- 00:00
- Tonight we are beginning something that I am very excited about, and yet at the same time very nervous.
- 00:07
- Because if there was ever a class where I am woefully inadequate, it is this one.
- 00:13
- Because when it comes to the Greek language, there is so much to know that I just don't.
- 00:18
- But I know enough to take you through the basics of vocabulary, and to help you start your own journey towards learning to be able to read the Greek New Testament.
- 00:32
- So, that is my basic introduction.
- 00:35
- What we are going to do tonight is several fold.
- 00:38
- We are going to look at the syllabus so that you understand exactly what is expected of you.
- 00:43
- We are going to talk about why we want to study Greek, and some of the reasons why it is important, and some of the reasons we shouldn't study Greek.
- 00:52
- There are reasons not to, and we will talk about that.
- 00:56
- I also want to mention that the dates of this class is starting tonight, January 9th through February 27th.
- 01:02
- We have a class every Thursday night for eight weeks.
- 01:06
- I will need you to sign in when you come in, and it would be helpful if I had the sign-in sheet.
- 01:13
- Did it make itself around? Ms.
- 01:16
- Kelly, would you go in my office and see if you see the sign-in sheet? I must have left it in there.
- 01:19
- Thank you.
- 01:19
- I hate to make you the runner.
- 01:21
- I am sorry.
- 01:22
- I know you know where my office is, so that is helpful.
- 01:26
- I need you to sign in, and then each week I need you to check off that you are here.
- 01:31
- It is an honor-based system, but it is based on the requirements of the seminary that you be here at least six of the eight classes, unless there is a tremendous family emergency, in which case you would call me and we would discuss it.
- 01:45
- Other than that, to receive the credit, to get the certificate, you have to be here for at least six of the eight classes.
- 01:54
- Other than that, you are going to have to turn in your work.
- 01:58
- We are going to talk about that when we get to the syllabus portion.
- 02:02
- In fact, let's go ahead and do that.
- 02:05
- Go ahead and take out your syllabus.
- 02:08
- You should have been given a copy of it, and you should have printed a copy.
- 02:12
- That is okay.
- 02:15
- I have some extra copies here.
- 02:19
- I knew we were going to be slow getting started tonight, because we have so much to do to get started, so I am not concerned.
- 02:27
- Do you need a staple? No, you can have that.
- 02:29
- Okay.
- 02:32
- Would you take those down there to them? Yes, if you would.
- 02:37
- Make sure your name is legible, please, because I am going to go back and type it.
- 02:42
- That would be helpful to me.
- 02:46
- You are right in Greek, and I will be impressed.
- 02:49
- I won't add to your score, but I will be impressed.
- 02:53
- Now, we plan to have four sessions this year.
- 02:55
- If you are interested in the Seminary Pass, what we are doing in Greek, we are going to do our second session beginning in March.
- 03:01
- It will take us through May.
- 03:03
- It is March 19th through May 14th.
- 03:05
- We will have one week off.
- 03:07
- The week of Resurrection, Holy Week, we will take that week off.
- 03:11
- That is going to be a survey of the Old Testament.
- 03:16
- That has already been chosen, already decided on.
- 03:19
- We know we are doing Greek the first term.
- 03:22
- We are doing a survey of the Old Testament in the second term.
- 03:25
- We haven't decided on the third and fourth.
- 03:26
- What I am trying to do, I want to give you a little heads up for those of you who have been coming.
- 03:30
- What I am trying to do is I am trying to create a two-year program, where if you come for two years, you will have had the foundations that you really need to move forward, whether it be in ministry or whatever.
- 03:46
- I am trying to figure out what those eight classes or ten classes need to be and how we can structure them for two years.
- 03:51
- Not only would you get a certificate for every class, but at the end of two years, you would get a certificate that says preparation for ministry course complete or something.
- 04:00
- We haven't figured out what we are going to name it yet and how we are going to name it, but after two years, we will rotate back through.
- 04:05
- Let's say you started in Greek and you missed all last year.
- 04:08
- In two years, we would start back over and you would be right back where everybody else is.
- 04:12
- If you come for all two years, you will graduate the program, as it were.
- 04:16
- The goal is to try to produce people who are fit to serve in their churches better.
- 04:23
- We are not necessarily a seminary that is trying to produce ministers yet, because there is a lot more to it than that.
- 04:29
- We want you to be better equipped to serve in your local church and provide you the foundations for that.
- 04:35
- How to study the Bible, understanding the Old Testament, understanding the New Testament, having an introduction to the original languages.
- 04:43
- Those types of things are the things that we are going to be focusing on.
- 04:46
- They are very academic things that are often left out in a lot of churches.
- 04:50
- A lot of churches focus on self-help and things that make you feel better and do better, but not a lot of education that we are seeing in a lot of churches.
- 05:00
- We are trying to turn the tide.
- 05:02
- What is my motto? Church is an institution of higher learning.
- 05:07
- You go back in the history of America, all of the Ivy League colleges, Princeton, Yale, they began as institutions to teach the Bible and to train men for ministry.
- 05:21
- Now they teach the opposite.
- 05:23
- So what does the church do? We rise up and we teach and we train and we do the things that are difficult.
- 05:32
- And one of the things that is difficult is study.
- 05:35
- But the Bible says, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
- 05:42
- So, we are going to begin tonight with our basic Greek, and I want us to look at the syllabus, our course overview.
- 05:52
- This course will introduce students to Koine Greek.
- 05:56
- The word koine in Greek means common.
- 06:00
- It is the Greek that was spoken and written during the time of Jesus Christ.
- 06:06
- There are forms of Greek that predate koine, and there is a modern Greek which is used today.
- 06:16
- There are similarities and there are differences.
- 06:20
- We are not concerned with modern Greek, and we are not concerned with classic or Homeric Greek, the Greeks that preceded the time of the New Testament.
- 06:30
- We are only concerned with the Greek that is in the New Testament.
- 06:34
- So that is what you are going to be introduced to.
- 06:38
- Koine Greek is the original language of the New Testament.
- 06:41
- Students will learn how to recognize, pronounce, and use the Greek alphabet to read biblical words and begin building their personal vocabulary.
- 06:53
- Our goals are simple, and these are stated in your textbook.
- 06:57
- Recognize and pronounce the Greek alphabet.
- 06:59
- Read Greek words quickly and fluently.
- 07:02
- By the end of this course, you should all be able to do that.
- 07:06
- Learn about 200, it says over 200 Greek words.
- 07:10
- That is actually if you do the whole book.
- 07:13
- This course is probably going to be less than 100 that you will actually know and remember.
- 07:18
- And a lot of those will be ones that are what we call cognates, words that are the same in English as they are in Greek, such as the word Kardia in Greek is where we get the word cardiac in English, which is related to the heart.
- 07:34
- So you already know one Greek word.
- 07:37
- Kardia relates to the heart.
- 07:39
- And there's a lot of those that you'll learn simply by seeing them.
- 07:43
- You'll see them on the page.
- 07:44
- You'll remember that there's an English equivalent, and your mind will make that connection, and it'll be really easy.
- 07:51
- But here's the thing, here's the interesting thing.
- 07:54
- About 90% of the New Testament is made up of a repetition of the same 200 words.
- 08:00
- So if you learn these 200 words that are in this book, you'll know about 90% of the words that are in the New Testament.
- 08:10
- Koine means common.
- 08:11
- It's a simple Greek, simple in the sense that for those who spoke it.
- 08:17
- But it's sort of like English, right? How many words do you actually use on a regular basis? Not a lot, really.
- 08:25
- I mean, in the grand scheme of how big your vocabulary is, you don't really use a lot of those words that you know.
- 08:33
- So in the Bible, you're going to see a lot of words over and over and over and over.
- 08:37
- In fact, the one word that you will see more than any other word is my favorite word.
- 08:48
- It is the word chi.
- 08:53
- Chi is the most common word in the Greek New Testament.
- 08:57
- What does it mean? And.
- 09:02
- And.
- 09:04
- So, think about how many times you use the word and as you speak every day throughout your language.
- 09:11
- We're speaking for um.
- 09:13
- Um.
- 09:14
- Um.
- 09:15
- Yeah.
- 09:17
- Upsilon mu.
- 09:18
- Um.
- 09:19
- Yeah.
- 09:20
- Alright, so that is our goals and objectives.
- 09:23
- Our required text, you need to have a Bible.
- 09:25
- Because there will be at times in this course where we'll be looking at biblical passages.
- 09:30
- I want to recommend a Bible to you.
- 09:32
- Even though it says student's choice, I want to recommend a Bible to you.
- 09:36
- If you want to buy one, they're about 30 bucks.
- 09:38
- This is an English to Greek reverse interlinear Bible.
- 09:42
- This has both the English and the Greek.
- 09:45
- English is on top.
- 09:46
- Greek is underneath it.
- 09:47
- And it has the morphology of the word written in English.
- 09:51
- So it not only has it in the Greek letters, it also has it in the English, in case you don't know the Greek letters.
- 09:56
- Okay, well I can't sell this to you.
- 09:58
- I only got mine.
- 09:59
- But it is edited by John Swand.
- 10:04
- And that's S-C-H-W-A-N-D-T.
- 10:08
- This is an English to Greek reverse interlinear, and it's ESV, Bible.
- 10:14
- It's only the New Testament.
- 10:15
- So, of course, because the New Testament is the Greek.
- 10:18
- So, if you want to get a Bible, you don't have to have it.
- 10:21
- I think it's an investment in your own study.
- 10:24
- About 30 bucks, I think, is what they run online.
- 10:28
- You also have to have the book for the course.
- 10:31
- The book for the course, Basic Greek in 30 Minutes a Day by James Found.
- 10:37
- Does everyone have this book? Okay, because I have two more copies that I will sell you at only twice the market price.
- 10:48
- Now, we have to have the book.
- 10:49
- This will be...
- 10:50
- If you've taken our other courses last year, we did Christian Ethics, we did Church History, we did Hermeneutics.
- 10:55
- If you took those courses, they were not as book-dependent as this one is.
- 11:01
- This is a book-driven class.
- 11:03
- We're going to be in the book every week.
- 11:05
- If you don't bring your book, you will not be able to follow along.
- 11:08
- The book is absolutely required this time.
- 11:11
- So, you have to have it.
- 11:13
- What I did, just in case you're interested, and I say I did it, my very sweet and encouraging administrative assistant did it for me.
- 11:20
- I took all the pages out and put them in a notebook so I could fold it and look at it flat.
- 11:25
- This is the only way to do it, as far as I'm concerned.
- 11:28
- Because that book, you're going to be holding it open, writing on it.
- 11:31
- All you've got to do is pull it out, put it in a notebook, get you a whole punch.
- 11:35
- Spend 20 minutes, it'll be worth a lot of...
- 11:38
- Five minutes at the beginning, sometimes it'll save you 30 minutes at the end.
- 11:41
- That's the way this is.
- 11:44
- All right.
- 11:46
- Moving on through our syllabus, looking at the second page.
- 11:49
- I know many of you are new, so I want to just very quickly help you understand some of the requirements that we have.
- 12:00
- Number one, class attendance.
- 12:01
- This is 10% of your grade, but if you do miss more than two classes, you automatically get an F.
- 12:07
- But if you miss classes, this can affect your grade.
- 12:12
- So you want to be here for all eight classes.
- 12:15
- Notebook assignment.
- 12:17
- You are to keep a notebook devoted specifically to introduction to Greek vocabulary.
- 12:23
- The notebook should contain all course handouts along with all the notes and assignments that you do for the course.
- 12:28
- Organization of materials is important to make them accessible for future use.
- 12:33
- Basically, I just want to see that you're keeping up with the handouts that I give you.
- 12:37
- And at any time in the course, if I come to you and say, hey, can I see your notebook? I'd like for you to show me that you're keeping up with what I'm giving you.
- 12:43
- I'm not just giving it to you to go in your trash.
- 12:46
- This is to help you in the future.
- 12:47
- So it's just part of the requirement is keeping a notebook of whatever notes you take along with whatever I give you.
- 12:55
- Academic character.
- 12:57
- Don't cheat.
- 12:58
- You say, well, how could I possibly cheat in this class? When you write your paper, plagiarism is stealing.
- 13:06
- Now, what's the difference between plagiarism and research? Well, plagiarism is when you try to pass something off as your own.
- 13:14
- If you research something, cite the person you're researching.
- 13:17
- If you've never done that before and you need help with it, I'll be glad to help you.
- 13:21
- There's several different methods for citing sources.
- 13:25
- I use the APA method.
- 13:27
- There's the MLA method.
- 13:28
- There's several ones that you can use.
- 13:30
- But if you don't know how to do that, I'm more than happy to give you some tutoring on that because I'd rather you do it right than not do it at all.
- 13:38
- Or I'd rather you try than just say, well, he won't know.
- 13:42
- I might not know, but you'll know.
- 13:44
- It's part of your grade as your character.
- 13:49
- Weekly submissions.
- 13:50
- Students should complete their textbook assignments each week and be prepared to have them examined by a peer in class.
- 13:57
- Now, that may not happen.
- 14:00
- But each week when you come in, you're going to have something in your book that's required.
- 14:03
- I may say, hand your book to the person next to you.
- 14:05
- We're going to grade them.
- 14:07
- So be prepared for that, even though we might not do that every week.
- 14:11
- But it's a good way to make sure you're not just filling in the blanks as I give them to you.
- 14:17
- You understand? You should come in with your book finished so that I say, okay, open up to Lesson 3.
- 14:23
- We open up Lesson 3.
- 14:24
- Everybody's Lesson 3 should be filled in, even if it's wrong.
- 14:27
- You did it.
- 14:30
- But if you're just sitting there going, oh, it's B.
- 14:32
- Oh, it's A.
- 14:33
- That goes back to the academic character.
- 14:35
- That is cheating.
- 14:39
- And you're only cheating yourself.
- 14:40
- Again.
- 14:42
- All right.
- 14:43
- Research Project.
- 14:44
- The Research Project will be assigned during the final class.
- 14:47
- Each student will be asked to choose five Greek words from the textbook.
- 14:51
- Students will write an analysis of each word, including the meanings of the word, the semantic range, how often it is used in the New Testament, which authors use it, and in what way.
- 15:01
- Students should look for ways this analysis might give more understanding of individual biblical texts and include that information as well.
- 15:08
- The written analysis should be no more than one page per word.
- 15:11
- So what am I asking for? A maximum of five pages.
- 15:15
- It's a maximum of one page per word.
- 15:18
- I don't want 30 pages on agape.
- 15:20
- Okay? I know what agape means.
- 15:22
- All right.
- 15:22
- I'm serious.
- 15:23
- Because it's oftentimes too much rather than not enough.
- 15:29
- Because we get to bloviate.
- 15:33
- Be pithy.
- 15:37
- Be focused when you do a word study.
- 15:40
- Focus on what you're learning.
- 15:42
- And if it's less than a page per word, that's fine, too.
- 15:45
- Just don't let it be any more than that.
- 15:46
- It's just too much.
- 15:49
- The analysis will be submitted in the following format.
- 15:52
- You'll have a title page, the body of the project, and a page of bibliography at the end.
- 15:57
- So you'll have actually seven pages.
- 15:59
- If you do one word per page, you'll have five pages plus a page at the beginning and a page at the end.
- 16:04
- So it'll be seven pages.
- 16:05
- You can email it to me as a PDF.
- 16:08
- That's what most of you all did last semester because we didn't see each other over the Christmas holidays.
- 16:13
- And I print it out and I grade it and give it back to you printed.
- 16:16
- So that's fine.
- 16:16
- So you can even save the paper if you want to email it to me.
- 16:19
- That's fine.
- 16:21
- On the last page, you'll see the course schedule.
- 16:24
- This gives you the dates for the course, which apparently I am wrong.
- 16:31
- This is incorrect.
- 16:33
- The dates are wrong.
- 16:35
- This is...
- 16:37
- I apologize.
- 16:38
- That's incorrect.
- 16:40
- Those dates should begin with January 5th.
- 16:43
- Does anybody have one that starts with January 5th? Okay, so I made a mistake there.
- 16:48
- I apologize.
- 16:50
- All right, so you'll see, though, Lecture 1 is tonight, Lecture 2 is next week, and so on.
- 16:54
- The introduction, what we're going to talk about tonight, why study Greek.
- 16:57
- We're going to look at the textbook, Lesson 1, and then we're going to memorize the Greek alphabet.
- 17:02
- I'm going to give you a handout tonight that was to go in your notebook, and by next week, you will all have memorized the Greek alphabet.
- 17:10
- Yes.
- 17:10
- By next week, you will have all memorized the Greek alphabet.
- 17:13
- I'm going to teach you, my young Padawans, how to memorize the Greek alphabet.
- 17:18
- It's not that hard once you figure it out.
- 17:21
- So any questions on the syllabus? All right.
- 17:29
- Sorry, I've got to keep whetting my whistle here.
- 17:33
- All right.
- 17:34
- Let's move on to why are we doing this.
- 17:37
- Why study Greek? Oh, by the way, if you don't know this because you weren't here in the past, the class is an hour and a half long.
- 17:43
- We start at 6.30.
- 17:44
- We take a break at 7.30 for 10 minutes, and then we come back for a final 20 minutes.
- 17:50
- Normally, during that 20 minutes is going to be ensuring that we got through everything we needed to to get to the next class, and also taking any questions you may have.
- 17:59
- Okay? All right.
- 18:01
- So why study Greek? Why are we studying the Greek language? It's obvious by your presence here and the presence of this being, I think, our largest class so far that you see some value in learning the Greek language.
- 18:14
- And as part of my introduction, I want to say a few words about why I believe it's beneficial to study Greek.
- 18:20
- Four reasons why I believe it's important to study Greek.
- 18:23
- Number one, Greek is the language of the New Testament.
- 18:29
- Though the majority of the Bible is in Hebrew, because the majority of the Bible is the Old Testament, as Christians, we are members of the New Covenant, and we believe in something called progressive revelation, which means that the later scriptures give us more information and deeper insight into the plan and purpose of God than do the earlier scriptures.
- 18:57
- Therefore, in one sense, the Greek has precedence over the Hebrew in our study needs, because ultimately, we are studying the New Testament and learning about the Old Testament from the New Testament.
