Customer Reviews

A Primer of Biblical Greek with CD

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The person who wants to read the New Testament in its original language is faced with dozens of possible textbooks on the market. Some will inundate him or her with needless technical information; others will barely give enough information to scratch the surface of the language. Clayton Croy, an assistant professor of New Testament at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, has provided a textbook that at last hits the right balance.

The Primer presents the full spectrum of Greek grammar, with clear yet concise discussions of each grammatical concept, in just over thirty lessons. Each concept is illustrated with examples in Greek and English, and the student will have plenty of opportunity to practice Greek through the exercises that Croy has either written himself or selected from the New Testament and the Septuagint (the Old Testament translated into Greek, as it was read by most Jews outside of Palestine in the Greco-Roman world). The inclusion of exercises from both the New Testament and Septuagint makes this book all the more attractive, as the student is able from early on to begin working with the scriptures themselves. The use of the Septuagint in this text makes it stand out as unique among all available textbooks, encouraging students to pursue not only the study of the New Testament in Greek but to delve more fully into the Jewish Bible as it was known to the majority of Jews at the turn of the era (and as it came to be used in the early church).

I highly recommend this book as a textbook for all who teach Biblical Greek in bible colleges and seminaries.

I studied biblical Greek years ago in seminary. For a year now, I have been working on my own to renew my ability with the language. I worked my way through "Basics of Biblical Greek" before buying A Primer of Biblical Greek. I love both books. Of the two, I like the approach here of having the three types of exercises: author generated sentences, readings from the LXX and NT. My only suggestion would be to include practice in reading extended passages. As it is, each sentence is a new beginning rather than a continuous flow of language. A short narrative or passage at the end of each chapter or extended readings as a companion (graded) reader would offer the language in context rather than as isolated examples. As someone working alone without a teacher, I did find this book user friendly!

I have used a couple of different texts in seminary to learn (or try to learn) Greek. This is the best, most user friendly text I have found. It exceeds Mounce in that it doesn't get so focused on the minutia. It's in modern language (unlike Machen). The exercises are appropriate yet remain challenging throughout. There are a few places Croy does things I might have chosen differently (different order, or different examples for exercises) but those are incredibly small nit-picks. If you are teaching yourself this is the place to start. As you progress, there are others that will futher your education, but start here.

Croy's book not only is extremely useful but manifests a latent charm and humor (in the exercises). I have taught NT Greek for over 30 years and this is the best primer on the market. It gets students right into the biblical texts with sentences from the LXX and the NT. The exercises are pertinent, challenging, and able to be accomplished by the students even on their own. Croy does not fuss with syntactical or grammatical issues that lie beyond the ken of the NT. At the same time he presents material at an appropriate pace and builds in a rather straighforward manner. I very much appreciate the layout of the book -- the wide margins give a spacious impression; very important for beginning students who feel the optical issue of "different letters" and the psychological intimidation of a book that crams so much into so little space. It is, in short, a remarkable book.

As my title indicates, this is a solid book to be used as a text for a high school or college class on Biblical Greek. I doubt that it would be a useful tool for learning Greek on one's own; it will likely require further instruction and explication to be meaningful. A CD-ROM is included, with some useful material on it.

The information is presented simply and systematically. The content of the book is on par with other first-year Greek textbooks, and this may be the simplest one of them all that is suitable for higher education.

The book has been effective in teaching Biblical Greek to me, a native English speaker, and to my classmates as well. I came in with rudimentary understanding of languages and some experience learning language in high school and college, but I am far from being a language scholar. The material was reasonably easy to comprehend. There is no way for the student to escape a bit of memorization and drilling. Again, it will likely be necessary to seek instruction and guidance, especially for pronunciation and for drawing the student's focus to the most important material.

Here is the major negative aspect of Croy's Primer: The book itself is a piece of junk. It is a poorly-bound paperback with a cheap plastic-coated cover. I take great care in breaking the spine of new books, but this book started coming unglued immediately despite my best efforts. The font is generally readable, although the breathing marks and accents are difficult for those with poor vision to read. A large print edition is probably not necessary, but I would prefer it to the current version for legibility.

If the material in this primer were bound instead into an elegant hardcover edition, I would not hesitate to give the book 4.5 stars. As it is, the poor paperback quality reflects the carelessness of the publisher. My recommendation to those considering buying the book is to find the best price possible and protect the book well enough to get through your first year of Greek. Perhaps an acceptable hardcover edition will be available at a reasonable price in the future. I recommend staying away from used paperback editions of this book, since I cannot imagine them being in good shape by the time they reach the purchaser.

When approaching a language as difficult and distant as New Testament Greek, it is important to hone in on the qualities of a grammatical primer which are most important. Of the host of different characteristics, I have chosen 3) which make this grammar exemplary...

1) Structure: The structure of the grammar is easy to follow, with concise chapter formats, easy to understand (relatively speaking of course) lesson plans, and extremely helpful exercises. The real rarity is how clearly Croy writes, and also how he makes the reader feel good by giving them substanstive exercises which, although paced to be easy to understand and learn, give a feeling of having accomplished something.

2) Vocabulary: The choice of how to approach vocab is crucial for an NT Greek grammar, and Croy's vocab lists are well organized and flow naturally. After completing the entire book, the student will feel able to approach the New Testament, having been equipped with all of the most necessary words.

3) Appendices: This, for me at least, is the absolutely most important feature of this grammar, over and above the competition. Often NT Greek grammars include reference charts in the back including verb and noun forms, but they are quite generally hard to follow and difficult to pick up and use. This grammar, however, excels by providing an invaluable resource that will still be helpful even years into the study of NT Greek. The charts are easy to read, well organized, and readily available for the beginner up to the advanced student.

