Customer Reviews

Koine Greek Reader: Selections from the New Testament, Septuagint, and Early Christian Writers

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This book is not only the only (so far as I know) true 'koine' reader, it is also among the best 'readers' available. Decker, along with Mounce BBG, has mastered the art of inductive language teaching. The student learns the material by immersing him/herself into it and appropriate help is given as need along the way. This allows the student to stretch his/her own knowledge and confirm or correct his/her current understanding of the grammar.

Several features make this book shine above the rest, though:
1) it is a true Koine reader, meaning the student will learn some NT text, some LXX text and some early christian texts. As someone said on the B-Greek forum, learning the span of koine, rather than simply translating the NT will make the student more adept at analyzing the language itself and less dependent on his/her background knowledge of english translations.

2) Vocab lists. This book is truly made for the student and the classroom. The various vocab assignments before each section will help the student incrementally develop his/her vocabulary beyond the 50x range. Especially helpful in this regard is appendix H which lists all the words that occur in the LXX more than 50x but less than 25x in the NT. By mastering this list, the student will be able to feel comfortable reading the LXX and becoming familiar with its lexical and grammatical features. To paraphrase what someone famous said "Sell every commentary you own if you have to in order to by a copy of the LXX and put it to use."

3) helpful grammar review. While Wallace's Grammar is superb and full of examples, the best way to master grammatical concepts is to read the text and see them in use. Decker does a masterful job of pointing out special grammatical notes concerning the NT, LXX and early christian writings, allowing the user to learn grammar through constant use.

4) using BDAG. Appendix A on using BDAG is a must read (this is available in some form on his website also). BDAG is worth its weight in gold for simple definitions and glosses, but very few know how to use this tome to its full potential. Decker does and he teaches the student how through a series of exercises in the greek text.

I believe that Decker's book should be required reading in all second year Greek courses so as to expose students to the wide range of koine texts, develop students as masters of the language not simply translation glosses, and refresh and sharpen grammatical learning in the context of exegesis/translation.

Students of a foreign language need practice - and not just practice on the same author, but from different authors, different contexts, different texts. One has to mix it up a little to stretch and thereby learn more. Inside this book, you'll find a wide range of reading related to the study of New Testament Greek which enable a student in Koine Greek to do just that. This book is an inductive learning tool, geared to the intermediate, or second year, student, and should serve to help her to stretch her linguistic skills.

The student is met first with a quote from Ulrich Zwingli on the personal study of Greek. The tone is thus set in that Decker is not merely concocting a book on the study of the New Testament in its original languages, but is building a book to enable the student to actually read the Sacred Writings, as Zwingli puts it. To do so, the author has selected writings from the New Testament, covering the Gospels, several of the Epistles, and the book of Revelation, in the first part. Part II focuses on the Septuagint, the Apostolic Fathers and the Early Creeds. The Septuagint includes readings from the Torah with several readings from the Psalms, Histories and Prophets. The Apostolic Fathers includes samples from Ignatius, the Didache, 1 Clement and Hermes. The Creeds include the Apostles', Nicene and the Constantinoplitan, as well as the Chalcedonian. My only issue here, and it is a minute issue given the wide range of authors and (con)texts which Decker has made available to us, is that the Creeds do not include some of the pre-Nicene creeds, even as supplemental readings. Granted, this is only from someone interesting in the early theology of the Church, and not really as a critic overall. Along with these primary readings are, except with the Creeds, supplemental readings to test the student's growth.

The book opens with a preface and an introduction. Abbreviations, including grammatical abbreviations, as well as Appendices which include short introductions to such things as Using BDAG, Parsing Lists and Septuagint Vocabulary. For those who are intermediate students, the Greek words and passages in the lists and readings are met with English renderings. Of note, Strong's is not used, but the bibliography does note the outstanding sources which have been pooled for such a work. As far as translations, the ESV, HCSB, ISV, NASB, NET, NIV and the NRSV are used for the New Testament whereas the academic favorite, NETS, is used for the Septuagint. The second critique is, and again, not really a detracting issue, but while this book is geared to the intermediate student, it may have been made more accessible if a small section, which could have included the Greek alphabet and pronunciation help, was included. This would have allowed beginners and not-yet-intermediate students to make use of this outstanding work.

Now that I've given you the overview, I want to take you inside the chapter and to figure out how the book is supposed to work. In chapter 1, the reading is going to be from John 7.25-44. It begins with a Grammar Review on nouns and case usage, complete with recommended readings (see the Abbreviations list). Following this a Forms Review chart for the endings to the words which you are about to use. Connected to an appendix later in the book, the student then moves to the vocabulary notes and the new vocabulary which will greatly increase, by time the student has completed this book, her Greek knowledge. These lists are divided into words which appear over 100, 25-49, and less than 24 times. Following this, in chapter 1, is a reading of John 7.25-27 with what is essentially a commentary of sorts on the Greek. The Teacher's voice is there with the Student, pointing out what to look for while, but after, reading. This continues until the end of the passage which is then followed by the supplemental reading, which in this case, is John 7.1-24 first in Greek and then accompanied by the rendering found in the NASB.

The book has already been helpful to me, in testing my beginning knowledge of Greek. It will push those with such a knowledge, and for the intermediate student, will expand them and help them on their way. Decker has provided a tool which can be used in the classroom as well as in private study, not just to learn Greek, but to refresh oneself in the Sacred Languages of the early Church.

Dr. Ed Glenny (See recommendations above) used this text in my Intermediate Greek class, and it was extremely helpful. It has vocab to learn, readings to translate, and supplemental notes regarding the text being translated. There are writings from the New Testament (Part 1), the Septuagint (Part 2.1), the apostolic fathers (Part 2.2), and some early creeds (Part 2.3). This really is an amazing resource if you are a second year student or beyond. Honestly, I cannot wait to use this resource again.

I am learning NT Greek on my own, and I picked up this reader after finishing Mounce's "Basics of Biblical Greek".

I won't go into the contents of the book here, which have already been adequately discussed by the previous reviewers. What I would like to point out is that this book seems to be more geared for use in a formal classroom setting, probably that of a seminary with a good library, rather than for personal study. The study notes that accompany the Greek texts often ask questions about certain linguistic features, but no answer keys are provided, so a student working on his own with no access to any Greek teacher cannot tell if his answer is right or not, or what the answer is in the first place. From time to time, reference is also made to other books and resources with regards to certain language or hermeneutical issues, but such materials are often not readily available to the self-learner who has no access to a seminary library. As a result, the student is often left frustrated over not knowing the "answers" to the questions and issues that the author brings up.

A self-learner who wants to use this reader is strongly advised to have at his disposal at least the following books, as frequent reference is made to them in the reader:
--"A Greek Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature" (BDAG)
--"Basics of Biblical Greek" by William D. Mounce
--"Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics" by Daniel Wallace
--"It's Still Greek to Me" by David Alan Black

On the plus side, the notes that are not phrased as questions do provide considerable help in understanding the texts. There are also plenty of helpful appendices, including a guide to using BDAG, a parsing list of all inflected words in each reading passage, and vocabulary lists for review purposes.

To make this reader a better one, hopefully an answer key of some sort could be made available online or in future printed editions.

This is a great second year tool for learning koine! It breaks text into manageable sizes and inserts vocabulary and/or parsing notes in between.

A good and helpful reader for those learning koine Greek. The format is large and the fonts are readable, easy on the eye.

The texts are from The Hew Testament and from outside of it: The Septuagint, Apostolic Fathers and from The Early Creeds of the Church. As a complementary tool one should have at hand the BDAG. Also it is asumed that the student studied one year of elementary Greek.

On the other hand it is leading the reader on a peculiar view that it is not concerned with the historical truth: The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed it is given in the English translation with the much later addagio "filoque" (The Holy Ghost proceedeth both from the Father and the Son), altough the Greek texts misses it.

Be aware!

As a beginner, you may have difficulty keeping up with the lessons. However, as your learning increases, this book will be quite beneficial to expand your knowledge of the New Testament Greek.
Enjoy!