- 19:17
- I was talking to one of the brothers earlier who posted on Facebook about Hebrew and Greek, or posted that he was coming to a Greek class, and somebody said, well, you should be studying Hebrew.
- 19:30
- And a lot of people think that, that you should study Hebrew first.
- 19:34
- And I'm fine if that's something that you want to do, but I am convinced that Greek takes precedence, because the New Testament is written in Greek.
- 19:46
- Some people will argue that there is a Hebrew original of the New Testament, and the Greek is a translation of the Hebrew original.
- 19:55
- There is absolutely no evidence to support that suggestion.
- 20:00
- And it doesn't make sense, because the language that was being used at the time of Christ and the time of the early apostles was not Hebrew.
- 20:12
- It was Greek.
- 20:14
- Now, were there people who spoke Hebrew? Yes.
- 20:17
- But even a lot of the Jews spoke Greek.
- 20:20
- They were called the Hellenists.
- 20:22
- We read about them in Acts chapter 7, when the Deacons were called, because the Hellenists, the Greek-speaking Jews, were not receiving their portion of the daily offering that was needed for food.
- 20:36
- Remember this situation? Greek was the common language, and Greek was the language which was used to write the New Testament.
- 20:45
- And that begins with Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, all the way down to Revelation.
- 20:50
- So that's the first reason.
- 20:51
- Greek is the language of the New Testament, therefore it's worthy of our study.
- 20:54
- Number two.
- 20:56
- Greek is also the language of the Septuagint.
- 20:59
- Does anybody know what the Septuagint is? Pastor Mark knows, so go ahead and tell him what it is.
- 21:06
- That's right.
- 21:07
- The Old Testament was translated into Greek about 200 years prior to the coming of Christ.
- 21:15
- And it is sometimes referred to as the LXX.
- 21:21
- You'll see this in some of your...
- 21:24
- If you're studying, you'll see the use of LXX, and that's referring to the Septuagint.
- 21:30
- The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.
- 21:37
- The vast majority...
- 21:40
- Oh, sorry.
- 21:42
- S-E-P-T-U-A-G-I-N-T Some people call it Septuagint.
- 21:51
- Septuagint.
- 21:54
- No problem.
- 21:55
- Don't be sorry.
- 21:57
- S-E-P-T-U-A-G-I-N-T So, if you learn Greek, you not only can study the New Testament in its original language, but you can study the Old Testament in a translation that was translated 200 years prior to Christ, which actually predates many of the manuscripts which are used for the translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.
- 22:30
- We use the Masoretic Text to translate the Hebrew Old Testament.
- 22:33
- The Masoretic Text dates to around 1000 A.D., 1200 years after the Septuagint.
- 22:41
- It's an interesting historical note.
- 22:44
- The Septuagint has major historical value.
- 22:47
- And if you learn Greek, you can study it as well.
- 22:53
- Alright, number three.
- 22:55
- Greek tools are readily available for those who are able to use them.
- 23:02
- Greek tools are readily available for those able to use them.
- 23:06
- Very few people will become fluent in reading and translating Greek, and this is certainly not within the scope of this class.
- 23:13
- But with a basic knowledge of Greek vocabulary, you can better use the tools available to modern students of the Bible.
- 23:19
- The more you build your vocabulary and understand grammar, the more useful those tools will become.
- 23:25
- How many of you use Blue Letter Bible? Or Bible Hub? Or any other of the free online resources? You click on a word, what happens? It brings up a Greek word.
- 23:36
- Can you read it? Well, you can read it if there's an English equivalent next to it, right? But you can't read the original, and that's what the goal of this class is.
- 23:46
- And the goal of this class will help you understand why the word is being used.
- 23:54
- There is oftentimes in the English certain equivalents that we wouldn't know if we weren't able to go back and look at the Greek.
- 24:02
- For instance, the word hell in the King James Bible.
- 24:05
- Sometimes it's a translation of Gehenna.
- 24:07
- Sometimes it's a translation of Hades.
- 24:10
- Sometimes it's referred to Hades, right? How do you know which is which? How do you know when the King James Bible is translating Hades or Gehenna? And does it matter? How about the word love? King James Bible translates the word love for both agape and phileo or philos.
- 24:36
- How do you know which is which? And does it matter? Some would say it doesn't matter, but I would like to know.
- 24:44
- If I can open my Greek New Testament and look and see what word is being used here, the only way to do that is if I know how to read the language.
- 24:52
- Even if I don't understand everything I'm reading, I can at least be able to go and see this is phileos or this is agape.
- 25:02
- So Greek tools are available, but you've got to be able to use them.
- 25:05
- And the only way to be able to use them is if you're able to read along.
- 25:08
- And that leads to my fourth and final reason.
- 25:11
- Textual criticism.
- 25:13
- Textual criticism requires a basic understanding of Greek.
- 25:17
- And I know this is something my friend to my left here is very interested in.
- 25:21
- Am I right, Alan? Now, if you don't know what textual criticism is, textual criticism is the studying of variants which exist within the handwritten manuscripts of the New Testament.
- 25:34
- There are over 5,000 handwritten Greek manuscripts that have been passed down since the writing of the New Testament.
- 25:43
- Some fragments of those manuscripts date all the way back to the early 2nd century.
- 25:50
- 5,000 plus Greek manuscripts and no two of them agree.
- 25:56
- No two of them agree.
- 25:58
- Because every one of them is handwritten.
- 26:03
- You say, oh boy, that makes me scared.
- 26:04
- That means I can't trust my Bible.
- 26:05
- No, you can trust your Bible because 99% of the variants are either meaningless or non-viable.
- 26:15
- Meaning they were never viable as alternatives for the original.
- 26:20
- Or they're meaningless.
- 26:21
- Was he Iesu Christu or was he Christ Iesu? Does it matter which comes first in word order? But it does create a variant there.
- 26:30
- If you see Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus.
- 26:34
- You understand? How would you know? You have to be able to go back and look at the sources.
- 26:41
- Look at the material.
- 26:42
- And textual critical material requires you to have at least a basic understanding of Greek or you won't make heads or tails of what you're looking at.
- 26:51
- So those are four reasons why I believe everyone who is interested in studying the Bible should study the Greek language.
