Skoolz Owt

πεποιθως αὐτο τουτο ὅτι ὁ ἐναρξαμενος ἐν ὑμιν ἐργον ἀγαθον ἐπιτελεσει ἄχρις ἡμερας Ἰησου Χριστου•
ΠΡΟΣ ΦΙΛΙΠΠΗΣΙΟΥΣ 1:6

This particular work of God in us, the study of the Koine Greek of the New Testament, was begun six and-a-half months ago. Last Sunday, we gathered with family and friends to celebrate the completion of the first phase of the work. It was Graduation Day for the inaugural Course A of the Paihia Baptist Church Grεεk Class and a great time was had by all.

It was a day of fellowship, prayer, learning AND feasting! Spirit-filled Christians from four different churches came together to enjoy the wonderful Greek meal that all the students had a hand in preparing (and Sandy, who reminds us again that she is NOT learning Greek, prepared a most excellent lamb—thanks, Babe!); to listen to a special Why Learn Greek illustration, which hopefully gave the guests a small appreciation for the hard work and sacrifice all the students put into the course, and a glimpse of the wonderful rewards that come from it; as well as to congratulate the students in completing the course and earning the title of ΜΑΘΗΤΗΣ.


Congratulations to Colleen, Raewyn and Trish!

And I’d like to personally thank you for all the hard work you put in, for your patience with, and correction of, my many mistakes, and for your kindness towards me as I struggled to find my feet as a teacher—thank you, thank you! Each of you in your own way helped make the class a fun, encouraging and blessed place to spend a Sunday afternoon. I will miss you all and I ask God to be with you and keep you wherever He takes you until that glorious day of our Lord and Saviour, ὁ Ἰησους ὁ Χριστος.

God Bless,
Ἰακωβος

Lesson 18 and Why Learn Greek

Lesson 18 notes and the latest Why Learn Greek have been posted. As with last week's WLG, the latest incarnation is quite different from the in-class presentation, so it's definitely worth taking a look.

And, as always, if you'd rather have a hard copy, just post a request here or email me and I'll get one to you asap (in either MSWord or PDF format)!

Actually, saying that reminded me that I've edited the L18 notes since posting them here last night...I'll email you all a copy of those anyway.

God Bless,
Ἰακωβος

Upload Update Update

...okay, the latest Why Learn Greek has been written out and posted. Although it's on the same topic, the finished document is very different in form from the way it was presented last Sunday. So you might want to have a look. Let me know if you want a pdf or MSWord copy emailed to you.

Also, Lesson 17 is now posted--and btw, I had to put L1, 2, 3 & 4 together and L5, 6, 7 & 8 together.

God Bless,
Ἰακωβος

Upload Update

I've just loaded Lesson 15 & 16 and two more Why Learn Greek's.

Still have to upload L17 & yesterday's WLG, though.

Whew, there's always something!

God Bless,
Ἰακωβος

It’s All Downhill from Here

Χαρις ὑμιν,

I haven’t blogged for a while—been too busy having my head attacked by a masked-man with a knife and getting evicted....

Nearly a year-and-a-half ago, I sneezed far too forcefully and popped a nice, neat hole through 40 percent of my left eardrum and didn’t get the thing repaired until a few weeks ago. I’m pleased to report that the operation was an unqualified success. The skin-graft took hold just the way it should and there’s been no post-op infection (no pain or inflammation whatsoever). God is marvelous (and the doc played a blinder, too).

Moved house last Saturday—our landlord decided to move his dear old mum into the house we were renting and, as there wasn’t enough room for the three of us, Sandy and I had to go.

The shift went like clockwork. We were moving closer to the church and (most) of our friends (Trish, you really are going to have to move closer now.). It was a real church-family affair: We had the high-quality assistance of Pastor Bill and his wife Zak; church elder Steve; deacon & Greek student Trish; and prayer-partners & Greek students Larry & Jocelyn (who’s also the pastor at Kawakawa AOG) kindly let us use one of their trucks.

Thanks, guys, and God bless you all!

And I’d also like to thank Sandy for letting me off cleaning detail the next day so I could take the class. Isn’t she wonderful?

I’m blogging from the new house right now. It’s high on a hill and has heaps of room, five ranch-sliders, and a beautiful view of the Fall’s basin—or valley or…well, not sure what to call it, but whatever it’s called, it’s all downhill from here.

And speaking of “all downhill from here”, we’re nearing the end of the first ever Paihia Baptist Church Grεεk Class. This coming Sunday will be Lesson 17, leaving only three more actual lessons and one So What Happens Next day. Wow, can you believe it’s been six months already?

As for website business, I’ve still to post the latest Why Learn Greek and Lessons 15 & 16. I’ve also got to amend Lesson 14—need to add the Imperfect tense of εἰμι—hoping to get all those jobs done tomorrow.

Right, all for now. See you Sunday!

God bless,
Ἰακωβος

Oh-oh Σωζω

Χαρις ὑμιν,

Yesterday was stuffed full o’ good stuff!

Because of our day off the previous week, we ended up cramming two lessons into one class, as well as a quick review of the adjectival attributive & predicate position from L12’s. But everyone must have been enjoying it because we ran 15 minutes over our time and didn’t even notice!

There was also a bit of speed-bump, pedagogically-speaking. During the teaching on the final stem mute/future sigma combination section of L13, Trish asked, “What about ζ? What’s the future of σωζω?”

