the best students of Greek in college or seminary find it nearly impossible to improve their Greek once they are in ministry. While most pastors want to use Greek in sermon preparation, the realities of a busy Pastor’s life prevent careful exegesis of the Greek New Testament, most are forced to rely on commentaries and inter-linear Bibles.

For the most part, Campbell’s strategy for keeping one’s Greek sharp is to read the Greek New Testament every day, slowly and without the use of the typical crutches on which pastors rely too heavily. This is the same sort of advice I give, and probably every teacher of Greek gives. But Campbell points out that it is important to set a reachable goal, 15 minutes a day, or perhaps even as little as a verse a day. This is excellent advice, since most who set out to sharpen their Greek try to do more than they are capable of, and end up failing. As far as crutches, Campbell recommends you “burn your Interlinear.” All Greek teachers will agree here, although we might ask why you bought it in the first place! Similar advice applies to computer aids, since it is so very easy to read Greek when Logos or Accordance is glossing and parsing every word for you as you scroll. To improve your Greek, computer tools have to be used judiciously.

The book is written in a very light style with good illustrations and stories to make the point. Occasionally quite funny, the advice in the book ought to inspire a pastor toward re-viving their Greek skills. At a mere $10 retail, there is no reason not to buy this little book. Much of the material in this book originated on Campbell’s blog, Read Better, Preach Better. In fact, each chapter ends with a comment section drawn from the original discussion on the blog. A Senior Lecturer at Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia, Campbell is the author of Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek (Zondervan, 2008). Based on the samples on his website, he is a pretty good Jazz saxophonist.

William D. Mounce, Biblical Greek: A Compact Guide, 212 pages, $19.95.

This little volume is a handy summary of Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek (BBG). It contains a basic summary of most major grammatical issues and a nice section containing paradigms and noun charts. He includes principle parts for verbs occurring 50 or more times in the Greek New Testament as well as a mini-lexicon (glossary) for words appearing 50 or more times. Of course all of this is available in his regular BBG, but Zondervan has published this material in a handy format (4.2 x 6.5 inches) with a heavy-duty plastic cover. I passed the book around my second year Greek students and most thought this little book would be a great help to their reading of the New Testament.

I would recommend this book for anyone who is trying to keep up with their Greek using Campbell’s book. If there is any drawback, it is the retail price of $19.95, since all of the material appears in Mounce’s Basic Grammar. My guess is that the reinforced binding and plastic cover added to the cost of the book. The handy size and usefulness of the contents make this a good addition to the busy pastor’s library.