In sum, this grammar is the best on the market that I have been able to find, and I have a shelf of other ones that have become increasingly neglected because when I need to glance at an intro grammar, I choose this one; when I teach intro to Greek, this is the one that I choose. I recommend it highly for anyone seriously wanting to engage the NT in its original language.

I picked up this book so that I could give myself a head start in learning biblical era Greek, which I hope to take at university next semester. It's been a fun adventure so far.

I opted to pick up the Primer based on Amazon reviews, and further opted to get the Kindle edition as it is nice to be able to take multiple study texts with me wherever I go. I have not been through the entire book yet but I thought I would share a few observations.

In general, I like the book. Because I'm self-learning, I find that using other resources with the book is a must. Fortunately, there are many great on-line resources for helping one to learn Koine Greek. Without them, I would probably get less out of the Primer, again due to my attempting this as someone new to the subject and without an instructor.

Pluses: The writing style is engaging and relatively easy to follow. The exercises are likewise engaging. I look forward to doing them and so far they have been appropriately challenging and rewarding.

Minuses: The lack of an answer key is unfortunate, as it leaves the solo-learner having to guess whether he/she is doing the exercises correctly. Of course, this is a non-issue if you are not a solo-learner.

Kindle Version Problems: I've run into two problems that I would guess are exclusive to the Kindle version of the Primer. The first is that sometimes a Greek letter will show incorrectly. Sometimes it will show only half the letter, or, even more oddly, split the letter in half with what appears to be a full space between. This led to a lot of confusion for me until I realized what was happening, as they at first appeared to be new letters I did not know. The other, perhaps more significant problem with the Kindle version is that the Greek alphabet table is, to be succinct, really messed up. Alpha is missing, and the columns do not line up leading to letters being associated with the wrong name, transliteration and/or pronunciation. It is so bad that if you were to rely totally on the chart in the Kindle version you would be unable to proceed. Fortunately, I had another alphabet chart with me and was able to recognize this error immediately.

If I were to make my purchasing decision over again, I would still buy this book, but I would get the hard copy. The Kindle version suffers from quite a few rendering errors. It does not make the Kindle version unusable, but it does create some unnecessary challenges for the reader.

Croy's work does a great service to the student of language. This concise, short work is ideal for personal study or for supplement within the classroom. The lessons provide a well-balanced amount of material (including vocabulary, new syntactical/grammatical information and declensions/conjugations) for each of the 32 chapters. An excellent work for anyone who is approaching the subject for the first time.

The two primary shortcomings are understandable and a priori present in this kind of work. The first is a real lack of any comparative literature outside of biblical Greek. This is understandable, as it it a biblical Koine Greek primer. It does an excellent job in supplying the student with abundant biblical examples to track progress. A second problem is that Croy's work is far from anything which could be deemed technical. This potential shortcoming actually was a blessing for my peers who had not had much language study prior to approaching Greek and it was found accessable by them. However, one who has enjoyed the thorough-going nature of Wheelock or Gesenius and their respective grammars will be in for quite a different kind of text. A third problem which I believe could be amended is the lack of any answer key for the exercises. Though a student could do only the Septuagint and New Testament examples, the composition into Greek is necessary to ensure a grasp of many key concepts in the language.

Despite the shortcomings, Croy's Primer shines and serves as an accessable introduction to the language.

Since I am only a first term Greek student, I don't have much to compare with Croy, but I am doing fairly well in my class. The CD is of some help as it provides answers to some (but not all) of the homework exercises. Croy's composed exercises (based on vocab and grammar given to that point) are much more helpful than the LXX and NT exercises that he includes because the scripture includes many words not yet taught. Because he has to provide those words, there's less opportunity to practice skills. Took off one star for this.

The cover and binding on this volume are not of top quality. A 60 page chunk has fallen out of mine and the clear veneer is peeling off of the cover. Other students in my class are also noticing deterioration of their copies. Those who are unusually gentle with their textbooks may not have a problem. However, Greek requires a lot of study time which does translate to more use for the textbook. Took off another star for this.

In my opinion the 30lb gorilla in the beginners Greek Grammar market is Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar. I've used it and now Croy's. I wanted to offer my quick contrast between the two. If you are learning completely on your own, I think Mounce's is easier and better geared to that (besides you can buy his course lectures from his website). Croy's on the other hand seems well suited for the classroom and those who know Greek but want to refresh. I say that because Croy's is straight to the point in most cases, it also doesn't contain the humor of Mounce (which is good or bad depending on your perspective).

Now to what's just good about Croy's? Like I said, it's to the point. You start off with Verbs and Nouns much faster than Mounces. Actually lesson 2 is verbs and lesson 3-4 are declensions.

Capricious amounts of examples! Not only do you have author created sentences, LXX, and NT as well as couple of English to Greek sets there is also a CD includes even more exercises (more akin to Tests) for each chapter (it also includes answers). It takes me a week or two to just complete one lesson with all the exercise (this is a good thing).

I also enjoy the technical explanation of different grammar principles as they relate to Greek. As an example: he goes in depth into the accents and how they work and function.

Then why just of 3 stars? I like the book and on its content alone it earns 4 stars. I enjoy Mounces better but this book is less expensive (you also don't have the by a separate work book and you have direct biblical exercises to do). The book is just cheap (even the 2nd edition). It's already about to split at its glued seems and all I do is try and prop it open while doing exercises. I'm not completely confidence how long this will last.