Customer Reviews

It's Still Greek to Me: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to Intermediate Greek

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
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Once a student finishes the first year of Biblical Greek, there are three "intermediate" grammars that should be read: Dan Wallace's "Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics", Dana and Mantey, and this book by David Alan Black.

Without any question, you should read Black's book first.

First of all, "It's Still Greek to Me" is just plain fun to read (which is not something that can be said of very many grammar books!). Yet, all the wit and excellent writing are not merely to entertain - but reveal Prof. Black as a genuine master teacher who makes NT Greek grammar not only clear but memorable.

For students who are just finishing their first year of Greek, this book should be started as soon as you turn in your last paper for the semester - and definitely before you begin your second year of Greek or your first NT exegesis course.

If your school uses Dan Wallace's highly regarded "Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics" for intermediate Greek, you would still be VERY wise to read Black first. Much of the value of Wallace's work is the enormous number of actual texts that he interacts with. Unfortunately, this can cause students to miss the forest for the trees. By reading Black first, you will better be able to appreciate both the forest and the trees.

NT Professors are strongly encouraged to add "It's Still Greek to Me" to their "highly recommended" and "required" reading lists that they provide to their students.

Highly recommended.

Great for an intermediate text book on NT Greek.

David Black has a relaxed style and uses some terrible puns, all of which goes to making a complex subject easier to learn.

He covers topics in sufficient depth - and avoids getting bogged down in detail. Every category is backed up with examples from the Greek NT, which is very useful.

I found the chapters on infinitives and participles and clauses especially helpful and worthwhile.

Black helps make the nuances of syntax easier to understand with this concise book. Chapters are well ordered and written in such a way that makes it clear to the reader with some Greek background the true meaning of Greek texts. This book even helped me with English grammar. Well worth the buy.

I had Dave Black for elementary Greek and used his "Learn to Read New Testament Greek." I took another professor for intermediate Greek, and we used Dan Wallace's book. I bought this anyway, and couldn't be more grateful. The material is much the same, but the explanations are much more comprehensible. Black can cover in 3-4 pages what Wallace would in 20-30, and you actually understand what you are dealing with. Furthermore, Black doesn't beat you in the head with over the top technicalities. Bottom line, while there may be other grammars which are helpful, this is the book that opened my understanding of intermediate Greek and enabled me to succeed in the class.

Black's book makes Greek easier for the struggling student. It explains the whys and wherefores of Greek in detail. It not only defines terms, but it gives examples from Scripture, so that the student can know how these grammatical functions work in the text.

I had to purchase this book for my third semester of seminary Greek. I really enjoyed reading it. In fact, this is what I will use when I want to brush up on my Greek. Wallace will always be the standard if I need to research an exegetical problem on some passage, but Black does a great job of covering just what I need to know. I think this is a fantastic resource for anyone who has finished the first year of Greek and wants to understand more than the basics but doesn't want to swim in the sea of technicalities that is Wallace.

This is the perfect book for easing the transition from first year Greek Studies to second year Intermediate Greek. First year grammars usually do not present an overview of grammatical categories or other syntax and exegetical issues, if they present any at all, which need to be addressed before starting the Intermediate level. This book is concise and easy to read, and it does present the basic major categories and syntax issues that one should be familiar with without going into great detail with long lists of specifics. The translation exercises in each chapter are down to earth and allow one to grasp the Greek of everyday life rather than focus entirely on scripture. I would recommend it. WAC

I bought this book for my New Testament Exegesis course. I have found it to be an enjoyable read. It has a good sense of humor, which helps make for a light-hearted read that will put readers at ease while learning a language that may leave a feeling of unfamiliarity.

It's been over a decade since I first purchased this book for my second year Greek class. Later when I got to Seminary I read it again in the weeks before classes started. "It's Still Greek To Me" Has become a companion for me. I return to it often. It never sits on a shelf actually. It just stays on my desk next to my Greek New Testament. Always there to help me along.

I used Metzger for years as I tried time after time to learn the necessary vocublary...It's too bad Metzger doesn't do a complete update of his work. So we are left with this attempt. On the positive side: This is a newer work. Verbs have principle parts. Layout of the book is better, it is possible to "mask" part (English) and just see the Greek word: Has a good and simpler section on the Third Declension...I can't tell if the binding is good or not. It is extreemly flexible, very thin type of glue and the "jacket" allows the book to be nicely opened up for easy, flat reading, but long term will it hold up? I don't know. This is a fault of Metzger's book, it falls apart...
For the negatives: The largest part of the book is listings of words used 10 times or less for each NT book, if you have the excellent "A Reader's Greek New Testament" then this large part of the book is useless. The section on prepostions is cute, but not complete, showing houses with arrows going every-which-way. This is not the fault of the authors, but the breathing marks are printed soooo small that the first thing I do is break out the magnifing glass and remark them. Also the verbs are defined like infinities, for example "eurisko"="to find".