Spring 2010/Pasadena
LG512C
Strahan

LG512C: BEGINNING GREEK. Joshua M. Strahan.


DESCRIPTION: This course is the third 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 have taken this section of LG512A and LG512B in the preceding Fall and Winter quarters. This course combines both a deductive approach to learning with inductive study directly from the text of the New Testament.

SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND 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. In doing so, you will understand the challenges, purpose, and value of learning to work with the New Testament in Greek.

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) of 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 words occurring more than 30 times 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; and (d) be able to use major references (grammatical and lexical) to explore and investigate words and s tructures more fully.

COURSE FORMAT: The course meets twice each week for two-hour sessions.

REQUIRED READING:

Aland, Kurt, et. al. The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2007.

Black, D. A. It's Still Greek to Me: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to Intermediate Greek. Baker, 1998.

Mounce, William D. Basics of Biblical Greek: Grammar. 2nd ed. Zondervan, 2003.

________________. Basics of Biblical Greek: Workbook. 2nd ed. Zondervan, 2003.
See also the Biblical Division bibliography "Linguistic and Exegetical Books Required in the Master of Divinity Programs" available at http://schedule.fuller.edu/sot/ecds/Ling-Exeg-Biblio.html.

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT: Each student is expected to be present at all class sessions with assigned lessons fully prepared. The course grade is based on daily quizzes and homework, as well as periodic tests and one final exam. Exams = 60%; Quizzes = 20%; Homework = 20%.

PREREQUISITES: LG512B (same section as this quarter). No audits.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: The completed three-quarter sequence LG512A/B/C meets the MDiv core requirement in Greek (GRK).

FINAL EXAMINATION: Yes.

This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification. (Posted January 2010)