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.
COURSE OBJECTIVES/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: