Customer Reviews

Koine Greek New Testament (Ancient Greek and English Edition)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Using this set of CD audio recordings of the NT in koine Greek, Zhodiates uses modern Greek pronunciations. I did a comparison in some passages of the GNT with the NA27th edition of the ancient Greek and the Modern Greek NT. It seems that about 70% of the words are spelled identically. So if you learn using the modern Greek pronunciation as he gives it in these recordings, then you are learning how to pronounce some words in modern Greek. For a Christian who would like to go to Greece someday or who relates to Greeks in restaurants or in other settings, this is an invaluable benefit. For that reason alone, it is worth getting this tool.

I found that with my GNT open and this CD on, it is easy to mimic. It can be difficult to find your place on the cd, unless your player allows you to move to specific points in the cd.

I found a blank CD in the middle of my Romans chapters, well after I had purchased this package. The manufacturer handled me swiftly and without a hassle. I was VERY impressed with how they stand behind their product.

I have absolutely loved this product.

If you have the funds to spend on this I would highly recommend it.

The Greek New Testament is recorded on 22 CD's. Mr. Zodhiates reads each verse in a slow deliberate manner, quite useful for the student of Greek.

Mr. Zodhiates uses the Modern Greek pronunciation, which does diverge from the Koine Greek. I didn't find this to be a problem. My goal as a student is to pronounce the words so that they may be understood, and Zodhiates makes a strong case for using Modern Greek in reading the New Testament.

At less than $70, this is a very good addition to your Greek Library.

The CDS are well organized with the one fault of the sections not being described orally. The chapter is given but not the book!
This may not be a problem when you use the cds direct, but is when you use, as I do, the audio files with an Ipod.
The diction is clear and I imagine distinguishable to a non greek speaker.
Any non-modern greek speaking listener would need to learn the modern pronouciation first, as western academicly contrived 'classic' greek is laughably un-authentic.
I find them very useful.

It's so nice to have the modern pronunciation for the Gree NT. I hope the pronunciation used in school's starts doing this. The reading speed is just right, not too fast or slow. Only drawback is I have to manually input the text references in iTunes; the publisher should already have this all done.

This recording has really helped me learn to read my Greek NT fluently. I almost always read it aloud now, and I use Zodhiates' modern Greek pronunciation. I really enjoy it.

I first studied Greek with my dad when I was in the eighth grade. We used Machen's excellent grammar, and I learned the pronunciation explained in that book. While I learned a lot of Greek (and a lot about grammar that helped me in subsequent studies in Latin, German, and Russian), I never learned to read Greek fluently. Reading the NT in Greek was always a chore, and even when I read it correctly, it never quite flowed or sounded like a real language.

After 30 years of neglect, I decided to pick up Greek again. I dusted off Machen and started to work through the grammar. I like the grammar, and I love Machen, but the emphasis on rules about accent markings bogged me down. I'm too old for this, I thought, I just want to read and understand the New Testament! That's when my Dad lent me these CD's.

To say they were a revelation would be a gross understatement. The language sprang to life. It sounded strangely beautiful, if unintelligible. It had the ring of authenticity. I wanted to listen and understand! Over the next couple months, I listened to the book of Matthew repeatedly, at home and in the car. I listened to the Sermon on the Mount over twenty times (ask my poor wife and kids!) and memorized the Beatitudes. With the help of an Interlinear Bible, I slowly began to pick out the words and expand my vocabulary. Within days of my first listening, I could already decipher words and phrases.

Now, after two months, I can listen to or read the book of Matthew in my Greek NT and understand 75% of what I'm reading. I still intend to go back and read the grammar, but at least now I can read the Greek words, declensions, and conjugations fluently, and with a purpose -- to better understand the New Testament. Thank you, Dad, and thank you, Mr Zodhiates!

What is most important about this set is its fluency in (Koine, "Common") Greek-- something unmatched in comparable audio renderings of the original New Testament. Here the reader Spiros Sodhiates utters the Koine Greek as though it were in the modern pronunciation, which is preferred over the Erasman renderings by some seminaries (notably including Baptists in the USA.)