- 27:01
- Now, I want to confess from the outset that in this class you are only going to learn a little Greek.
- 27:11
- And I stress a little Greek because my friend and pastor Dr.
- 27:17
- James White I call him my friend.
- 27:20
- I mean we know each other.
- 27:21
- We've met several times and he knows me and I know him.
- 27:24
- I really love him.
- 27:26
- And he says this.
- 27:28
- He says a little Greek is a dangerous thing.
- 27:32
- And you say, well didn't you say we're just about to learn a little Greek? So all I'm doing is giving you just enough information to be dangerous? Yeah.
- 27:41
- But Bill Mounce says something different.
- 27:44
- And Dr.
- 27:44
- Mounce actually has written several textbooks on Greek.
- 27:48
- And this is what he says.
- 27:49
- A little Greek is not a dangerous thing.
- 27:52
- A little arrogance is a dangerous thing.
- 27:56
- A little Greek is not a dangerous thing.
- 27:57
- A little arrogance is a dangerous thing.
- 28:00
- When it comes to Greek it is very easy to fall into the trap of arrogance.
- 28:04
- Too often people become almost like modern day Gnostics taking great pride in their special knowledge that they've acquired that few others possess.
- 28:14
- As long as we use the information in this course for the purpose of better understanding the scriptures and not as a tool for building up our own egos then we should do well.
- 28:25
- Here's how it often happens.
- 28:28
- Somebody learns a little bit of Greek and every conversation they have, oh, well, the original Greek is like, oh, that's translated as ball.
- 28:37
- Well, the original Greek is ball.
- 28:42
- Why do I need to know that? If the translation is sufficient, why do I need to know what the Greek says? But you'll hear pastors do that all the time.
- 28:51
- It's a trick.
- 28:51
- It's a time filler.
- 28:54
- Got to make 30 minutes or whatever.
- 28:57
- Or it's a way to make themselves feel superior intellectually.
- 29:03
- And that type of ego is a dangerous thing.
- 29:05
- That type of pride doesn't belong in the pulpit and it certainly doesn't belong in the pew.
- 29:12
- We're learning this for a reason.
- 29:14
- We're learning this so that we can better understand the scriptures not impress people with what we know.
- 29:22
- That being said, I recently watched somewhat of a documentary, sort of a homemade documentary about the Greek language and the man who was doing it is sort of an oddball guy out in Tempe, Arizona who was saying that the only reason to study the Greek language is to go and witness to Greek people.
- 29:50
- And he said, because we don't need the Greek, we have the King James Bible.
- 29:53
- He's a King James only advocate.
- 29:56
- You know who I'm talking about, don't you? Yeah.
- 29:58
- And he was saying, we have the King James so we don't need the Greek but if you want to study Greek, there's only one reason to and that's to witness to Greek people.
- 30:05
- Well, I would disagree with him because I do think there's another reason and I've given you four reasons.
- 30:10
- When I read a translation, whether it's the King James Bible, the English Standard Version, the New American Standard Version or even the New International Version, Nearly Inspired Version, NIV.
- 30:20
- Come on, that's a good joke.
- 30:23
- No, the NIV is fine.
- 30:25
- We'll talk about that later.
- 30:27
- But no matter what translation I'm reading, I'm always one step away from what was originally written.
- 30:33
- No matter how good the translation is, I'm always one step past what the original said.
- 30:38
- So my goal is to know what was originally written.
- 30:41
- Not that it necessarily will change the meaning but I'll know for sure I know what the meaning is.
- 30:46
- I'll have more certainty in my understanding if I know what the original said.
- 30:53
- Now, I want to also mention this.
- 30:56
- I know we want to get to the book.
- 30:57
- You guys look like you're just chomping at the bit to get to the book.
- 31:01
- One of the things that we're going to talk about is the idea of pronunciation.
- 31:07
- We're going to learn the alphabet tonight and we're going to do the first lesson of the book.
- 31:11
- It's only four pages so we should get through that relatively quickly.
- 31:15
- But one of the things that you need to understand is that Greek pronunciation is probably one of the most debated subjects in regard to the Greek language because people argue how it is supposed to be pronounced.
- 31:33
- There are basically four schools of thought on pronunciation.
- 31:38
- There is the Erasmian pronunciation which was popularized by Desiderius Erasmus who lived during the time of Martin Luther.
- 31:46
- If you remember the Reformation period he was a contemporary of Martin Luther.
- 31:51
- In fact, the two debated on the subject of free will in the book The Bondage of the Will.
- 31:58
- Desiderius Erasmus was a tremendous scholar, a tremendous intellect, a very brilliant man.
- 32:04
- He devised a way of pronouncing the Greek because remember part of the Renaissance was a rediscovery of these ancient works in the Greek language and bringing it into use again where the Latin had been used for about a thousand years up until that point.
- 32:23
- So Erasmian pronunciation is the pronunciation we will use in this class.
- 32:30
- But I am going to tell you it is not the way that it sounded because we don't know how it sounded.
- 32:41
- There is an attempt called Reconstruction pronunciation or Reconstructed New Testament Greek pronunciation that is trying to determine how these words would have been pronounced in the original.
- 32:58
- There are those who say we should just use the modern pronunciation.
- 33:04
- Neither one of those I think is necessary.
- 33:07
- There is also one that you will probably be familiar with.
- 33:10
- I said there are four.
- 33:11
- The four main are Erasmian, Modern, Reconstructed and then there is what we call the fraternal method.
- 33:18
- The fraternal method...
- 33:19
- Where is my marker? There it is.
- 33:21
- I will ask you here.
- 33:26
- How do you say that? Epsilon.
- 33:30
- No, it is Pi.
- 33:31
- Pi.
- 33:31
- Okay, thank you.
- 33:33
- 3.14.
- 33:35
- Yeah, 3.14 and then something.
- 33:38
- That is P.
- 33:40
- But you want to say Pi because everyone knows that Pi R squared.
- 33:46
- Which is not true.
- 33:47
- K R squared.
- 33:47
- Pi R round.
- 33:50
- That is a bad joke.
- 33:51
- I am waiting all day to say that.
- 33:58
- Pi.
- 33:59
- We all learned that in class.
- 34:00
- Pi R squared.
