Tag: Greek

I’ve got a greek exam on Verbal Aspect in a bit over a week. I found the verbal glossary at the back of Con’s book good for quick reference. So I typed it out.

Here it is: DOWNLOAD (pdf).

sxc pic

I’ve pretty much nailed this whole Verbal Aspect thing. This picture might help you.

If this post makes no sense to you – go read the Bible in English – start with Philippians.

Bill Mounce is a Greek Ninja. Of all the people who can kung-fu greek style – he’s one bad dude you don’t want to mess with (imagine if he and Con Campbell double teamed you!). He’s written a flippin’ sweet blog post on how to use Greek in the pulpit:

“Before the ESV was available, I used another translation that was a little freer in its translation philosophy. There were two Sundays in a row where I had to correct its interpretation to make what I thought was the true point of the passage. After the service a new Christian came to me and asked, “Can I not trust my Bible?” Ouch! So here is one of the big no-noes from the pulpit. Do not correct the English Bible. Ever! Never say, “the translators got this wrong.” The damage you can do to a person’s trust in Scripture is unimaginable.”

Read the whole thing. His post helps Pastors to not be jerks in the way they use greek from the pulpit – this is a must read for all wannabe preachers/greek ninjas. Seriously.

(h/t acl)

All exams are finished! Giddy up. This is really a post reminding me to do some holiday reading. Currently, I like Con Campbell because of his jazz. I’m psyching myself up to love him for his contribution to Biblical Greek grammar!

Con has a new book out – he guest blogged about it on the Zondervan Academic blog. It’s on Verbal Aspect. I’m hoping that reading the 5 posts below will be a good primer.

1. Verbal aspect: what is it, and why does it matter?
2. Verbal Aspect: what it is and what it isn’t
3. Verbal aspect and the aorist indicative
4. Verbal aspect and the present indicative
5. Verbal aspect and exegesis

p.s. – I passed greek this year!!

Our Greek exam is 3 weeks away. We need to be able to translate a number of chunks from anywhere in Mark 1-4. To help familiarise myself with the text, I’ve been listening to the New American Standard Bible (the NASB is a clunky translation… perfect for our 1st year translations), while following along in my Greek New Testament. I figured this was better than simply trying to memorise the English!!

I’ve recorded myself (very) slowly reading Mark 1-4 in NASB. Feel free to use them if it’s helpful for you in preparing for the exam… or just have a laugh at the Central Coast Stoner-esque reading!

Mark 1 | Mark 2 | Mark 3 | Mark 4 | NASB