This is hard to match for one who must study Greek alone, and not in school; I have been able to develop more proficient Greek skills by listening to these CDs as I read the Nestle-Aland text on which this audio version is based. My goal-- unattained yet-- is to be able to select randomly one of the 22 offerings in this set and to understand everything I hear from the CD chosen.

Sodhiates died just last year (2009); he was a radio personality for the American Ministry to Greece during the 1950s. He produced in the 1990s a cassette edition of the NT; these recordings thence became the substrate from which the CD set comes into being.

The price for this set has come down-- it used to cost ~$100. But now the price per CD is just a little over a dollar.

In short, I am happy to recommend this set to any serious Bible student-- one i.e. who tries to learn the Greek which is the primary text from which all the other versions/translations are based.

--Vernon Lynn Stephens

I am a convert to Orthodoxy and spent years going to Greek Orthodox services at a monastery and finally decided to learn some Greek. I bought a couple things and was EXTREMELY perplexed, just REALLY, REALLY confused - the pronunciation was not at all what I had been hearing in church, and the services all use Biblical (not modern) Greek. I wanted to learn Biblical Greek the way the Greek Orthodox pronounce it (not Erasmus), and what I would hear in the services. I was SOOO glad to find this!

I enjoy listening to the CDs and following along in my Interlinear Greek New Testament. However, it's awfully hard to find a certain passage.
I would like to find these CDs in a form where I could type in the book and chapter and have it come up without spending so much time trying to locate it.

First a quick intro on the various pronunciation systems in use today to read the Greek New Testament. It can be challenging for new students to get it all straight, so hopefully this will help.

There are several different pronunciation options for students of the Greek New Testament. The traditional academic pronunciation is Erasmian, which was developed by Erasmus with the goal of helping students distinguish the spelling of words by giving each vowel sound and dipthong a distinct sound.

Modern pronunciation is on the other end of the spectrum, mimicking how modern Greeks speak the language. Historically, it is not likely that Greek speakers on the time of the New Testament pronounced the language the same way that Greeks do today. The language has changed quite a bit since then, dropping some of its cases and adapting many of its words. Still, modern pronunciation is at least grounded in a system actually used by real humans at some point in history (unlike the purely made-up Erasmian), and offers the added benefit of allowing students to be understood by actual living Greeks, even if the way they use the language is very out of date.

The third option is what many called Restored Koine which seeks to recapture the way 1st century speakers pronounced the language. They've done this by studying manuscripts and papyri and examining how words were misspelled. That can be a big clue as to which vowels and dipthongs sounded alike. There are some recordings of the New Testament in Restored Koine in the Living Koine materials by Randall Buth.

These CD's are recorded in the Modern Pronunciation by a native speaker of Greek. The narrator speaks clearly and at a natural speed that shouldn't be too fast if you are following along in the text. The recording quality is good but not perfect - there is some background white-noise that can be a little bit irritating at high volumes, but it's not a rock album - most people won't be blasting these recordings.

I have seen some reviewers complain that it's difficult to follow along because the CD's are only marked at chapter divisions rather that verse. Honestly, if I'm going to listen to a recording of the New Testament I'm going to listen big chunks of the text at a time, not hunting to hear a certain verse. If I want that I'll just open my GNT. I think that will probably be the case for most people as well, so don't let that complaint scare you off.

All in all, this is one of the most complete collections of GNT audio recordings in the Modern Pronunciation and it is a valuable tool for further internalizing the language of the New Testament.

I have had a copy of the New Testament in Greek since 1959; but listening to Spiros Zodhiotes reading the text and I feel that I have recaptured not just those fifty years, but the sound of the voices of the women and men who dictated the text to scribes 2000 years ago. I am amazed at how this simple recitation puts us in touch with the freshness of the message of the Gospel event in a way that no amount of learned commentary and my own fifty plus years of reflection would ever do. It is as immediate as the first intimacies with a lover - the Eucharistic Assemblies of the Eastern Mediterranean's Jewish Christian diaspora.

An extra surge of blessing to Spiros as he enjoys the Paradise of which this work gives us a taste.

Mike Ravey