Customer Reviews

New Testament Greek for Beginners (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Machen's book, though dated (c.1923) is still in use in leading theological seminaries and the text chosen by the Newark (NJ) School of Theology for its first and second year NT Greek courses. Machen is a no-nonsense, no frills, dead serious introductory text, but a student who has completed it will be able to read NT Greek. Each of the 33 lessons concludes with 20 Greek to English sentences and 16 English to Greek sentences to be translated. At the end of the first year of Machen, I discovered that Zodhiates (AMG Publishers, Chattanooga, TN) has published keys to these exercises, together with cassettes covering all 33 lessons, and a workbook with its own key booklet for each lesson. Gresham taught NT Greek at Princeton Theological Seminary in the early 20's and was a fundamentalist preacher there of considerable renown. I recommend Machen's text without reservation for serious students of NT Greek.

I am a Lutheran pastor. Forty years ago I used Machen as the first year text by which I learned New Testament Greek. Over the years, I have used this text to teach a few interested persons New Testament Greek one-on-one. I tried another text once, but its arrangement of subjects seemed out of place. For me, the great feature of Machen is the numerous exercise sentences at the end of each chapter. Too many first year texts provide the students with too few exercise sentences by which they can practice what they have learned.

It is not really a book for self-study. But, with the help of a teacher who has studied New Testament Greek, it is simply the best book available after its nearly 80 years in print. That alone speaks much in its behalf.

The long ago departed J. Gresham Machen provided the academic world with the standard text for teaching Koine (common) Greek, often called New Testament Greek. This book is extremely well done, and after viewing two three separate Greek texts, this is the most detailed. He covers all the rules in Greek such as declensions, Present Actives, Participles, aorists, imperfects, Perfect tenses, subjunctives, etc. His vocabulary section in the back is great for the student as a quick reference or study tool for memorization. Further, as another reviewer noted, one can practice what they have learned in each chapter with Greek to English and English to Greek exercises. This is more difficult book than Mounce's text if one was trying to learn Greek alone. With a minor in Greek, I suggests one seek a teacher or someone with at least two years of Greek if using a book to learn Greek anyway.

Machen's New Testament Greek for Beginners is concise and clear in what it teaches. It is no-nonsense and gets right to the point of each individual lesson. The chapters are fed to the student in small "bite-size" portions that are easily digested - not too much info in one sitting. The real benefit of this grammar, however, is in the exercises at the end of each chapter. The student is taught one or two new grammatical concepts per chapter, and then is asked to apply those concepts through numerous translations - first from Greek to English and then from English to Greek. It is the second set of exercises (English to Greek) that really cements the points of the lesson in one's mind - for one could scramble through translating from the Greek if they had to, but taking the English and writing the equivalent in Greek takes a clearer understanding of the concepts.

Another benefit of the excercises in Machen is the fact that the sentences to be translated are not directly from the Bible. I started out my trek through Koine Greek with Mounce's grammar. He does not have the student translate from English to Greek because he states (and I'm paraphrasing) that "we're not learning to write, we're learning to read". In addition, all of the exercises were passages from the Bible. If, as in my case, you have studied the Bible before moving on to Greek, many of the exercises to be translated will be familiar to you. It seemed that I could make it through the translation after the first few words because I had heard the English many times. This did not help because I was not forced to work through each word or phrase individually (because I knew what it said before I got to that point). Machen makes up his own sentences, having to do with the vocabulary words learned up to that point. There is no such thing as translating, "For God so loved the world..." and then not having to complete the exercise because you happen to know the rest of the verse. While Mounce provides much more explanation in his chapters, you can't beat Machen for practical exercises.

It should be noted that the style of Machen is more "academic", while Mounce is more "contemporary".

I spent two semesters in college going through this book in a Classroom setting and found this work entirely helpful for the understanding of New Testament Greek. The method by which Machen divided up his Chapters allows the student to begin understanding (and writing) Greek sentences after only a few lessons whereas some grammars will go over every single Noun Ending and Rule before moving on to the Verbs and it could be fifteen lessons before the Student is able to understand even a basic sentence.

There are a few problems with the text and those are mainly involving the way in which he describes some of the more difficult concepts. Without a knowledgeable person explaining Participles to the student, the novice would be hard-pressed to understand the complexity of the Participle in Greek and would flounder through Machen's descriptions of them. If the solitary student is trying to brush up on his Greek or has already learned one or more languages then he or she will have a much easier time grasping the more difficult concepts because they would be used to going through a grammar and learning ideas about a foreign language.

The Lexicon in the Back (with the principle parts) is also a very helpful tool for the beginning student so the student does not have to flip through every single lesson trying to find the definition of a word given previously while working on a later lesson.

Once the student has completely finished using Machen's book he or she will be able to, armed with only this grammar and a Lexicon, tackle a significant majority of the passages in the New Testament. While there are obviously some more difficult passages in the New Testament (Hebrews, etc) that will be a struggle for the beginning student this work will provide him or her with a very solid foundation to work from and will be an invaluable tool for the rest of the student's time spent in Greek.

I took four years of high school Greek and we used this book all the way through. I am now taking Greek in College and we are using Croy's book: A Primer of Biblical Greek. After using Croy's book for two semester's, I can say that I prefer Machen. He is very thorough and yet very clear in his presentation of beginning concepts. Machen's dictionary in the back is also invaluable for the beginning student. It is truly a great work.

I have used this book as a classbook, to teach Greek, since the late 1980's. Just as important, it has been a concise, reliable, and lucid reference, far exceeding any other grammatical reference books in my entire library. I continue to add new Greek references and study books, but this is the one I keep coming back to.

I am partial to Machen because I first learned Greek with his book, but the more I use this text to teach Greek to others, the more impressed I become. The genius is the organization and the exercises. No grammar does a better job of systematically leading one through Greek and the exercises are wonderful at reenforcing the vocabulary and paradigms. This book is great for reviewing or refreshing Greek and is perfect for teaching children, again because of the exercises.
Machen's writing style is succinct if not eliptical, and this is the polar opposite to Mounce's user-friendly, wordy text, but its nice that it is small and you don't need a separate workbook. I would recommend that you buy both Machen and Mounce. The only reason I give it four stars is that no grammar is perfect and you really need to work through several. Machen is also to be honored for defending the faith against liberalism and he belongs in every Greco-phile's library.

There are some modest problems with Machen's grammar, but age is not one of them. I learned with this grammar and I still use it to teach introductory Koine. It is not an accident that so many Greek teachers learned with this grammar -- it covers all the material needed to read the NT competently. I personally would like to see MI verbs covered earlier in the lessons but this is a small matter that can be corrected by the instructor if they are so inclined. The grammar is well thought out as well. Lessons that are heavy and require a lot of work are followed by lighter lessons so the student is not overwhelmed. The exercises, though not directly from the NT, cover the grammatical points of the lesson and help the student understand the rules of grammar.
My greatest trouble with Machen's grammar is that it assumes the student is well versed in English grammar. Sadly, most university students do not know what a subjunctive mood is or a superlative adjective etc. I am constantly needing to explain Machen's definitions to my students because they do not have the basic instruction in English to comprehend the Greek. This is not so much a fault of Machen's grammar as a telltale sign that classical learning is not valued in public education. My second problem is his constant use of archaic pronouns. Again, this is not so much about Machen being an 'archaic' book but that when the grammar was written, the KJV was pretty much the only version used in the churches. Ye, thee, thou, etc. would have seemed a very reasonable and dignified way of translating pronouns. Now it just sounds silly (for most of us anyway). Again, this can be corrected by the instructor.
All round, Machen is a good grammar that covers the material. It does not offer a magic pill solution to learning a foreign language. If you use Machen you will need to work; however, the pay off is knowing Greek well.

I have to say I found this more challenging than the text we used in my seminary classes (Hewett), but it is worth it if you have the motivation. Work through the whole grammar and you can sight-read koine Greek. Its tough and its grammar, but you can see hints of why Machen's Greek courses at Princeton in the 20s were so popular with the students. He is passionate about the language, its importance and its beauty.