New Testament Greek for Beginners

by Machen, J. Gresham, Deceased; McCartney, Dan G.

• ISBN13: 9780131842342
• ISBN10: 013184234X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

This book is intended primarily for learners who are beginning the study of the Greek Testament either without any previous acquaintance with the Greek language or with an acquaintance so imperfect that a renewed course of elementary instruction is needed. This revision, over seventy-five years since the first edition was published, retains much of the character and organization of the first edition while accommodating readers today who lack an understanding of Latin and grammar necessary for fully comprehending the original edition. For an introduction to the Greek Testament.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface to the Revised Edition

Preface to the Original Edition

Introduction

Abbreviations

The Alphabet

Accent

Present Active Indicative

The Second Declension

The First Declension

Adjectives of the First and Second Declension

Masculine Nouns of the First Declension

Personal Pronouns

Adverbs

Present Passive and Middle Indicative

Imperfect Active Indicative

Imperfect Middle and Passive Indicative

Future Active and Middle Indicative

First Aorist Active and Middle Indicative

Second Aorist Active and Middle Indicative

Aorist Passive Indicative

The Third Declension

Progressive Participles

Attributive Participles

Aorist Active and Middle Participles

Aorist Passive Participle

The Subjunctive Mood

The Progressive and Aorist Infinitives

Contracting Verbs

Future and First Aorist Active and Middle of Liquid Verbs

More Nouns of the Third Declension

Additional Irregular Declensions

Interrogative and Indefinite Pronouns

The Imperative Mood

The Perfect Tense

Comparison of Adjectives

Irregular Aorists, and the -mi Verb (part 1)

Purpose Clauses, and -mi Verbs (part 2)

-mi Verbs (part 3), and Conditions Contrary to Fact

-mi Verbs (part 4),and the Optative Mood

Paradigms

Charts

Glossary

Greek-English Vocabulary

English-Greek Vocabulary

Frequency List (prepared by Professor Bruce M. Metzger)

Section Number Correlations

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

It has been more than eighty years since Dr. Machen produced his classic textbook on New Testament Greek. And yet, as this revision is being prepared, the original edition is still in print. As an unrevised textbook this surely has set some kind of record. A number of reasons might be adduced for this longevity: its clarity of organization, its pedagogical simplicity, its conciseness of presentation and description, its success in dividing and arranging the material, and no doubt its familiarity to three or four generations of New Testament Greek instructors. Yet much has changed since 1923. For one thing, our knowledge of many aspects of New Testament Greek has been considerably refined. Perhaps more important, the educational preparation of students is quite different at the end of the twentieth century than it was at the beginning. Very few students now arrive in class with a solid working knowledge of Latin, and many students do not even have good grounding in English grammar. Rudiments of language that Dr. Machen assumed all students would know can no longer be taken for granted. Many instructors have argued that these are good reasons for preparing another grammar entirely and giving Machen's grammar an honored place in a museum, where it may be forgotten. And indeed, criticism of Machen, regarding both content and pedagogical effectiveness, has not been lacking. But surely an alternative is to revise Machen's grammar in light of our present situation, and thus make the effectiveness of this classic available to a new generation. This revision is fairly conservative. Since one main advantage of the original is its familiarity, the reviser has tried to retain as much of its character and organization as possible. The following is an outline of the main differences from the original. Although the lessons and section divisions remain essentially the same, there is a noticeable change in organization in the division of lesson 18 into two parts. Since--as Dr. Machen himself repeatedly stressed--the participle is crucial to understanding New Testament Greek, and since this lesson is usually the most difficult for students, it seemed wise to expand the explanations and illustrations in this lesson. But since lesson 18 was already inordinately long, it seemed best to divide it. In order to keep the lesson numbers in line with the original, the resulting lessons are numbered 18A and 18B. Similarly, since the final three lessons cover not only the verbs but also a number of syntactical matters that often lead students to feel somewhat overwhelmed, I have removed some of the syntactical matters of lessons 31-33, along with an additional lesson, numbered 34. This addition, of course, does not alter the numbering of earlier lessons. The section numbers are not so easily retained as are the lesson numbers. Some new sections have been added, either to clarify some grammatical matters or to add some material that the original edition overlooked; several sections have been modified to a greater or lesser degree; and occasionally the order of sections has been altered. It was thus impracticable to keep section numbers the same, but for ease of reference the original section numbers (where they correspond) have been included throughout in square brackets . Thus it should be possible for a student to use an old edition of Machen in a class where this new edition is the text, and longtime instructors who have memorized many of the original section numbers will not find it difficult to locate the section they have in mind. Since many students may not know the terms of English grammar and syntax, a glossary has been added that defines basic grammatical and linguistic terms. A few paradigms and charts have been added both in the text and in the back matter, in particular a list of prepositions and a chart of vowel contractions. In the vocabulary section at the en