Biblical Greek = ???

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Trapy
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Biblical Greek = ???

Postby Trapy » 2015-11-30, 3:02

Hello all,

I am considering going from nothing to A1 in modern Greek. However, TONS. and TONS. AND MORE TONS of reference material keeps saying "Biblical Greek". The only thing I know is... one, it seems mostly faith based. and two, this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1PZlyKVLRk#t=0m46s

now, he seems a nutter to begin with, but given the extreme amounts of resources i seem to stumble across, is there any value in learning "biblical Greek" along side modern Greek? If i get rolling into B1 territory later in the year, i might branch out some into ancient Greek (Odyssey in origional language? yes please!) , but the years between the concord of Nikea to the fall of Constantinople do contain lots of interesting history, and unless this is fundamentalist trash, just given the huge depths of resources available i might considor it (much later in the future).
"and now every toilet will burn to ashes!""

dimos
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Re: Biblical Greek = ???

Postby dimos » 2015-12-18, 23:48

"Hellenistic Koine" is more appropriate than "Biblical Greek", which seems to have been coined by scholars influenced by "Biblical Hebrew". The Hellenistic Koine language was much more than a religious language, so it can not be defined as "Biblical Greek".
The homeric language of the Odyssey is much more archaic than the Koine and I'm not sure the Koine will help you understand the Odyssey. But if you learn Classical Attic dialect, you will cover the majority of ancient and medieval literature since it was the language used by scholars until modern times.

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Re: Biblical Greek = ???

Postby cHr0mChIk » 2015-12-19, 0:42

He says that the "Codex Sinaiticus" (the oldest new testament we have) is a "corrupt thing", and that his King James Version (which was written 13 centuries later) is not?

He says that the "King James Version" is the word of God...

.. I've listened to some of his preachings, and I can say that I've never heard that much of rubbish in one video...
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HoneyBuzzard
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Re: Biblical Greek = ???

Postby HoneyBuzzard » 2015-12-19, 14:07

To quote Fortson:

It is a remarkable fact that Greek has remained Greek over its 3300-year written history. Throughout this time, its dialects never developed into mutually incomprehensible languages, and are at all times recognizably woven out of the same linguistic fabric.


Resources for any dialect of Greek are to lesser or greater degree applicable to the rest, and indeed Biblical Greek is mostly just Classical Greek. Aside from the missing dual the only major differences in morphology I can think of off the top of my head are the third person plural of the imperatives. There are many other changes, but these are mostly shifts is class, e.g., Biblical Greek turns a lot of Classical Greek vocalic futures into sigmatic futures; that is to say, Biblical Greek has vocalic futures too, they're just rarer than in Classical Greek. I mostly read texts in Biblical Greek, and I always keep a copy of Smyth's Greek Grammar, which focuses on Ancient Greek, on hand, and it's as helpful for Biblical Greek as any book that's specifically about Koine.

Having said that, I don't know why you would study Biblical Greek if you aren't interested in the subject matter. There are plenty of resources for any dialect of Greek you want, and even the resources for Biblical Greek are often based on Ancient Greek. Case in point, William Mounce's Morphology of Biblical Greek can't go two pages without making a reference to Smyth. I just looked up a random page, and there were two references on that page alone.

I'd just focus on Modern Greek if I were you. Then later get a copy of Hardy Hansen's Greek: An Intensive Course or something.

"Hellenistic Koine" is more appropriate than "Biblical Greek", which seems to have been coined by scholars influenced by "Biblical Hebrew". The Hellenistic Koine language was much more than a religious language, so it can not be defined as "Biblical Greek".


Fair enough, but on account of its international spread the language changed a lot during the Koine era, and different regions, certainly outside of Greece, showed considerable variation. Biblical Greek simplifies things by not worrying about developments that never made it into the christian or Hellenistic jewish texts (particularly since early christian writers held the Septuagint, which is from the beginning of the Koine period, as a standard).

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Re: Biblical Greek = ???

Postby dimos » 2015-12-19, 17:56

HoneyBuzzard wrote: I'd just focus on Modern Greek if I were you. Then later get a copy of Hardy Hansen's Greek: An Intensive Course or something.

Learning Attic Greek or Hellenistic Koine ("Biblical Greek") is very useful for one who wants to be fluent in Modern Greek. There are "grey areas" in Modern Greek where you need to use the ancient type of a verb, noun or participle.

HoneyBuzzard wrote: Biblical Greek simplifies things by not worrying about developments that never made it into the christian or Hellenistic jewish texts (particularly since early christian writers held the Septuagint, which is from the beginning of the Koine period, as a standard).


By "Biblical Greek" you mean the Septuagint Koine or the New Testament Koine?

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Re: Biblical Greek = ???

Postby HoneyBuzzard » 2015-12-21, 17:06

dimos wrote:Learning Attic Greek or Hellenistic Koine ("Biblical Greek") is very useful for one who wants to be fluent in Modern Greek. There are "grey areas" in Modern Greek where you need to use the ancient type of a verb, noun or participle.


No doubt, just like many forms that only exist in contracted forms in Hellenistic Greek require knowledge of the earlier uncontracted forms to make sense, but personally I feel that Greek is difficult enough as it is. Maybe the OP is a more efficient language-learner than I am, but one dialect at a time is enough for me.

dimos wrote:By "Biblical Greek" you mean the Septuagint Koine or the New Testament Koine?


The textbooks on Biblical Greek that I own don't distinguish the two. Of course they usually focus on NT Koine, but I find the Septuagint readable as NT Koine as well.


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