DESCRIPTION: This course is the first part of a three-quarter series designed
to give students a foundational knowledge of the forms and syntax of New
Testament (Koine) Greek. Students registering for this course must plan to
continue with parts B and C of the series, held in the Winter and Spring
quarters respectively. This course combines both a deductive approach to
learning with inductive study directly from the text of the New Testament.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: Upon successful completion of all three quarters of this
course, you will (a) be able to identify all the relevant categories (i.e., to
parse) most regular forms and many of the irregular but frequent forms of the
articles, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and verbs that occur in the Greek New
Testament; (b) know the most common meanings of about 350 words that occur most
frequently in the Greek NT, and be able to use a lexicon to find words you do
not already know; (c) understand and be able to discuss the basic grammatical
structures of Koine Greek sentences as found in the Greek NT; (d) be able to
use all of this to read and translate typical passages throughout the New
Testament with minimal use of reference tools; (e) be able to use major
references (grammatical and lexical) to explore and investigate words and
structures more fully; and (f) understand the challenges, purpose, and value of
learning to work with the New Testament in Greek.
RELEVANCE FOR MINISTRY: Understanding the original language of the New
Testament is one of the most basic elements in interpreting the meaning of its
various texts. Upon completion of this three-part course, you should be
equipped, with the help of certain tools, to read and translate the Greek text
of the New Testament and to consult the Greek text as part of the exegetical
task.
COURSE FORMAT: The course meets two evenings each week for two-hour
sessions.
REQUIRED READING: