Customer Reviews

Essentials of New Testament Greek

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a good introduction to studying Koine Greek, though it should probably be supplemented. The workbook is nearly essential (contrary to other reviews, it's quite easy to find), especially since it's true, there are no answers to the included exercises in the textbook itself.

But the explanations are clear and easy to follow. The text is well-written and concise. The font is quite readable and clear, and you shouldn't have any problems reading the Greek text itself.

If you get this book, do yourself a favor and get the workbook too. Together they make a nice pair.

My first greek class was in 1985, and we used this Summer's text. In 1988 I wanted to refreshen my greek so I took another greek class, and again the text was this one by Summer's. In both of those classes, and in my days since, I have struggled with this book.

The book is basic, almost too basic. Greek is a very "peculiar" language. The "explanatory" instruction one gets on specific matters then the more one will understand the language. I believe this book fails in many aspects. This book would be "ok" if the teacher is outstanding in his/her skills of teaching greek. Otherwise, I wouldn't buy this book.

I have since ordered "Basics of Biblical Greek" by W. Mounce. That book not only deserves 5 stars, but 5 more. I have studied that book on my own and have found it very satisfactory, fullfilling, and able to fill in the blanks that other greek grammars have not been able to accomplish. William Mounce's father taught greek and brought his son into the language when William was at a young age. Needless to say, William has spent his entire life with the language. He has arranged his book in an order that is logical, helpful, and very useful. I wish I had first started with Mounce's grammar. If you get Summer's then you may soon have the same desire.

This is a good introduction to the study of New Testament Greek. I am partial to it, because it is the text I used in college, but it does have its flaws.

It has some positives to it: it has a lot of vocabulary in it (80% of all the words used in the NT/all words used more than 50 times). It also has good charts for the different tenses and uses of irregular forms of New Testament words.

The main flaw to the book is that it uses the eight case system, and it doesn't use the five (the eight case system has all but fallen out of favor). The only other problem I have with it is that it doesn't dicuss the optative mood at all (most introductory grammars do not, because it is so rare in the New Testament). As I said, I am partial to this work, because it is the text I learned with. You will get some good things from the work, but it does have its disadvantages. This is a good work, but I would recommend also using Mounce along with Summers for a different perspective all together.

Ray Summers' work "Essentials of New Testament Greek" is a classic textbook teaching Greek grammar and syntax to the serious student of New Testament Greek. The author continues to teach the 8 case system which has been abandoned by most colleges and seminaries, much to the detriment of the student's understanding. I highly recommend this book as a textbook for college and seminary Greek classes, as well as for the able minister's reference library.

Thomas Cassidy Th.D., Chairman, Department of Biblical and Historical Theology, San Diego Baptist Theological Seminary

I bought this book in conjunction with a video course on NT Greek. I was troubled to find that the book does not come with answers to the exercises, making it difficult to use effectively in a self-study course.

I previously bought Wenham's Elements of NT Greek, but was put off by its (not surprisingly, considering it is published by Cambridge) overly academic style. I was looking for a simple NT Greek course and Summer's book seemed like it might fit the bill, especially when used with the video course.

One fundamental flaw/problem: on the back of the dust jacket, the blurb at the bottom mentions a workbook (Essentials of New Testament Greek Student's Guide). I have not found any references to this book anywhere else, including the publisher (who never returned my emails) or the publisher's web site. Searching across multiple web search engines returned no applicable hits, either.

The chapters are short. Maybe too short. The discussion is very brief on all the topics covered. Compared with Mounce's Basics book, this one seems emaciated (weighing in at under 200 pages, including index and verb charts). Many of the chapters lack substantive (some lack any!) examples, reducing both the benefit and length of the text.

I recently bought Mounce, hoping that it's more geared for the self-taught student. Summer's book is definitely not. Maybe the vapor-ware (?) Student's Guide would help. Has anybody ever seen the Student's Guide??

Good basic Text of New Testament Greek. Has all the basics. Not as detailed as the classic Dana and Mantey which is more detailed in grammar, or the massive A. T. Robertson. This text is ideal for a summary short course to point people to reading the Greek New Testament. I am combining with study of vocabulary in Metzger.

This grammar works very well as a training tool for teaching or studying basic NT Greek. Each lesson is laid out very logically with enough work to help you develop your skill without overwhelming you.

The methodology is very simple. Vocabulary with a simple point and some memorization work to help you grasp the concept for that lesson.

It is easier to teach through than other basic grammars I have looked at, simply because of it's focus.

I would like to say that those who have criticized it for the 8 case system may be correct...but I like the 8 case system because it gives beginning students a stronger intuitive sense that context does drive a lot of meaning in Greek. That is important for students to understand.

It is a great text book, designed to take 2 semesters for an average student.

Learning NT Greek is not hard. You can do it. This text book is one of the better options you have. A different pathway that helps you accomplish the same task is Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek. I happen to like the approach of Summers a little better. Both of those two Grammars are high on my list. I also recommend FDB (Funk's Grammar) and A.T. Robertson.

Finally, the verb chart is handy to have, but not necessary since they are now standard in most software programs for NT Greek...including BibleWorks 7.0 which I have and love.

I hope you enjoy Summers textbook as much as I have.

Learning New Testament Greek is not for the faint of heart. There is a tremendous amount of memorization (besides vocabulary items there are according to some estimates approximately 500 forms of the Greek verb) involved along with a myriad of rules to learn, all of which seem to have exceptions.
The book eases the beginner into NT Greek with 31 chapters (158 pages of text). The 1st two are alphabet and pronunciation. Basic verbs are next and then common nouns and noun structures. Each chapter has vocabulary items (by the end of the reader will have been exposed to every word used fifty times or more in the GNT) and very helpful practice exercises.
As one reviewer states the "optative" is not discussed, but, this is in keeping with the books basic approach "to be functional and practical".
This book is best studied under the tutelage of a teacher but it could be useful to someone doing independent learning.
The book is only introductory (as are all beginner textbooks). Reading through and comprehending ALL of the book's precepts, the student will only be prepared to BEGIN a study of the Greek New Testament.
I have read and studied nearly a dozen beginning [New Testament] Greek textbooks including Mounce, Croy, Machen, etc., and believe Essentials of New testament Greek is the best of the bunch.

This is a fairly small volume (about 200 pages), but lots of great content. It is organized in a maner that builds on itself and doesn't expect the student to have prior knowledge of the greek language. This is probably the best textbook I had in my entire college experience.

As some of the others have said the examples and exercises are limited. This is true. (Remember, only 200 pages) I definitely recommend the workbook and/or additional resources. (Computer programs are an option for students today--although I haven't personally tried any of them.) This book is a must for any beginning biblical greek student.

In case Amazon does not make it clear, this is a review of the Kindle edition of this book. I am focusing on the technical qualities of the Kindle edition, not on the content (this is the text we are using in class, and I thought it would be cool to have the text with me to study).

In summary, I recommend you buy the printed version of the book: here's an easy link: Essentials of New Testament Greek.

Most (95%+) of the book is scanned, page by page, at a low resolution. For those of you familiar with the book, the scanned portions of the book start with section 1.1 (The Greek Alphabet) and goes through the end of the "Principal Parts of Verbs" table in the end of the book. However, due to the way the Kindle app works on the iPad and the way the rest of the book is laid out, this consumes 13% of the scroll bar... this makes it hard to use the scroll bar to jump between chapters.

In landscape mode, two of the scanned pages fit side-by-side with too much white space. In portrait mode, you get one page swimming in a sea of white background pixels. If you get the Kindle app to enlarge the scanned page, you get a blurry low-resolution image. While they are not impossible to read, I find them very difficult to read either default sized or enlarged (at least on the iPad).

To add insult to injury, some of the scanned pages are slightly crooked, which adds to the unclarity, and you can see the text bleed-through in some of the grey boxes. Honestly, I could have scanned the book myself using any scanner and gotten an identical result in an hour (though the book would have been in a PDF).

And you don't get that cool fold-out table with the Kindle version... not even in some fancy re-presentation to make it fit on the screen.

Perhaps some of these limitations are due to the way Kindle works. Perhaps I expected too much from a book that carries the disclaimer "optimized for larger screens". But since a not-so-recent Kindle update (2.0 I think) supposedly added greek character support, I really expected either more text (that could be clearly enlarged) and less reliance on scanning, or higher-resolution scanning.

If B&H Academic redoes the Kindle version of this book, I'd be glad to take another look at it. As it stands for now, I am going to return the Kindle edition and purchase another printed copy.