Greek I and II will be offered in the 2008-09 school year, in a completely online format. This is a for-credit seminary level course, offered through an ATS accredited seminary.
For more information about the course itself, please contact
the instructor. For information on enrollment, tuition, etc., please contact
Amy Gall Ritchie ritcham@bethanyseminary.edu
or Elizabeth Keller at Bethany Theological Seminary: kelleel@bethanyseminary.edu,
800-287-8822.
This web page was last updated on August 20, 2008. Minor changes may be posted
later.
Welcome to New Testament Greek! You're welcome to use this page to learn the Greek alphabet and sound out words, even if you don't take the course. The online course itself uses open source online courseware known as Moodle.
If you're considering taking the course please EMail the instructor (specify Bethany Greek I, Fall 08) so I'll know you've gotten this far, and keep me posted as to how you're coming along. I'll be checking the Moodle course itself for enrolled students' completion of the assignments. If you register late you must be in touch to make arrangements to catch up! If you have any problems with the assignment (technical or otherwise) please don't hesitate to EMail or call the instructor, Susan Jeffers, at jeffesu@earlham.edu.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This course is "front-loaded" in the sense that we cover a lot of the introductory material very quickly at the beginning. Please start as soon as possible studying the Croy textbook, and completing the exercises at the end of each lesson. The weekly schedule will run from Monday through Sunday; the first "week" starts Thursday 28 August and ends Sunday 31 August. We will cover Croy Lessons 1 and 2 in that abbreviated first "week." In Week 2, September 1-7, we will cover Croy Lessons 3 and 4. After that we'll be doing approximately 1 lesson per week, completing the first 16 lessons in Greek I, and then the rest of the book in Greek II.
Order them from the Earlham College Bookstore (765-983-1310). You can also try to find them at a discounted price online or locally, new or used, if you start looking early, but be aware that as the fall semester approaches they will become harder to get. Booksellers have been known to confirm orders and promise delivery dates which they are then unable to meet due to high demand.
3 Required books:
(1) A Primer of Biblical Greek, by N. Clayton Croy (Eerdmans). Second
Edition, 2007 (includes a CD). ISBN 9780802860002.
NOTE: As of mid February 2008, the information on amazon.com for this
book is pretty confusing as to which edition and whether the CD is included.
I recommend using a different source until they get it straightened out.It's
$26.00 plus shipping from Eerdmans, http://www.eerdmans.com/shop/product.asp?p_key=9780802860002
Or you could special-order it from a local bookseller.
(2) The Greek New Testament, Fourth Revised Edition with Dictionary (Deutsche Biblegesellschaft/United Bible Societies) ISBN 3438051133.
(3) Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd edition, by Walter Bauer, William Arndt and Frederick W. Danker (University of Chicago Press, 2000) ISBN 0226039331.
Optional books:
If you're interested in Biblical Greek and Hebrew generally, this is a fine resource:
How Biblical Languages Work: A Student's Guide to Learning Hebrew and Greek. Peter James Silzer & Thomas John Finley (Kregel, 2004).
If your knowledge of English grammar is poor, or if you just want a review, consider getting one of these books:
English Grammar to Ace New Testament Greek. Samuel Lamerson (Zondervan, 2004) ISBN 0310255341 or
Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Greek: Learning Biblical Greek Grammatical
Concepts Through English Grammar. Gary A. Long (Hendrickson, 2006) ISBN
1565634063.
In order to learn Greek over the Internet in this course, you will need to install the "bwgrkl" Greek fonts. Fonts are the computer's way of handling Greek letters, so you see the Greek alphabet on your computer screen rather than English. You will need to "install" these 3 fonts on the computer you'll be using for the course. If you're not particularly computer savvy, get someone to help you, or just try following the instructions at the link. If you get stuck, you can call the instructor, but try it on your own first. You can also contact Bethany's Seminary Computing Support Help Desk at (765) 982-1568, email help@scs.earlham.edu, for assistance.
| Bwgrkl is the font that comes with the computer program BibleWorks. It will be the primary font I'll use when I post examples, exercises and quiz questions. You can also use it for incorporating Greek script into your academic or other writing, for example if you want to discuss a particular Greek word or phrase. You can download Bwgrkl at http://www.bibleworks.com/fonts.html. When you have it properly installed, you should see the writing at the right in Greek characters. | evlqe,tw h` basilei,a sou\ genhqh,tw to. qe,lhma,
sou( w`j evn ouvranw/| kai. evpi. gh/j\ |
Even before you have the font working properly (in other words, the writing in the right column above is in Greek), click here to start learning the Greek alphabet.
Then, when the font is installed, if you like you can practice sounding out Greek sentences by reading along with 1 John 1:5-2:5 or John 1:1-18. You'll need a sound card, speakers, and properly installed software to hear the Greek pronounced. Even though no one actually speaks New Testament Greek today (in the sense of using it in everyday life), nevertheless speaking and hearing the Greek New Testament will aid your learning tremendously. Memorizing passages of the New Testament in Greek can also be a wonderful devotional practice, and over time will deepen your understanding of scripture.
NOTE: To learn the Greek alphabet and practice sounding out Greek words, you can use either the sound files linked from this page OR the various resources available commercially or free online. You are also free to use either the "Erasmian" style pronunciation presented here and in Croy, or "modern" Greek pronunciation. Just be sure to choose one system and stick with it, and get to a reasonable degree of proficiency early on! Unless you have some reason to choose modern pronunciation, you're probably best-off using Erasmian.
This course consists of 14 weekly units using the required books and the online “Moodle” courseware. Check back here later for the details of the course schedule. We'll be covering roughly half of the Croy text in Greek I, and the second half in Greek II. Throughout the course you will need to set aside at least 9-12 hours of “quality time” per week for studying the chapters, memorizing vocabulary and grammatical forms, and doing the exercises. In addition, you will need to check Email and log onto the Internet for at least 30 minutes or an hour twice or three times a week. If you have commitments that you know will keep you from working on a particular unit at the scheduled time, you can work ahead; but once a unit’s end date has come no late work will be accepted. Toward the end of the semester, you will need to arrange for a suitable local proctor to monitor your work on the final exam.
THESE WILL BE THE INSTRUCTIONS ONCE THE COURSE IS MADE AVAILABLE THE WEEK OF AUGUST 25:
To enter the Moodle courseware:
(1) Go to http://moodle.bts.earlham.edu/
(2) Click on "Fall 2008 Courses"
(3) Click on "New Testament Greek I (Fall 2008)" and follow the instructions to log on.
If you have trouble with the logon procedure, please try the "help me log in" button on the Moodle login page. After that, if you think your trouble has to do with your user ID or password, email help@scs.earlham.edu for assistance. If you have a username and password but do not seem to be enrolled in the course, contact Joanna Schofield (schofjo@bethanyseminary.edu).
Once you're in the Moodle course, your work for the first few weeks should be reasonably self-explanatory. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call or EMail the instructor!
Any questions? Don't hesitate to contact Susan Jeffers, jeffesu@earlham.edu