Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Compentent but Deeply Flawed Primer, November 22, 2004
I am completing lesson 27 in this book and have been frustrated with it from lesson 2. I have referenced Bill Mounce's book/workbook/cd from time to time during the course in order to clarify what in the world Baugh is talking about and I have frequently wished that I could have used his format (with its deficiencies) instead.
First of all, I do in fact like the way this book is arranged over that of Mounce. He introduces verbs in lesson 5 and that way the student can begin to read Greek much earlier in the course than with Mounce. This is about the only positive thing I have to say about this primer.
Critique
1) It constantly seems that Baugh has fellow Greek teachers in mind rather than the basic student in that he consistently clouds simple concepts with lengthy discussion of the finer and rarer points of Greek that no introductory student could be expected to understand or remember. My professor was regularly saying, "I know what Baugh is saying, and technically he is correct, but that is confusing for your level of proficiency."
2) The way the lessons themselves are organized is confusing. The paradigms are listed first, with no explanation, and then they are "explained" in paragraph form rather than graphically or spacially...or simply. Remember also that these paragraphs are riddled with the intricacies of the paradigm and the Greek language rather than with help demonstrating to the reader how to take what they already have learned and apply this new info.
3) He assumes the student has a significant understanding of English grammar and grammatical terms - pronomial, predicate nominative, etc.
4) While he overexplains the complex things, the necessary and basic concepts or lists in his book receive inadequate treatment. For example, under adjectives, he goes on and on about adj's in the attributive, substantive, and predicate position to the point of utter confusion but nowhere that I can find does he list the simple translation tool that attributives have an article and noun, substantive have and article an no noun, and predicates don't have an article. Simple, and simply missing from Baugh.
5) As all the other critical reviewers have indicated, he constantly uses study guide questions that contain words and concepts that the student hasn't been exposed to. This is understandable in the first few chapters, but afterwards he shouldn't have to list 15-20 vocab words above the exercises.
6) He doesn't explain the answers in the answer key but simply lists the correct answer.
7) He frequently uses alternative translations of texts in the exercises so that Bible software is useless in helping the student to determine why they got a particular question wrong.
All in all, this primer seems like an untested first draft. Even though there are many things I do not like about Mounce's approach, he is simple and straightforward and has a way of making complex things understandable rather than how Baugh tends to make the most basic things quite confusing.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wish I could give it a higher review..., October 28, 2003
but I can't. This beginner level Grammar of NT Greek is a very fine effort in certain ways that are important. But as I labored through it as part of my seminary curriculum, I simply found too many things about it that were downright distressing, thus the mixed review I'm giving it. On the positive side, this Greek Grammar workbook is quite thorough for a beginner level grammar. Those wanting the basics of NT Greek will find that Baugh covers a surprisingly comprehensive array of topics and principles that are really quite essential. He appropriately breaks from Metzger in focusing the beginner level student on more reasonable levels of vocabulary memorization that provide far more 'bang for the buck' then Metzger's approach. In addition, he covers nouns up through the third declension, including prominent exceptions, as well as verbs and participles of multiple tenses, voices, and moods. While I will heavily criticize his workbook exercises later, it should be noted that the answer key for the exercises is needed and does allow the student, depending on his/her aptitude, to independently work through his Grammar. Also, his glossary of many grammatical terms is also a welcome part of this Grammar, particularly those who struggle with grammatical terminology in English (ie: what is a 'predicate nominative'). This glossary will help in that regard, and this is important since such grammatical terms are used with regularity in this Grammar, as they should be. Now for the negatives. Baugh's thoroughness on balance is good but he does at times devote too much ink to peripheral and decidedly secondary concepts that too often fog up his book. And this really comes through when Baugh attempts to present more complex areas such as participles and even adjectives or pronouns. There are much easier ways to effectively teach participles, contract verbs, adjectives, and irregular aorist forms then what we see from Baugh here. Participles and irregular aorists in particular are difficult enough on their own without Baugh making them more confusing, often unnecessarily. And this leads to my last major problem with the book - its completely unnecessary introduction of arbitrary difficulties into the workbook exercises. With aggravating regularity, Baugh pollutes his workbook exercises either with vocabulary words that haven't been taught yet, concepts that haven't been introduced yet, and in unnecessarily emphasizing minute points (usually without explanatory resolution based on what the student should know from the applicable lesson) that in many cases are purely academic and matters of translation philosophy rather then basic issues of grammar. I understand that there is a certain teaching philosophy that believes that these forms of instructional 'sneak attacks' serve the noble purpose of stretching the student which is supposed to lead to increased inquisitiveness and the like. Well, as a student trying to learn a completely new language, Greek (like English) has plenty of built-in irregularities and oddities to keep students on their heals without Baugh's help. The level of confusion he unnecessarily introduces into the workbook exercises goes a long way towards making his Grammar inaccessible and unhelpful to those who are unfortunate enough to not be studying under a good professor who can compensate. This Grammar had the potential of being truly great. It is thorough and carries with it the great potential of instilling a very good foundation for more advanced study and literacy of NT Greek. Unfortunately, if Baugh's book is any indication of the effectiveness of traditional forms of teaching NT Greek, it is little wonder why so few have achieved a genuine level of competence in interacting with the language. And such a result is very sad indeed since God chose this language as the tool to communicate his special revelation starting with the Gospels.
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24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bill Mounce eat your heart out!, December 19, 2000
I have been a student of New Testament Greek for a couple years now and I originally learned my grammar on William Mounce's The Basics of Biblical Greek. I really liked Mounce's book and I learned well form it. As a refresher, I picked up Baugh's Primer. If any Greek grammar tops Mounce, this is the one. It goes in easy to swallow chunks and splits grammar up into 30 helpful, but not overly difficult chapters. Just like Mounce, it uses words that occur 50+ times in the NT in its vocabulary lists. It has strong sections in Morphology and the paradigms that you memorize are incredibly helpful. Also, like Mounce, Baugh uses actual Scripture passages from the Greek NT for practice. The big advantages of this Primer over Mounce's Basics, is that this book integrates the verb system as you go along. It does not wait until after you have learned everything else and then concentrate on verbs. I think this helps the verb system to sink in a little better. Also, another advantage is that this book is CHEAPER. It does not require both a text and a workbook like Mounce, but is all rolled into one. I definitely think that anyone who is looking to buy a book on NT Greek grammar should buy this one.
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