I was immediately thrown aback. I knew it was σωσω, but when I couldn’t find the reason it was σωσω in my lesson notes, my brain did a little synaptic Jitterbug! “Yeah,” I thought, “What about ζ?

Well, we took a frantic moment or two to find the 3rd person singular form in Trish’s Greek NT and, yes, the ζ definitely drops out—but I simply could not remember why! I knew I’d come across it in my preparation for the class, but just could not understand why it wasn’t in the notes.

Well, not to worry, everyone, it’s in there now! Here’s what happened: The Wenham’s grammar I used for the template of my lesson discusses the future forms of the non-mute stem consonants in a separate chapter (disguised as a discussion on “present stems” and “verbal stems”—eww), so I didn’t included it. But I’d listened to a much more satisfying lesson on it on my iPod! I’ve got Dr James Voelz’s Fundamental Greek Grammar iTunes lecture series on there and I always try to hear his take on the particular topics I’m teaching; helps give me a much deeper understanding of the material.

So, the upshot is, I’ve rewritten that section of L13 and will be posting it soon. I’ll also email everyone the corrected version (along with the similarly corrected L13 future table). And the new L14, too.

I’ll also mail out the last couple of WLG’s. Not sure why, but it seems a couple of people didn’t get them—or, more probably, I forgot to send them.

Okay, all for now—oh, except to say I’m working on a slightly different format for the L14 Practical Exercise. Should be finished tomorrow, so you’ll have by tomorrow night.

God bless,
Ἰακωβος

Auxiliary Information

Χαρις ὑμιν,

There are a couple of things I wanted to mention that aren’t in the Lesson notes.

Firstly, Colleen noticed that there were two spellings for John in Greek:

Ἰωαννης and Ἰωανης

Both of these spellings are correct. In fact, there is a note to this affect on pg 199 of the Wenham textbook scans.

The reason there are two is, I believe, due to the syllabification of Hebrew. There are many instances in Hebrew where a single consonant is used in two adjacent syllables; ending one then beginning the next one. When translating Hebrew into another language, this dual consonantal role is indicated by duplicating the consonant. For example the word Sabbath (שבת), which in Hebrew has only one letter for the B-sound (ב—the letter bet), but when translated into English (and Greek: σαββατον), it is given two. When it came time to write the Hebrew form of the name John, יוחנן (Yochanan), into Greek, there was some uncertainty as to whether the penultimate N was playing this dual role, so some writers duplicated it and others didn’t.

Secondly, Lesson 13 deals with the future tense. In English we use the auxiliaries “will” and “shall” to form the future tense. For simplicity’s sake, we are only going to use “will” in our class translations, but you will encounter both “shall” and “will” when reading the various English translations of the NT. For that reason, I think it will be helpful if I explain the proper, Oxbridge (combination of Oxford & Cambridge) usage of the two.

“Shall” is meant to be used in the first person singular and plural; “will” is meant to be used in the second and third person singular and plural. For example:

Singular: I shall see him tomorrow. You will see him tonight. She will see him next week.
Plural: We shall see him tomorrow. They will see him tonight.

However, if the sentences are emphatic, then the auxiliaries are reversed:

Singular: I most certainly will see him tomorrow! You shall indeed see him tonight!
Plural: We definitely will see him tomorrow! They shall certainly see him tonight!

These same rules of use apply to “should” and “would”.

Outside of British academia, these distinctions have largely disappeared from modern English, where “will” is used exclusively. Any future emphatic forms needed are indicated by special formatting (bold, capitalization or italicization) or punctuation (exclamation point).

Isn’t language a blast!

God bless,
Ἰακωβος

Reading Practice

Χαρις ὑμιν,

I've just emailed everyone the following reading practice in MSWord format. However, I know at least one of you can't open Word docs, and I can't convert it to pdf right now, so here it is on the blog!

ΚΑΤΑ ΙΩΑΝΝΗΝ 10

Ἀμην ἀμην λεγω ὑμιν, ὁ μη εἰσερχομενος δια της θυρας εἰς την αὐλην των προβατων, ἀλλα ἀναβαινων ἀλλαχοθεν, ἐκεινος κλεπτης ἐστι και λῃστης· ὁ δε εἰσερχομενος δια της θυρας ποιμην ἐστι των προβατων. τουτῳ ὁ θυρωρος ἀνοιγει, και τα προβατα της φωνης αὐτου ἀκουει, και τα ἰδια προβατα καλει κατ᾽ ὀνομα και ἐξαγει αὐτα. και ὁταν τα ἰδια προβατα ἐκβαλῃ, ἐμπροσθεν αὐτων πορευεται, και τα προβατα αὐτῳ ἀκολουθει, ὁτι οἰδασι την φωνην αὐτου· ἀλλοτριῳ δε οὐ μη ἀκολουθησωσιν, ἀλλα φευξονται ἀπ᾽ αὐτου, ὁτι οὐκ οἰδασι των ἀλλοτριων την φωνην. Ταυτην την παροιμιαν εἰπεν αὐτοις ὁ ᾿Ιησους· ἐκεινοι δε οὐκ ἐγνωσαν τινα ἠν ἃ ἐλαλει αὐτοις. Εἰπεν οὐν παλιν αὐτοις ὁ ᾿Ιησους· ἀμην ἀμην λεγω ὑμιν ὁτι ἐγω εἰμι ἡ θυρα των προβατων. παντες ὁσοι ἠλθον προ ἐμου, κλεπται εἰσι και λῃσται· ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἤκουσαν αὐτων τα προβατα. ἐγω εἰμι ἡ θυρα· δι᾽ ἐμου ἐαν τις εἰσελθῃ, σωθησεται, και εἰσελευσεται και ἐξελευσεται, και νομην εὑρησει. ὁ κλεπτης οὐκ ἐρχεται εἰ μη ἵνα κλεψῃ και θυσῃ και ἀπολεσῃ· ἐγω ἠλθον ἵνα ζωην ἐχωσι και περισσον ἐχωσιν. ἐγω εἰμι ὁ ποιμην ὁ καλος. ὁ ποιμην ὁ καλος την ψυχην αὐτου τιθησιν ὑπερ των προβατων· ὁ μισθωτος δε και οὐκ ὢν ποιμην, οὑ οὐκ εἰσι τα προβατα ἰδια, θεωρει τον λυκον ἐρχομενον και ἀφιησι τα προβατα και φευγει· και ὁ λυκος ἁρπαζει αὐτα και σκορπιζει τα προβατα. ὁ δε μισθωτος φευγει, ὁτι μισθωτος ἐστι και οὐ μελει αὐτῳ περι των προβατων. ἐγω εἰμι ὁ ποιμην ὁ καλος, και γινωσκω τα ἐμα και γινωσκομαι ὑπο των ἐμων, καθως γινωσκει με ὁ πατηρ κἀγω γινωσκω τον πατερα, και την ψυχην μου τιθημι ὑπερ των προβατων. και ἀλλα προβατα ἐχω, ἃ οὐκ ἐστιν ἐκ της αὐλης ταυτης· κἀκεινα με δει ἀγαγειν, και της φωνης μου ἀκουσουσι, και γενησεται μια ποιμνη, εἷς ποιμην. δια τουτο ὁ πατηρ με ἀγαπᾳ, ὁτι ἐγω τιθημι την ψυχην μου, ἵνα παλιν λαβω αὐτην. οὐδεις αἰρει αὐτην ἀπ᾽ ἐμου, ἀλλ᾽ ἐγω τιθημι αὐτην ἀπ᾽ ἐμαυτου· ἐξουσιαν ἐχω θειναι αὐτην, και ἐξουσιαν ἐχω παλιν λαβειν αὐτην· ταυτην την ἐντολην ἐλαβον παρα του πατρος μου.

Σχισμα οὐν παλιν ἐγενετο ἐν τοις ᾿Ιουδαιοις δια τοὺς λογους τουτους. ἐλεγον δε πολλοι ἐξ αὐτων· δαιμονιον ἐχει και μαινεται· τι αὐτου ἀκουετε; ἀλλοι ἐλεγον· ταυτα τα ῥηματα οὐκ ἐστι δαιμονιζομενου· μη δαιμονιον δυναται τυφλων ὀφθαλμοὺς ἀνοιγειν;

᾿Εγενετο δε τα ἐγκαινια ἐν τοις ῾Ιεροσολυμοις, και χειμων ἠν· και περιεπατει ὁ᾿Ιησους ἐν τῳ ἱερῳ ἐν τῃ στοᾳ του Σολομωντος. ἐκυκλωσαν οὐν αὐτον οἱ ᾿Ιουδαιοι και ἐλεγον αὐτῳ· ἑως ποτε την ψυχην ἡμων αἰρεις; εἰ σὺ εἰ ὁ Χριστος, εἰπε ἡμιν παρρησιᾳ. ἀπεκριθη αὐτοις ὁ ᾿Ιησους· εἰπον ὑμιν, και οὐ πιστευετε· τα ἐργα ἃ ἐγω ποιω ἐν τῳ ὀνοματι του πατρος μου, ταυτα μαρτυρει περι ἐμου· ἀλλ᾽ ὑμεις οὐ πιστευετε· οὐ γαρ ἐστε ἐκ των προβατων των ἐμων, καθως εἰπον ὑμιν. τα προβατα τα ἐμα της φωνης μου ἀκουει, κἀγω γινωσκω αὐτα, και ἀκολουθουσι μοι, κἀγω ζωην αἰωνιον διδωμι αὐτοις, και οὐ μη ἀπολωνται εἰς τον αἰωνα, και οὐχ ἁρπασει τις αὐτα ἐκ της χειρος μου. ὁ πατηρ μου, ὃς δεδωκε μοι, μειζων παντων ἐστι, και οὐδεις δυναται ἁρπαζειν ἐκ της χειρος του πατρος μου. ἐγω και ὁ πατηρ ἑν ἐσμεν.

᾿Εβαστασαν οὐν παλιν λιθους οἱ ᾿Ιουδαιοι ἵνα λιθασωσιν αὐτον. ἀπεκριθη αὐτοις ὁ ᾿Ιησους· πολλα καλα ἐργα ἐδειξα ὑμιν ἐκ του πατρος μου· δια ποιον αὐτων ἐργον λιθαζετε με; ἀπεκριθησαν αὐτῳ οἱ ᾿Ιουδαιοι λεγοντες· περι καλου ἐργου οὐ λιθαζομεν σε, ἀλλα περι βλασφημιας, και ὁτι σὺ ἀνθρωπος ὢν ποιεις σεαυτον Θεον. ἀπεκριθη αὐτοις ὁ ᾿Ιησους· οὐκ ἐστι γεγραμμενον ἐν τῳ νομῳ ὑμων, ἐγω εἰπα, θεοι ἐστε; εἰ ἐκεινους εἰπε θεους, προς οὓς ὁ λογος του Θεου ἐγενετο, και οὐ δυναται λυθηναι ἡ γραφη, ὃν ὁ πατηρ ἡγιασε και ἀπεστειλεν εἰς τον κοσμον, ὑμεις λεγετε ὁτι βλασφημεις, ὁτι εἰπον, υἱος του Θεου εἰμι; εἰ οὐ ποιω τα ἐργα του πατρος μου, μη πιστευετε μοι· εἰ δε ποιω, καν ἐμοι μη πιστευητε, τοις ἐργοις πιστευσατε, ἵνα γνωτε και πιστευσητε ὁτι ἐν ἐμοι ὁ πατηρ κἀγω ἐν αὐτῳ.