- 34:02
- This is actually...
- 34:03
- We would pronounce it just like the letter P.
- 34:07
- So you would pronounce it P not Pi.
- 34:10
- Because Pi is what we would call the fraternal or the physics use.
- 34:16
- The academic use.
- 34:18
- But that is not what we are doing.
- 34:20
- Because they are not seeking to read or pronounce the language.
- 34:24
- They are simply using the letters in place of numbers and using it for formulas.
- 34:30
- We are not doing that.
- 34:31
- So the pronunciation we are going to use is the Erasmus pronunciation.
- 34:35
- Here is the secret to the Erasmus pronunciation which I do think makes it very helpful.
- 34:40
- You pronounce every letter.
- 34:45
- Every letter is pronounced.
- 34:47
- So for instance, I will give you another Greek word.
- 35:03
- Alright.
- 35:04
- I messed up a little bit on that.
- 35:05
- Excuse me.
- 35:07
- Alright.
- 35:09
- That is the first one.
- 35:11
- All Greek to me.
- 35:13
- That is the joke that will quickly get old.
- 35:18
- Alright.
- 35:19
- For the letter forms, we have here P.
- 35:23
- We have here...
- 35:24
- This is the Nu.
- 35:26
- So this is Nu.
- 35:29
- I actually spelled it wrong.
- 35:31
- Epsilon.
- 35:33
- E-U.
- 35:35
- So that is an E.
- 35:37
- You know that is an E.
- 35:39
- That one looks exactly like our E.
- 35:41
- So that is easy, right? This one is our U.
- 35:44
- Epsilon looks just like the U.
- 35:46
- About 13 of the letters are the same.
- 35:51
- Right? This one was weird.
- 35:52
- But you at least know that is P because you know it.
- 35:55
- This one looks like a V but it is the N-N-N sound.
- 36:01
- So you have P, Nu, Epsilon, Upsilon.
- 36:04
- Mu looks like exactly what it is.
- 36:08
- Alpha looks just like that.
- 36:11
- So what is this word? Pneuma.
- 36:14
- But how would you say it in the Rasmian pronunciation? Pneuma.
- 36:20
- You would say Pneuma because you would not leave out the P because we pronounce every letter.
- 36:27
- So when we talk about...
- 36:29
- We talk about...
- 36:30
- By the way, the word Pneuma means air where you get the English word pneumatic.
- 36:36
- Like for a pneumatic tool it is air in a tool, right? That we call those pneumatic tools.
- 36:41
- I do not know why I had to do the sound effects.
- 36:42
- I just wanted to make sure you were still with me.
- 36:46
- So pneumatic comes from the word pneuma for air.
- 36:50
- It is also the word for spirit.
- 36:52
- So when we study the Holy Spirit we study pneumatology.
- 36:59
- But if we pronounced it correctly it would be pneumatology.
- 37:04
- But because we are so commonly English speakers we drop the P almost naturally.
- 37:12
- But in general we would pronounce every letter.
- 37:15
- So you end up with sort of a funny sounding language.
- 37:19
- John 1-1 N-R-K Ein Halagas Kai Halagas Ein Prostan Theon Kai Theos Ein Halagas It does not sound like a real language.
- 37:32
- It sounds like a robot.
- 37:35
- But I am not trying to speak it.
- 37:40
- By the way, that was bad.
- 37:42
- I am not trying to speak it.
- 37:44
- I am trying to read it.
- 37:46
- This is not grammar, right? I am not trying to order coffee at the local Greek bistro.
- 37:53
- I am trying to read the Word of God.
- 37:57
- Pronunciation is not the biggest and most important thing.
- 38:00
- What matters most is that I understand what I am looking at when I read.
- 38:05
- But you still want to know how it is supposed to sound.
- 38:07
- And since we are using a rule for pronunciation we are using the rule of Erasmian pronunciation.
- 38:15
- And I want you to look up a YouTube video.
- 38:17
- When you get time, you can write this down.
- 38:19
- Look up All Things Are Better in Koine.
- 38:25
- All Things Are Better And it is spelled K-O-I-N-E Koine Greek It is a music video a group of seminary students made about their first year of Greek.
- 38:38
- And it is hilarious and it is fun to watch.
- 38:41
- So I expect that.
- 38:42
- That is your homework.
- 38:43
- Go watch All Things Are Better in Koine.
- 38:45
- It is really fun.
- 38:48
- If you learn the song, you will learn John 1-1.
- 38:52
- Because they do It is in the song.
- 38:58
- And they are saying it in that Erasmian pronunciation.
- 39:03
- Alright, you guys ready to dig in? We only have ten minutes before the break.
- 39:07
- So we will see how far we can get.
- 39:10
- Open up your books.
- 39:15
- Turn with me to lesson 1, page 12.
- 39:29
- Is everybody there? Alright, lesson 1, page 12.
- 39:37
- What we have here are English words written with Greek letters.
- 39:42
- English words written with Greek letters.
- 39:44
- This book, by the way, I have looked at a lot of Greek books and I have studied through several Greek books.
- 39:50
- This is the absolute easiest one.
- 39:52
- And I chose it because I like easy.
- 39:54
- I like things that are simple.
- 39:57
- And you look at it and it just jumps off the page at you.
- 40:00
- Look at the first thing.
- 40:01
- What is that picture? So which of those three words in Greek language would that be? It would be the first one, right? That is BED.
- 40:11
- Those are three Greek letters.
- 40:13
- That is BETA, EPSILON, DELTA.
- 40:20
- Yeah, DELTA.
- 40:21
- Yeah, we are going to learn those later.
- 40:27
- And that is what the book does.
- 40:28
- The book doesn't take you there first.
- 40:29
- The book tries to get you looking at the letters first.
- 40:32
- And we learn the names.
- 40:33
- We are actually going to do that after the break.
- 40:35
- We are going to look at the alphabet.
- 40:36
- But for now, I just want you to see the letters.
- 40:38
- Look at the next one.
- 40:39
- What is that? Which one is it? The second one, that is right.
- 40:44
- By the way, be marking your book because this is your work for today.
- 40:48
- If you don't have a pen, I gave out some pens at the beginning.
- 40:50
- If you don't want to write in your book, get over it.
- 40:53
- Because we are going to be writing in this book.
- 40:55
- This is a work book.
- 40:58
- What is the next one? CAT.
- 41:01
- CAT.
- 41:01
- How do you spell CAT? There is no C in Greek.
- 41:05
- So it is KAPA, ALPHA, TAU.
- 41:09
- Alright, what is the next one? CAB.
- 41:14
- That is right.
- 41:15
- What is the next one? DOT.
- 41:17
- That is right.
- 41:18
- So it is the last one.
- 41:19
- Now, moving on to the other side.
- 41:21
- We are going to keep going through these.
- 41:22
- As I said, we are going to do this in class.
- 41:24
- Doing this together.
- 41:25
- Now, if you are listening to this or watching this by video, you better have a book.
- 41:29
- Because you won't know what is going on.
- 41:31
- Alright, the first one there is a? TOP.
- 41:34
- Now, here is where the book introduces you to a letter that doesn't look like English.
- 41:39
- What is it? It is P, remember? You are right.
- 41:43
- It is the P.
- 41:44
- So which one is it? The bottom one, right? Top, Omicron, P.
- 41:51
- What is the next one? TIP.
- 41:54
- So which one is that? The second one, right? Yep.
- 41:56
- What is the next one? BOAT.
- 41:59
- That is another letter that is not common for you.
- 42:03
- Because we are used to seeing this letter and thinking what? Why, why, why? Because that is a W.
- 42:11
- But in Greek, it is not a W.
- 42:14
- In Greek, it is the long O sound.
- 42:17
- That is the Omega.
- 42:19
- Now, Omega also has a capital that looks like that.
- 42:24
- But the lower case letter, which you will see more common than the upper case letter, looks just like a W.
- 42:32
- That is right, that is right.
- 42:35
- It is the Alpha and the Omega.
- 42:36
- It is the last letter of the Greek alphabet.
- 42:38
- It is Omega.
- 42:40
- Alright, what is the next one? Hmm? No, no, no.
- 42:47
- We are still on the...
- 42:48
- Oh wait, you are right, Cope.
- 42:50
- You are right.
- 42:50
- I am sorry.
- 42:51
- Yes, because it is the Omega, the long O.
- 42:53
- Okay, what is the next one? RABBIT.
- 42:56
- What does Rabbit look like? It looks like Pabbit, right? Because, because this, this is the one that I promised you was going to throw you off the most.
- 43:08
- Because the row, that is right, the row looks like our P.
- 43:12
- And your brain will want to say Pa, Pa, Pa, not Ra, Ra, Ra.
- 43:18
- But it is...
- 43:19
- I am sorry, I don't mean to sound like a child, but it is.
- 43:23
- That, that is making the Ra, Ra sound.
- 43:26
- So you see it as Rabbit there, right? It is Rabbit because you have the row, the Alpha, two Betas, the Iota and the Tau.
- 43:36
- Spelling out Rabbit.
- 43:38
- Alright, now on the next one.
- 43:40
- It is the last one, which is? ROBE.
- 43:43
- That is right.
- 43:44
- What is the next one? DART.
- 43:47
- DART, which is? LAST ONE.
- 43:49
- LAST ONE.
- 43:50
- Right.
- 43:51
- Now, PARROT.
- 43:55
- Parrot.
- 43:56
- Parrot.
- 43:57
- It is the last one.
- 43:58
- I didn't mark this in my book.
- 43:59
- I want to make sure I...
- 43:59
- Is it the last one? Um...
- 44:03
- Almost.
- 44:10
- Yeah, yeah.
- 44:11
- It looks like...
- 44:13
- It looks like a Peppa or something.
- 44:17
- Alright, so what is the next one? The middle one, which is CAN.
- 44:21
- Now, what is the new letter that they are introducing there? Which is actually not a V.
- 44:27
- It is a...
- 44:29
- It is the Nuh-Nuh sound.
- 44:31
- It is NEW.
- 44:32
- Nuh-Nuh-Nuh.
- 44:34
- And then last one.
- 44:37
- BONE OF MY BONES AND FLESH OF MY FLESH.
- 44:39
- Right.
- 44:39
- So, it is the first one.
- 44:41
- Alright, so now, before we even turn the book page, you have been introduced to the P, which does not look like your P.
- 44:47
- You have been introduced to the Omega, which does not look like an O.
- 44:51
- It looks like a W.
- 44:52
- You have been introduced to the Rho, which looks like our P.
- 44:56
- And you have been introduced to the Nuh, which looks like our V.
- 44:59
- So, there is going to be a few...
- 45:03
- There is going to be a little time where your brain has to adjust.
- 45:07
- Because you are seeing the same letters that you already know, but they mean something different.
- 45:12
- Your computer, your mental computer, is going to have to reset when you say, OK, I am looking at Greek now.
- 45:18
- So, that is not a P.
- 45:19
- That is an R.
- 45:21
- That is not a V.
- 45:22
- That is an N.
- 45:23
- You understand? Alright.
- 45:25
- Moving on to page 14.
- 45:32
- We are going to do this each week.
- 45:33
- We are going to be going through the book.
- 45:35
- On page 14, what is the first one? Lips.
- 45:42
- But which one is it? First one.
- 45:44
- Thank you.
- 45:44
- I am going to erase this.
- 45:46
- I hope nobody was...
- 45:49
- Yes.
- 45:49
- Let's go ahead and learn this one.
- 45:53
- Because I like this one.
- 45:57
- Lambda.
- 45:59
- Lambda looks like that.
- 46:04
- That be the L.
- 46:06
- Now, capital just looks like that.
- 46:10
- So, that sort of lower case is just sort of taking the idea of that pyramid shape and just bringing it lower.
- 46:16
- So, you have the capital Lambda and the lower case Lambda.
- 46:23
- L.
- 46:23
- Yes.
- 46:24
- This is the sound.
- 46:28
- It is la la la.
- 46:29
- So, you have Lambda, Iota, P, Sigma.
- 46:35
- Right? What does the Sigma look like? It looks like an S with a little bottom.
- 46:45
- I am going to talk about that in a minute.
- 46:46
- Because we normally think of an S we put a little at the top, big at the bottom.
