Ep. 40 - Best Book for Learning New Testament Greek | Reading Koine Greek by Rodney Decker

Have you ever wanted to learn to read the New Testament in Greek but didn't know where to start? In this episode I share 4 reasons why my favorite is Reading Koine Greek by Rodney Decker along with 2 negatives about the book. The book's streamlined morphology and use of the "4 quad chart" helps unlock Greek morphology. So if you're looking to learn or review Greek, this episode is for you!

0:00 Introduction

0:36 Reason #1 - Streamlined Morphology

2:45 Reason #2 - Up To Date

3:43 Reason #3 - Thorough Explanations

6:24 Reason #4 - Other Greek Texts

7:01 Con #1 - Workbook

7:49 Con #2 - Length

8:37 - Conclusion

Best Book for Learning New Testament Greek | Reading Koine Greek by Rodney Decker

Hi friends, there are a lot of Greek grammars available and while all will teach you Greek, and some are really good and beneficial, the question is, which is best? Now I have taught out of this book for several years and I have four reasons why I think this book is the best one, as well as there's two cons. My favorite is Reading Koine Greek by Rodney Decker. But what makes this book the best? Well, let's look at these four reasons. I'm JC Schroeder and this is Bite Size Seminary. The first reason is the streamlined morphology explanation. A lot of books teach Greek by giving you what feels like 17,000 charts of morphology to memorize, which is just like overwhelming, like it's impossible. So Decker, the author of this book. He seeks to avoid this rote memory work as much as possible. It's still needed to some degree, but he tries to limit it as much as he can. He provides formulas for the morphology, and this is where I think it's real gold. For instance, the verb endings are streamlined to four charts called the four-quad chart, and this four-quad chart, it unlocked verb morphology for me. It makes things so much easier to keep everything in your head. The four-quad chart breaks down between primary and secondary tenses and active and middle voices. So instead of learning a new chart for a different tense or voice, he shows how they share the same endings. This is key. This helps you to remember the forms easier, but also to parse better. In addition, he has formulas to use with the various tense form markers. For example, here's the formula for the first heiress active indicative. You have the epsilon augment on the front of the full stem and then you have that sigma alpha form marker that we're used to seeing with the first heiress forms and then we have B personal endings. There He's using the four quad chart. So using the four quad chart with the formulas is a very streamlined approach to morphology and if you want more details about how these forms are built, he Explains this morphology, how they're built, in any oddities with a form that might come up in the footnotes. I think for me personally, this aspect of the book is worth its price. All by itself It's that good. The second reason I like this book is that the book is up to date with current Greek advancements. The study of Greek has advanced tremendously in the last 20 to 30 years and some grammars are Still lagging behind a bit. Decker presents up-to-date information about, specifically the middle voice and verbal aspect. Yet, and you might think that this gets a little bit too technical, but his discussion remains quite accessible. So Decker is, i think, find this interesting. Decker is a leading scholar on Verbal aspect, especially in the Gospel of Mark, so he definitely knows his stuff when he when he's describing this and the Advancements that have happened over the last couple years, but when he writes about it it never becomes too technical for the beginning student. Now, verbal aspect is a difficult concept, but this is a very good entry point into some cutting-edge stuff. The third reason is the book has good and thorough explanations. This is true in four different areas. First, many students do not know English grammar I know, i didn't and thus are confused with terms and with even syntax itself. So Decker does a good job of clearly explaining a concept in English, how it works in English, before then moving on to the Greek equivalent or the topic that he's covering in Greek. This aspect is really helpful because it shows a lot of compassion for a student who's maybe struggling in learning the language. Second, it provides quote-a-quote advanced information for reference Sections at the end of most chapters for the interested or for those that are just going to return later to this. This is one of the benefits, i think, of this book is that it will grow with you. It's not just I'm learning it right now and then I need another book later on. You may need other books later, but this will grow with you. You can easily come back to this book and fill in some gaps and Already be familiar with the book. It really, i think, threads that needle well with having some Intermediate aspects for you to return to. Third, for the vocabulary, there are detailed definitions along with simplified glosses. It helps students to begin to understand and learn the semantic range of words. Words don't have just one meaning, so, for example, the word run us. The typical glosses are sky or heaven. But Decker further gives the definition of Quote that part of the universe surrounding the earth, including the atmosphere, sky and or the place where other cosmic bodies are located, the heavens, the place where God's presence is manifested, heaven. He also gives how many times the word appears in the New Testament and the substitution. He does this for all of the vocabulary terms. So you're gonna learn something like 425 I think it is off the top of my head Words from the New Testament and the substitution, and so this is really really helpful, helping the student to understand the different definitions of words. Fourth, it also has great charts and indices. Don't sleep on this now, because nothing frustrates a student or myself more than not being able to find something. And having really good charts to be able to say this is what a form looks like. We're having an index to be able to find where in your textbook that is is really helpful. The final reason why this book is the best is that it is not limited to the New Testament only. There is a healthy amount of Septuagint readings, and even some from the church fathers. This helps, i think, prepare students to read text outside of the New Testament and thus can help improve reading skills as well as exegesis, because if you are able to read the Septuagint, then you're going to hear those residences in the New Testament as well. Now, no grammar is perfect, and there are a couple of cons to this book. The first con is the difficulty level of the workbook exercises. Now, i am glad that there is a workbook integrated throughout the grammar. That's super cool. The problem, though, is that the exercises are just too difficult for beginning students. I love that you've got these exercises, that they are real Greek, that they come from the New Testament and from the Septuagint, but it can just be frustrating to use. The first year I used this as a textbook in my elementary Greek class. I thought I would just use these exercises in the book, but I realized a few weeks into the class that this was not going to work and I just had to make my own homework assignments. So it's a bit more extra work for a teacher, and it's a bit unfortunate that it's not a bit more user-friendly or student-friendly in that regard. On the other hand, the second con is, you know, it's quite small, and it relates to the length of the book. This is a big boy, it's a big book. It comes in at 672 pages. That's a lot, and I think this is really a double-edged sword. Sometimes students just need a short explanation Here's the chart and then move on, and the book tries to do this as much as it can. But this book is by no means bloated. It's not full of extra exposition or something like that, and I would personally would rather have more than less. The length, though, is just something to note, and, as I mentioned earlier, one of the pros of this is that you can come back to this book as well. The length is something to note. It's maybe a con, it's maybe a benefit, depending on the situation. All that to say, this is my favorite Greek grammar, and the pros definitely outweigh the cons. So if you're looking for a great book to learn or even review Greek, this one is for you. You should check it out. If you want to learn more tips and resources for learning Greek, check out the video on the screen. I hope that helps. Thank you for watching.