᾿Εζητουν οὐν παλιν πιασαι αὐτον· και ἐξηλθεν ἐκ της χειρος αὐτων.

Και ἀπηλθε παλιν περαν του ᾿Ιορδανου, εἰς τον τοπον ὁπου ἠν ᾿Ιωαννης το πρωτον βαπτιζων, και ἐμεινεν ἐκει. και πολλοι ἠλθον προς αὐτον και ἐλεγον ὁτι ᾿Ιωαννης μεν σημειον ἐποιησεν οὐδεν, παντα δε ὁσα εἰπεν ᾿Ιωαννης περι τουτου, ἀληθη ἠν. και ἐπιστευσαν πολλοι ἐκει εἰς αὐτον.

God bless,
Ἰακωβος

Another Classless Sunday

Due to illness, vacation and sundry unforseen events, the class has dwindled to one and a half students—but not permanently! Just last Sunday and this Sunday. So, for that reason, there will be no class this week—the 12th of September.

However, that being said, we’ve only got 8 weeks left and I don’t won’t us to fall too far behind, so there will still be a lesson—it’ll just be delivered by email instead of taught in class (somehow seems appropriate that Lesson 13 should be different, eh!). It’ll be on the forms of the future case verbs—regular and irregular.

Ah, but not to worry; I’ll do a review at the beginning of class the following week.

For those who missed lesson 12, I’ll be posting it here along with L11 sometime today—I’ve already posted the last two Why Learn Greek’s. I’ll also email all the relevant material to everyone—including book scans and WLG’s. Please read these carefully, too—there is a fair bit of information on these that hasn’t necessarily made it into the Lesson notes. If you think I’ve forgotten to send something, or have any questions about any of the stuff I do send, just let me know and I’ll get back to you a.s.a.p.

Oh, and to Colleen and Raewyn, if there was anything particularly instructive that we mentioned in class that isn’t in the material I send, could you please let me know and I’ll post it here for everyone? I seem to recall there was something that came up that I wanted to advise everyone about, but can’t for the life of me remember what it was!

Okay, all for now. See everyone in two week’s time.

God bless,
Ἰακωβος

Been a While

It’s been a while since my last posting…

I’ve been very busy with my day job, Sandy leaving for Alaska on business, my son David’s visit, and getting the next lesson ready. Whew!

Two Sundays ago, we had the infamous Test 2 and the results were as varied as the writing times. Due to unforseen circumstances, we ended up having only TWO people write the test in class! The others wrote it at home on the honour system. A trustworthy bunch.

Last week, although I didn’t post, I did add the last two Why Learn Greek illustrations. We had another one yesterday before Lesson 10, but that hasn’t been posted yet—will be soon; when I post the L10 notes.

Okay, that’s it for now. See you next Sunday.

God bless,
Ἰακωβος

Getting Testy

Hope you’re all studying for the vocabulary test on Sunday the 15th of August!

What? Test? When did this happen?


Since I last updated this blog, we’ve had one day of review and two Sundays off. Ostensibly, the two weeks without lessons was in order to study for the big Vocabulary Test coming this Sunday, but, actually, the main reason was that my son is visiting me from Scotland and I needed some time away from preparing for lessons and writing blog posts so I could spend it with him. Which I’ve done now—So let the games begin!

About the Test: There are 167 words—verbs and nouns—on the vocabulary list we used for the last review. All of these words will be on the test. However, you will only be asked to provide one correct meaning for each of these words and, for the nouns, the correct article.

Easy-peasy? Yes indeedy!

See you Sunday.

God bless,
Ἰακωβος

Regroup, Reorganise and Review

We’ve regrouped!

We had a full class for Lesson 9 last Sunday. Trish was back from her marvellous (and highly successful) mission to Fiji, there weren’t any walk/runs for Colleen, and Larry and Joc were not baptising half a dozen young people. It was great having everyone altogether again.

As for L9, it has now been posted on the blog. In fact, all the reorganising of the Pages Tabs I mentioned before is now complete. I’ve grouped all the lessons so far into pairs and posted the pairs on individual pages. For example, Lesson One has been combined on the same page with Lesson Two to give Lesson 1 & 2. This gives us room to post five more lessons before we have to re-reorganise again.

I’ve also added the latest Why Learn Greek illustration—we’ve got 10 of them on there now. Schweet!

As for next class, everybody—including me—thought it was about time for another review. It’s been many months since the first one (way back before Lesson 4!) and we’ve covered a fair bit of ground since then; especially with regard to vocabulary. So, next Sunday is Number Two Review Day!


God bless,
Ἰακωβος

Quick Update

Okay, seat-belts on—this is gonna be fast…

Lesson 7 & 8 are now posted and I’ve started combining Lessons to save space (see L1 & 2 tab above this post). With our last vocabulary list, we’ve now touched on 1/3 of the words in the Greek New Testament! Yippee!!! Well done all.

