Customer Reviews

Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek

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This is an excellent book for learning Greek vocabulary and word formation, and has been used in seminaries for over 50 years. During that time, people have been thinking of ways they would add to it or improve it. Although Metzger's book still holds up quite well, I think that some of these newer books have surpassed it. For instance, I like Robinson's Mastering Greek Vocabulary better, and it contains much of the same material.

If you're a serious (or even semi-serious) student of NT Greek, you'll want this book. A short list of vocabulary words, sorted and indexed several ways, gives you the information you need to start learning the most commonly used words immediately.

Not designed to be read cover-to-cover, it's just a list of Greek words, their meanings and, often, related English words that derived from the Greek term. Using a computer program, the straight words could be generated easily enough, but the beauty is in the English definitions and related words. Designed to help make the connection between the English and the Greek clearer for the user, Metzger has provided students with an excellent, concise, and easy to use reference work that you'll return to over and over.

This reference is an important resource for the first time Greek student. Organized in a fashion of word use frequency allows the student to locate the most commonly used words quickly. The appendices are extremely useful for understanding concepts such as the geometrical graph of prepositions.

I bought this book after reading Dr. P.C. Comminos review. This is a gem of a little book. Here's how it's set up: list words by their frequency (from 500 occurances all the way down to 10), words classified according to their root, ino-european family of languages (helps you see the big picture), prepositions in composition with verbs, principal parts of important verbs, feminine nouns of the second declension, and an index of greek words. Yes I got that from the table of contents.

Total length of this book is 100 pages. It is inexpensive and comprehensive for it's size. A superior product given that it is only 100 pages. You can get this book for under ten dollars. There are few purchases that qualify as "No brainers" in my humble opinion. This is one of those "NO BRAINERS." As a side note if your learning greek you should check out Dr. PC Commino's profile. I have found it very informative, and have never been steered wrong by him.

This helpful book by Bruce Metzger has becomed somewhat outdated, but it is still a valuable resource for the beginning student of Koine Greek. The word frequency lists do help students to focus on learning the most commonly used words in the Greek New Testament and, thereby, to rapidly build a working vocabulary.

The most helpful aspect of the vocabulary lists is the mnemonic aids that Metzger provides for some of the words. When I began to memorize Greek vocabulary I used mnemonic devices for the many words that had no English cognate or other obvious relation to an English word or meaning. Many of these devices were silly, but they made the word stick out in my mind; Metzger states that this is a good technique and believes that it is often a case of 'the sillier, the better.' I only wish that he had provided more mnemonic aids as he leaves us empty-handed in regard to many words (especially some of the more difficult words). Still, the ones he does provide are a great help.

The second half of the book, as other reviewers have noted, has been surpassed by others in newer books. I also recommend Warren Trenchard's "Complete Vocabulary Guide to the Greek New Testament" (Revised Edition) as the best and most comprehensive vocabulary resource for the beginning student - just don't allow certain portions of the book to become a crutch that keep you from memorizing the principal parts of verbs. Thomas A. Robinson's "Mastering Greek Vocabulary" is another good resource for building vocabulary through memorizing words by their cognate group; however, Trenchard's volume also provides this information (and more), so it's still the better resource. If you really want to delve into vocabulary, then try William Mounce's "The Morphology of Biblical Greek" (not recommended for the beginner or for those with short attention spans).

The vocabulary list ordered by frequency of occurrences in the New Testament, which is the first section of this book, while revolutionary at the time, has already been co-opted by Mounce (and others I'm sure), but the other sections on suffix functionality and the list of vocabulary by root/stem is indispensible for understanding rather than just memorizing Greek vocabulary as one moves into encountering the entire NT/ Koine Greek language. It was worth the money and very succinct.

Metzger's Lexical Aids has been in my library for many years. I use it as a quick reference on New Testament Greek if I don't want to pull out more exhausitve aids. I espccially like the way he has created several indices including an index of Greek roots and a sort by number of occurrences.

This aid was particularly useful when I first started to learn the Greek but I find myself, even today, going back to it for a quick lookup. I recommend this book for students of New Testament Greek.

I have used other resources as well, many of which were recommended by the late Dr. Gene Scott and continue to be used by his wife, Pastor Melissa Scott. But none seem to be as well worn as my "Lexical Aids".

Depending upon the style in which the reader learns best, this book may be a great asset.

If you learn via "word association" or by using cognates of words, this will help you tremendously. In most cases, a cognate is listed in the definition, which will enable the reader to associate a modern word to the Greek equivalent. Additionally, words are ordered by root (in the last half of the book) further enabling the student to remember and associate words of like definition.

If you learn by any other method, unfortunately, this book will be nothing more than a long list of words. Although it will be of service to you, it will not be the tremendous service to you that it is to word association types.

In any case, a great resource, especially for the price.

With the vocabulary ordered by use in the New Testament texts, this handy little book will have you reading and comprehending larger portions much faster than otherwise. It is a must have for any bilbical greek study. It is useful on its own as a reference, less useful as a single source tutorial, but absolutely essential for rapid study when combined with Machon or Mounce's works.

This book is great for review and vocabulary refreshers. Small, charming, and concise, it used to sit next to my bed, desk, or bathroom sink, for when I had a free moment to study. It took only a few weeks to work through the words this way from beginning to end, and now it's (mostly) in my head, ready to use. After learning this little book, my facility in the Greek NT went up several grade levels. For extra synergy, use it in tandem with Kubo's lexicon, which picks up with the occasional rarer words where Metzger leaves off. But I usually just flip to the dictionary in the back of Aland, so I only need to carry around the one little red NT. Thanks, Dr. Metzger! (His Canon of the NT is great too.)