Welcome to PBC Grεεk Class!
I’m your tutor, Jim Kerr, and before I begin boring you all to tears, let’s open with a word of prayer:
Lord God, we come to You with all praise and all thanksgiving. We thank You for Your Word and for the hearts and minds with which we receive it and understand it. We thank You for this opportunity to explore the language in which You first recorded and spread the Gospel of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And we humbly ask forYour blessing on this class, on both the people and the teaching, and for Your grace, that we might use what we learn here to deepen our knowledge of You through Your Word, and to make us better vessels for bringing that Word to others. As always, we ask these things in Jesus' most holy name. Amen.
I was born in Scotland, grew up in Canada, and am now living in wonderful, never snow-covered Northland, New Zealand and attend PBC with my beautiful Kiwi wife, Sandy.
I’ve been interested in languages for as long as I can remember. In Canadian public school, I had obligatory French lessons and I've studied German in high school and at the University of Toronto. I'm employed as a GIS Technician during the week, but my passion is for teaching Bible studies and, of course, New Testament Greek!
Regarding Greek, I’m not a Greek scholar or degreed teacher; just a student like you. In fact, this is not just Paihia's first class, it's mine, too. In September of 2009, using many Internet resources, an old out-of-print copy of J.W. Wenham’s The Elements of New Testament Greek, and an infilling of the Holy Spirit, I taught myself how to read NT Greek. In March of 2010, I felt compelled by the Lord to teach basic NT Greek to any Christian in the Bay of Islands area that wanted to learn it. In a word, this is my ministry.
Okay, enough about me, let’s talk about what you shouldn't expect from this class.
What not to Expect
1. Fluency in Greek. I’m sorry, but when this course is over in 6 month’s time, you will NOT be fluent in Greek—well, not if you only learn the material we’ll be covering. This is a class intended to give you a basic understanding of the grammar and vocabulary of the Greek used in the New Testament only; not fluency. However, that being said, this class should enable you to read the less complex passages of the Greek NT with a fair degree of understanding; and the more complex passages with the help of a lexicon and a translation.
2. A Text Book. We will NOT be using a text book here, for two reasons. First, because I haven’t written one and therefore have no access to free author’s copies. And two, those who have written them, don’t give them away free. There are dozens of different Greek primers out there, but none of them are cheap, and I hoped to make this class as small a financial burden as possible. All I spent was $15 on a second-hand copy of an out of print primer and $35 on a second-hand copy of an out of print Greek New Testament—and because of the internet I didn’t really need to buy the Greek NT. So, other than the petrol it took to get here, the only expense I wanted you to have to incur is the cost of a few sheets of paper and some printer ink.
But don't worry, I will be writing up all the lessons and will make them available for you to refer to, just like a text book, after each lesson. I’ll send them to each of you as email attachments and post them on this blog.
By the way, you won’t insult me if you do want to buy a text book and work with that on your own. Just bear in mind that all the primers out there are arranged to target different student types, and none will conform to my lesson plan exactly, so it’s apt to be a bit confusing trying to follow both. But, if you’re adamant, my lessons will roughly follow those in my copy of Wenham’s, so if you can get a hold of a copy of that, it’d probably be the least confusing.3. Exams and Grades. No exams; no grades. We will do short quizzes and quick tests from time to time to gauge your progress, but they’ll all be self-corrected. The emphasis should be in learning the material for personal satisfaction, not to measure up to some arbitrary scholastic ideal.
What to Expect
1. Slow and easy instruction. I’m not here to set any records for the fastest language class ever taught. You won’t be forced to learn at a pace that would make astronauts weep. The material we have to cover will be challenging enough without the added stress of unnecessary deadlines.
2. Fun. Everyone learns better when they’re enjoying what they're learning—even if it’s difficult. So, I’m going to do everything I can to make this enjoyable for all of us—and of course I’ll need your help to do that. Please let me know when things are getting a bit boring for you, or if it’s been too long since our last hands-on exercise. I confess that I will from time to time get so engrossed in what I’m teaching I’ll forget how I’m teaching, and for how long. Don’t be afraid to stop me and ask for a 5 or 10 minute break.
3. Not to be left behind. My intention is not to continue to the next lesson until everyone understands the one we’re on. We have the luxury of not being tied to a larger organization’s timetable; we can afford to stop the lesson and make an extra effort to ensure we’re all on the same page. Also, I will be checking my email and this blog every day, so any questions you have can be sent to me or posted here—I promise I will make every effort to answer you within 12 hours.
About Computers
Hopefully everyone has a computer, email and a printer. Most of the handouts will be emailed to you for you to print up. But, if for any reason you can't get the pages printed, I will supply hard copies.
Access to the Internet is a definite bonus. There is a plethora of resources, info, Greek New Testaments, and other interesting Greek stuff on the Net; as well as this blog. And never forget: Google is your friend!
Greek fonts will be required to read some of these sites, but most of the sites either make the fonts available to download or tell you where to go to get them. As well, windows has a Unicode Greek font available on the Windows Language Bar.
However, even without using system fonts, you can type Greek! Follow the link Type Greek in the list of Helpful Links on the right side of this blog. If you need any help with these things, please let me know.
Greek New Testaments
There are several different editions of the Greek New Testament. Broadly speaking, they fall into two categories, or text-types, depending upon which Greek manuscripts they’re based: Majority Texts (or Received Texts; Textus Receptus) and Critical Texts (Westcott and Hort Text; Nestle-Aland Text). These different text-types have produced different English version such as the KJV and the NIV respectively. As with those different Bible translations, each Greek version has its proponents and detractors. I personally favor the Textus Receptus and use this as the authoritative text; which is why I also use the King James Version as my default English translation. If you currently have a Critical Text Greek NT, feel free to use it; just be aware that it will often not match up with the verses cited on this course. If you don't already have one, and are thinking of buying one, I strongly advise you to get a pre-Pierpoint and Robeson Textus Receptus.
The Greek NT I use was published by Cambridge University Press and edited by F.H.A. Scrivener. The full title is: The New Testament in Greek According To The Text Followed In The Authorized Version Together With The Variations Adopted In The Revised Version. This actually contains both text-types. It is a Textus Receptus text with bolded font and accompanying footnotes to indicate differences with the Critical text-types. If you want to know the story of how I came to have this particular edition, just ask.
Whichever Greek NT you do use, however, I recommend you start reading it (aloud) as soon as you are familiar with the consonant, vowel, diacritic and punctuation pronounciations (after Lesson Two). You obviously won’t understand much of it, but I guarantee, if you start in Matthew, Mark or John (avoid Luke for now, he uses a more literary, complex Greek), you will be pleasantly surprised how much you do pick up and how many words you will recognize (i.e. Ιησους Χριστος & Φαρισαιοι & βαπτιστης)
Oh, and a NT Greek dictionary will prove a real asset. These, too, are available online. Vines Expository Dictionary is absolutely fantastic (see the link in the Helpful Links column on the right side of this blog).
English Grammar
Greek is not a simple language to learn for English speakers—especially if you’ve had no other language study—it uses another alphabet and the grammar can seem impossibly complex. Yet there are two tried and true methods of overcoming these problems.
First, learn the Greek alphabet early and well. Lesson One and Lesson Two are both devoted to teaching you the Greek alphabet and how to pronounce the letters. (Btw, once you know the sound these letters make, you will be able to read every Greek word, because, unlike French and English, Greek has no silent letters—every one is pronounced.)
The second method is guaranteed to drastically cut the difficulty you will have understanding Greek grammar: Learn English grammar. It is no secret that most English-speakers are terribly undereducated when it comes to their own grammar. Unless this deficiency is dealt to, Greek will be almost impossible to learn. Every New Testament teaching system I’ve come across stresses the necessity of learning the basic concepts of English grammar and becoming conversant in the relevant English grammatical terminology. In fact, one seminary course I explored even required students to buy a book called “English Grammar for NT Greek”. There is simply no escaping it.
So, for this reason, we’ll be devoting a fair bit of time throughout the course to refreshing your knowledge of English grammar. But don’t worry, I’ll only cover as much as we need to know for the Greek lesson we’re doing at the time.
Homework
Finally, although we will spend a lot of class time ensuring we all understand what’s going on, it’s important that you spend some time at home reinforcing what you learned in class. As Greek scholar James Voeltz said, "Time without exposure is the enemy of language acquisition". If possible, set aside about 30 minutes a day to work on the assignments, trying your best to memorize as much of the material as you can. This’ll really pay off, I promise. And if you find you want more homework (it could happen!), just send me an email or comment on the blog and I’ll get something to keep your enthusiasm high.
But please, whatever you do, don’t get frustrated if things get difficult or you don’t seem to have enough time. Remember, you can only fail here if you worry so much about remembering the material, that you forget to enjoy learning it. As I said before, we learn better when we’re having fun—and I want everyone here to learn better!