Am still working on the homework for L8, so don’t worry, Trish, there’s still time for you to finish the L7 homework—that’s if you’re back from your Fiji mission, of course.

…done!


God bless,
Ἰακωβος

On Sons and Runs

My bit of a rest might have come to a close, but I’m still not able to devote all my time to preparing for Greek class. There’s been a development…

My son David flew into Auckland Airport two days ago to begin a two month visit to Godzone. He’s 17, lives in Glasgow, Scotland with his mum and brothers—and I haven’t seen him in over 6 years. Needless to say, this will distract me greatly. Let me apologise in advance: Sorry all, but again you’ll have to wait till late Saturday to get the next Lesson notes!

Last Sunday’s class went off without a hitch. Larry and Joc didn’t have any problems with the magic world of the Greek Present Indicative or the conjugation pattern of the –ω verbs. Even the movable nu made sense. So now everyone is set to tackle the slightly different –εω verbs and learn the paradigm form of 1st declension nouns.

Sandy also had time at the end of class to give a quick lesson on memorisation…but I can’t remember how that went.

Okay, I’ve added the latest Why Learn Greek and will get Lesson 7 up sometime today. Happy reading!

Oh, one more thing—I forgot to post Colleen’s latest championship time in the Mangawhai run/walk last Sunday. Despite freezing wind and driving rains she pulverised the 9km course in 1 hour, 11 minutes and 31 seconds. Outstanding! Well done, Colleen.


God bless,
Ἰακωβος

A Bit of a Rest

I’ve been enjoying a bit of a rest this week. Not only have I just finished the homework assignment for Lesson 7, but I haven’t even started preparing Lesson 8 yet. Not to worry, though, the reason I’m not rushing to get everything done is because in order to accommodate everyone’s real life events, Lesson 7 has been spread out over two weeks.

Last Sunday, Larry & Joc had to attend several baptisms at their church and were unable to make it to class, so Colleen, Raewyn and Trish had to take the plunge into verbs without them. This Sunday, the situation will be reversed; only Larry & Joc will be grappling with Lesson 7.

Colleen is going to be busy breezily slaughtering a field of 700-plus competitors in another Sport Northland Run/Walk. Be kind, Colleen, for they know not what they do.

As for Trish, she won’t be at class because she’s in Fiji on a 10-day mission with Marine Reach Ministries. She’s an optometrist and will be staring into dozens of eyeballs in many skulls of poor people living in small, rural villages. It’s a great service she’s doing and we all pray to the Lord that she blesses and is blessed mightily!

Raewyn didn’t have anything else on, but rather than sit through the lesson again, she decided to do some home-study that day. Thanks, Raewyn, for allowing us to mess with your schedule. We hope it won’t happen too often (I for one am shocked, SHOCKED, to discover people have lives outside of Greek Class! But, of course, we must forgive them, mustn't we…?)

Okay, I’ll be getting L7 posted soon, but will wait until Monday to put up the latest Why Learn Greek—don’t want to spoil the surprise for Larry & Joc.

Oh, one more thing—Sandy, my beautiful and lovely wife and assistant, has created a Paihia Baptist Church website and, naturally, she’s linked to this blog there. I’ll put a link up to the PBC site, too, but you can go there and have a look by clicking here if you can’t wait for me to finish my loafing arou bit-of-a-rest.

God bless,
Ἰακωβος

Flying Colours!

Well I’m about as chuffed as a teacher could be!

We had our first actual test on Sunday and everyone passed with flying colours. The test translations included many words not yet covered in class, but everyone rose to the challenge and put their newfound translation skills to the task—with excellent results.

Not that I was surprised; last week’s class exercise and all the homework assignments have painted a clear picture for me of a group of students entirely comfortable with the material.

Of course, I suspect one or two might’ve harboured a few private concerns. If so, well, this test proved those concerns unfounded!

Congratulations to all of you—Colleen, Joc, Larry, Raewyn and Trish—you translated like champions!


Okay, now that everyone’s an expert in the concept of noun and definite article declension, we’ll be changing gears for our next class—Lesson 7. We’re finally going to be looking at verbs. This means another foray into the dark and murky Land of Grammar. So bring your mining lamps and thinking caps...

Btw, I haven’t got the notes for L7 completed yet, so I’m not sure I’ll have them ready to post by Friday—if not, I’ll make sure you get them on Sunday at the start of class.

And speaking of posting, I’ve posted Lesson 6 now and added the latest Why Learn Greek to the WLG page.

God bless & congratulations again.

Ἰακωβος

Blog Update

I didn't get an email letting me know about the last blog post, so I assume you didn't either. Something wrong with Blogger's auto-alerts. I've posted this note to see if it'll activate the auto-alert. If you get this in an email, come to the blog and read the post below this...if you haven't already, of course.

God bless,
Ἰακωβος

Of Persons and Peoples

There wasn’t much left to Lesson 5 after we’d given everyone the masculine definite article at the end of L4; just a bit of explanation of a few of the different uses Greek has for the article. Most of this went without a hitch, but a small misunderstanding from last week’s homework was revisited when I used the sentence below as an example of how articles follow the number, gender and case of the nouns they describe:

ὁ ἀποστολος γραφει τοις λαοις τους νομους του Κυριου.

The apostle writes the laws of the Lord to the people.

Oh-oh! I’d used the dreaded “people” word!

The problem with λαος arose when everyone translated “τῳ λῳ” in last week’s homework as “to a person”, rather than “to a people”. When someone emailed asking why it wasn’t “person”, I made a fairly lengthy reply and, true to form, managed to muddy the already murky waters of confusion even more by saying, at one point, something along the lines of “in English the plural of people is peoples”. So, when I used the above sentence and translated the plural “τοις λαοις” as “to the people” rather than “to the peoples”, I was immediately called to account.

Now I’m going to try to clear the whole mess up. I’ve just investigated the matter thoroughly and have come up with the following:

I was wrong the second time!

Whenever a form of the plural λαοι is used, then the translation should be “peoples”. So the above translation should be “The apostle writes the laws of the Lord to the peoples.” And since that’s not what I intended to say, I should change the Greek—well done Trish for spotting that one and to Larry for goading me into checking. I stand corrected.

However, in the homework, the translation of “to a people” stands as the correct one against everyone’s “to a person”. And, just in case anyone’s tempted to argue that the general “to people” should be allowed, I’d just say that, well, if it’s singular...no, forget it, I’ll pick that one up another time.

Right.

Okay, back to business. In the last blog, I’d mentioned I’d be making a special announcement on Sunday. Well, I made it—we’re having our first test!

YIPPEE!!!

Okay, nobody actually said, “Yippee!” out loud, but I could tell everyone was stoked….no, really, I could…everyone…stoked…yes, they were…!


God bless,
Ἰακωβος

(P.s. The latest Why Learn Greek has also been added. jk)

Unpacking the Rest of the Cases

Last Sunday, in Lesson 4, we finally unpacked all the cases. We covered Nominative and Accusative in Lesson 3, so we did the Vocative, the Genitive and the Dative this time. Our 2nd Declension masculine nouns in ος chart is now complete. We even managed to squeeze in the masculine definite article forms from Lesson 5. Bring on the feminine and neuters!

The class was a bit of a panic for me—I couldn’t believe how quickly the time went! I think we’re going to have to start doing 5 hour lessons; there’s just too much to teach and too little time….

Okay, okay, okay, that was a joke. I’d never do that to you. Only Sandy could tolerate listening to me go on about Greek grammar for 5 straight hours.

Okay, okay, okay, that was a joke, too….

Next class I’ll cover the complete lesson on the masculine definite article; explaining more fully how articles are used for more than just saying “the” in Greek. As well, I’ll be introducing the verb form εστιν (he/she/it is) and explain the significance this type of verb has for the cases of the nouns on either side of it. There’s also going to be a special announcement.

How exciting does all that sound? Be there or be square…

Later today, I’ll post the Why Learn Greek illustration from Sunday. However, you can only have 10 of those page tabs per blog, so, in order to get as many lessons up there as I can, I’m going to put all the WLG’s on one tab (most recent at the top).

Oh, one more thing. Trish asked me what the Greek on the blog title was. It’s a snippet from the top of a page of the Codex Vaticanus, one of the oldest manuscripts of the Greek New Testament in existence. The verse is John 7:40.


The red letters are what you can see above. The first epsilon of “ΕΛΕΓΟΝ” is missing because it was the last letter of the previous page.

ΕΛΕΓΟΝ ΟΤΙ ΟΥΤΟC ΕCΤΙ ΑΛΗΘΩC Ο ΠΡΟΦΗΤΗC.

The letters are uncial—uppercase. Notice the scribe has used the symbol C instead of Σ. If you put the whole thing in cursives, it’ll be easier for you to read:

ἐλεγον ὁτι οὑτος ἐστι ἀληθως ὁ προφητης.

The entire sentence looks like this (from the Textus Receptus):

πολλοὶ οὐν Ἐκ του ὀχλου ἀκουσαντες τον λογον, ἐλεγον Οὑτος ἐστιν ἀληθως ὁ προφητης.

Notice the TR doesn’t have the ὁτι (that) of the Codex. The translation of the whole line is “Therefore, hearing the saying, many of the crowd said (that), ‘He is truly a prophet.” Our part of the line is “…said that, 'He is...'”, with half of the word for “is” cut off.

Cool, eh?

God bless,
Ἰακωβος

Blue Case; Green Case Update

...Colleen emailed her Paihia Run/Walk time: 8km in 1hr/2min/30sec

Wow! And in class she didn't look like she'd even broken a sweat. Congratulations, Colleen!


God bless,
Ἰακωβος

Blue Case; Green Case

Our quick review of Lesson 3 turned into an hour-long explanation of both the terms used in the class and the organisational structure of the lessons. I’d realised that there was a fair bit of detail about the course that I hadn’t actually explained to the class. Some of these I might’ve touched on briefly in the Lesson notes and/or the Intro for Students, but others I’d more or less assumed the students would just know. There were also a few details which I’d only recently instituted.

One of these newly instituted details was the use of colour-coding: from now on I'm going to use a different colour of marker for each of the case endings when writing on the white board: blue = nominative; green = accusative; red = dative; purple = genitive. The idea is to make my conceptual style of teaching a little more accessible to our resident kinaesthetic lerner. I was greatly encouraged by the hearty reception the idea got from her...whew!

We also had a fun round of spot-the-typo in my review homework assignment.

hmmmm....Y'know, I sometimes get the feeling I'm learning more from this class than the students...

Okay, that's it for now.

Oh, Trish pointed out that there was something wrong with my "Email Me" link. Just had a look and, yes, another typo! All fixed now, Trish--your emails won't be getting returned anymore. I've also posted Why Learn Greek 5 (see link above).

Right, see you all (minus 1) for Lesson 4 this Sunday. Have a look at it and keep at those vocabulary lists.


God Bless,
Ιακωβος

A Good Review

Well, as promised, we had a review of Lessons 1-3 on Sunday, rather than Lesson 4. Actually, we only had time to review L1-2, so we’ll start off next class with a review of L3.

We also, as promised, welcomed Raewyn to the class. Actually, I’d promised on this blog that we’d welcome “Reawyn”, but that person didn’t show up—so I had to go back a minute ago and change the spelling on that post (Sorry ‘bout that, Raewyn!).

The review session went exceedingly well—everyone picked up something they hadn’t noticed the first time around. I even learned a few things about pacing the lessons. Thanks to Joc for the idea!

And thanks to Joc for the other idea—that from now on we run the lessons on a 1-2-review format. I thought that was a really good suggestion so I’m already recalibrating my future lesson plans accordingly.

Just because it was a review, we didn’t forgo our weekly “Why Learn Greek”. Have a look at it by clicking here or the Why Learn Greek 4 link above.

Speaking of the WLG’s; I met the husband of a PBC member yesterday who has been reading Greek for some years now. He’d heard I was teaching Koine at the church and was keen to get together and discuss the heaps of exegetical insights that he’s discovered through reading the Greek NT. He’s already sent me one by email and I’ll be using it in class next Sunday.

How cool is that?


God Bless,
Ιακωβος

A Day of Review Update

UPDATE: ...And the second reason it's a good time for a review this Sunday is: PBC Greek Class has just gained another student!

Yes, this Sunday, we'll be welcoming RAEWYN to the class.

Apparently Raewyn has always wanted to learn Koine Greek and, just the other day, she heard about our class through Colleen . Colleen ask if it wasn't too late for her to join up. I told her it wasn't, so she did.

I'm sure we all look forward to meeting Raewyn on Sunday and will be more than happy to help her get up to speed.


God bless,
Ἰακωβος

A Day of Review

You've probably noticed there's no new lesson posted today; that's because this Sunday will be a REVIEW DAY. There's two very good reasons for this--one I can tell you now, and one I'll announce tonight....

Several of you have had a flat-out week chock full of non-Koine happenings. That, combined with the looooong two week break, has meant there's been precious little time to go over the lessons at home. A good time to go over everything in class that we've covered to date.

So have a look over your notes and write down any questions that come to mind--this Sunday is the day to ask 'em.

We might even get in another game or two of βιγγω.

God bless,
Ἰακωβος

B – I – G – G – W ?

After a two week break, we gathered together last Sunday for Lesson Three. We took the break so everyone could go off and celebrate Mother’s Day with their families—except for Colleen, who was busy racing through the Baylis Beach to Dargaville Sport Northland Run/Walk. She posted a magnificent time for the 12 km course: Exactly 1 hour 39 minutes and 57 seconds—an absolutely outstanding result. There were several people from my work on the same course and Colleen’s time makes them look like they did it on stilts. Congratulations Colleen! Her next Run/Walk is in Paihia on the 30th May and she assures me that, as it’s only (!) 8km long, she’ll be finished in plenty of time to attend class that afternoon. That’s the spirit, Colleen!

We also hit the ground running on Lesson Three—right out of the gate everyone reported on the mistakes I’d made on the homework assignment. The assignment was designed to encourage everyone to focus their attention on details in Greek text such as punctuation and diacritical marks. And considering all the lapses in detailing they showed I’d had when I compiled it, I’d say everyone was focused just fine. A big Alpha for effort for everyone—except me, of course.

Βιγγω!

We then got into two rousing games of Βιγγω—which is “Bingo” written in Greek script. Everyone excelled at that, too—especially Larry; who managed to have 3 bingo’s in one game. That’s the spirit, Larry!

The Lesson proper covered the accusative and nominative case forms for 2nd declension nouns in –ος. And surprising as it might seem, we had as much fun with that as with the Βιγγω…or so I’m lead to believe after Jocelyn told me that she loved reading the Lesson notes on the blog and Trish reported that even the grammar was fun. That’s amazing—and means next week, when we do the dative, vocative and genitive cases, they’ll both be in hysterics. That’s the spirit, Ladies!


God Bless,

Ιακωβος

Lesson Three Posted Already

Χαριτε!

I've just posted Lesson Three (see the tab above) even though we haven't had it yet, because a couple of you requested I make the notes available before the class. I thought that was a really good idea. So from now on, by the Thursday prior to the class, I'll post the lesson notes here. I'll also email them to everyone at the same time. This way you'll have a chance to prepare and, by having the notes in front of you during the lesson (if you print them out), you'll be able to follow along and add your own helpful notes as we go. Sweet as....

Hope you all had a great Mother's Day weekend! See you Sunday.

God Bless,
Ιακωβος

Update on Proper Names

ὁ διδασκαλος here...

Since last Sunday, I’ve been doing a bit of thinking about proper names. Because of both the Why Learn Greek illustration and one of the practical exercises, we discussed the different transliteration/translation paths of proper names—from Hebrew to Greek, Hebrew to English, Greek to English, etc. After some reflection, I thought I should clarify things a bit…

Regardless of the fact that three pairs of names, Joshua & Jesus, Judah & Judas, Jacob & James, are translations of three single Jewish names (Yehoshua, Yehudah, Yahkov respectively), today each of the six is a legitimate and distinct name. Joshua, Judah and Jacob are direct English transliterations of the Hebrew names; whereas Jesus, Judas and James are English transliterations from the Greek transliterations of the Hebrew names.

First century Greeks only had one Hellenised version of the Hebrew names, but modern Greeks use two just like we do. For example, in Greece today, James is Ἰακωβος; Jacob is Ἰακωβ.

If there was any confusion out there, I hope that cleared it up.

God bless, Ιακωβος

The Diacritical List

ὁ διδασκαλος here...

Lesson Two of the PBC Greek Class was another roaring success! Trish, Colleen, Larry and Jocelyn all generously donated another 2½ hours of their busy lives to bless me greatly by allowing me teach them some more Koine Greek.

Trish was hard-out running back to Kerikeri to swap her mum and a friend for two bags of limes then rush back to class.

Colleen took a break from training for the Sport Northland Run/Walk Series Bayley’s Beach to Dargaville run/walk next Sunday (well, I presume she took a break; didn’t actually see her drive her car to the lesson).

Larry & Jocelyn had just finished a marathon drive from Haruru Falls to Auckland and back just to be here—their daughter and son-in-law Elle and Rob were moving to Melbourne for six months and L & J took them down to catch their flight out (all went well, too; both couples reached their respective destinations near enough at the same time!).

A big “thanks heaps” goes out to all of them from me.

I also want to thank our stationer and part-time projectionist, my beautiful and lovely assistant (and wife), Sandy, for the course binders and toilet door certificates. And her coffee wasn’t bad, either.

The lesson itself covered the capital letters, the seven main diphthongs, punctuation and, though we all made the diacritical list—breathings, iota-subs, diaereses, accents and elisions—none of us are any the worse for wear.

It is marvellous to note that now, after only two lessons, everyone has all the tools they need to be able to read the entire Greek New Testament! They might not understand it, but they can certainly start reading it—who knows how many words they’ll discover they do understand already?

Jesus is amazing!

Lesson Three has been put off a week because of Mother’s Day commitments and Colleen’s run/walk to Dargaville, so plenty of time for me to prepare the next lesson and for everybody to complete their huge, three-page homework assignment. They’ll be seeing breathing marks and iota-subs in their sleep….

…the lucky ducks.

God bless,
Ιακωβος

Day One: The ABG’s of Greek

ὁ διδασκαλος here...

Well, Lesson One of Paihia Baptist Church's first New Testament Greek class went swimmingly!

There was an excellent turn out: five dedicated students representing three different churches, one caterer-slash-lovely assistant (my wife, Sandy), and one “rain check”—our blessed pastor Bill, who had to postpone his Greek learning in order to help his wife celebrate her birthday (if memory serves, it was her 35th again). We, as decent Christians filled with the spirit, will, I’m sure, deign to forgive him (and pray they both had a wonderful time!).

Most of the students were able to enjoy the marvellous homemade Greek meal Sandy put on before class. There was succulent roast lamb, mashed potatoes, Greek salad, meze, stuffed grapevine leaves, and much more—and yes, of course, the ubiquitous olives made an appearance. There was a delicious baklava for dessert, but everyone was too stuffed to eat it right after the meal, so we had to have it during the coffee break.

The actual lesson went just as well as the meal. Despite a quick change of venue—the sanctuary rather than the dining room—due to the brightness of the sun making the PowerPoint a bit difficult to see, we managed to get through the entire Greek alphabet without any major hiccups, albeit about ten minutes over the 2½ hours we’d scheduled.

As for the Greek alphabet, we all agree that Zeta is hard to write, Xi is hard to pronounce, and Ksi is by far the ugliest letter in the bunch. And the class optometrist thinks the cursive letters make an attractive Eye Chart:

For me personally, I found it all an edifying experience! I learned heaps. For starters, any material that clocks in at 20 minutes time at home will be about twice that long in actual teaching time. I’m indebted to Sandy (again!) for telling me the night before to cut out 90% of my intended introductory notes (you can read them by clicking on the “Intro for Students” just under the blog title above) and get into the meat of the lesson as soon as possible. This proved wise advice. If I hadn’t listened to her, I think we’d still be there—somewhere between zeta and lambda….

I also learned that people are extremely gracious to a newbie Greek teacher. I want to thank them all here for their kindness and patience. Thank you Gina, Larry, Colleen, Jocelyn, Trish, and, of course, Sandy, too, for blessing me by making my first class a wonderful and encouraging experience. Thank you all.

And don’t forget to practice those alphabets!

God bless,
Ιακωβος

Welcome PBC Grεεk Class Students!

ὁ διδασκαλος here...

On April 25, 2010, at 2:00pm, Paihia Baptist Church's first New Testament Greek class will begin! The class will be held every Sunday until October 31st and should provide a fun, informal atmosphere for learning the basics of Koine Greek grammar and vocabulary. Attendance is free and open to anyone who believes the Good News of Jesus Christ's virgin birth, sinless life, atoning sacrifice on the cross, and resurrection from the dead.

This blog is intended to be a space for all the students to post questions or comments about the progress of the class; as well as a diary of my personal reflections about teaching it. As you can see, each lesson will be located on a tab above the blog post (Lesson One should be there now).

I'm also hoping to upload the various figures and tables we use for our Practicals--and tests!

Right; all for now.

God bless,
Ιακωβος