- 46:50
- Well, the Greek Sigma is opposite.
- 46:53
- Big at the bottom, small at the...
- 46:54
- Or big at the top, small at the bottom.
- 46:57
- But, if it is in the middle of the word, it looks like that.
- 47:09
- I think of it like this.
- 47:10
- And again, my mind works a little funny.
- 47:12
- So, it might not help you, but it helps me.
- 47:14
- When I do a capital S, it kind of looks like that to me.
- 47:20
- Or not, a cursive.
- 47:21
- And some of you might not write in cursive.
- 47:23
- I know that.
- 47:23
- I don't do that a lot anymore.
- 47:24
- But, when we learn to write in cursive, we learn to write a cursive S like that.
- 47:28
- And I kind of don't know why, but to me those sort of look alike.
- 47:31
- So, it helps me.
- 47:33
- Okay? So, this is the...
- 47:36
- If it is in the middle of a word, that's the sigma or the SS sound.
- 47:41
- If it's at the end of the word, sigma will look just like an S.
- 47:45
- So, if it's at the end of the word, it's going to be easy.
- 47:46
- If it's in the middle of the word, it might throw you off because some of you might think it looks like a cursive O.
- 47:53
- So...
- 47:55
- But, what you're going to see about this book, this book is going to help you so much because this book is not...
- 48:00
- It takes you literally step by step how to make these things natural.
- 48:05
- How to make learning these things natural.
- 48:06
- Alright, so what's the next thing? It's a map, but that's not the word.
- 48:15
- Plan, that's right.
- 48:17
- P, lambda, alpha, nu.
- 48:20
- What's the next one? Star, that's right.
- 48:24
- Sigma, tau, alpha, rho.
- 48:26
- Next one? Pencil, that's right.
- 48:30
- Next one? Big.
- 48:34
- Good.
- 48:35
- Moving on.
- 48:38
- What's the next one? Gear.
- 48:42
- Do you notice the new letter? What's the new letter there? It looks like a Y, but it's actually the G.
- 48:53
- Don't leave after this class and say, it's going to be impossible.
- 48:56
- I promise it will start making sense.
- 48:58
- But, this is the part that a lot of people get real confused because you say, well, it's almost like, you know, they used to sell those decoder wheels.
- 49:07
- Like, this letter means this letter, and this letter means this letter.
- 49:10
- That's sort of what your brain is going to do.
- 49:11
- It's sort of going to start decoding these things.
- 49:15
- But, yeah, here's what I do with gamma.
- 49:18
- Here's what I do with gamma.
- 49:19
- I imagine it has that, and I just think it's a capital or a cursive G.
- 49:23
- That's just how my brain thinks.
- 49:26
- So, when I see a gamma, I just, in my mind, put that there, and I make it a G.
- 49:30
- I don't know if that's going to help you at all, but that's just for me.
- 49:33
- And I want to mention, this is actually a little more advanced later on, but you're going to see sometimes where there are two gammas in a row.
- 49:42
- If there are two gammas in a row, the first one is what we call the nasal gamma, and it actually makes the nuh-nuh sound because this becomes nig-nig.
- 49:54
- I know that sounds weird, but angulas is spelled alpha, gamma, gamma, epsilon, nu, omicron, lambda.
- 50:07
- Angulas.
- 50:08
- Because it has two gammas, the first one gets a nuh-nuh sound.
- 50:13
- It's called the gamma nasal.
- 50:16
- You won't see it often, but because angel is one of the words, that's what angulas means is angel.
- 50:20
- We're going to learn that word.
- 50:22
- You'll see that later, but don't worry about it now.
- 50:25
- Okay, moving on.
- 50:27
- What's the next one? Lamp.
- 50:30
- What's the next one? Men.
- 50:34
- Next one? Leg.
- 50:36
- That's right.
- 50:37
- Last one? Man.
- 50:41
- Man, oh man.
- 50:42
- That's right.
- 50:43
- All right, moving to exercise four, and then we're going to take our break.
- 50:47
- Let's do exercise four.
- 50:48
- Now, for the sake of time, I'm going to give you these answers kind of rapid fire because we don't have a lot of time, and I don't want to...
- 50:56
- It would take a long time, but listen.
- 50:59
- All of these names you know because they're all biblical names, and all of these names you will learn to read in Greek pretty quickly if you learn the Greek alphabet this week.
- 51:12
- You'll be able to look back at these and see these.
- 51:14
- The first one, Barabbas.
- 51:16
- What's that? C.
- 51:19
- Next one, Arabia.
- 51:22
- Yeah, it would be Arabia.
- 51:25
- Rebecca.
- 51:26
- Yeah.
- 51:27
- Anna.
- 51:29
- Kana.
- 51:31
- Which is actually Kena, but because we pronounce...
- 51:35
- We don't change it to the strong A.
- 51:37
- It's just Kana.
- 51:40
- Nain.
- 51:42
- Actually, that would be Nain.
- 51:44
- I'm sorry, Nain.
- 51:45
- All right.
- 51:46
- Abel.
- 51:48
- Hadam.
- 51:51
- Which I put the ha on there.
- 51:53
- That's another thing.
- 51:54
- This book does not use breath marks because breath marks can be confusing, but there are words that would have an H sound at the beginning, and the only way you'd know that is a breath mark because there is no H in Greek.
- 52:08
- The only way you know the H is it's a ha sound.
- 52:13
- Hamartia actually begins with an alpha.
- 52:15
- Yeah.
- 52:16
- Hamartia would actually be Amartia with a ha at the beginning.
- 52:24
- Aaron.
- 52:25
- L.
- 52:28
- Barnabas.
- 52:29
- Don or Dan.
- 52:32
- Samaria.
- 52:35
- I.
- 52:35
- Italia.
- 52:38
- Marcos.
- 52:40
- Maria.
- 52:42
- Satanas.
- 52:44
- Messias or Messiahs.
- 52:48
- Yep.
- 52:49
- Simone.
- 52:51
- Simon.
- 52:52
- Yep.
- 52:53
- Be Simon.
- 52:54
- Simone.
- 52:55
- Solomon.
- 52:58
- Abraham.
- 53:00
- Anytime you see two A's next to each other, you pronounce both of them.
- 53:04
- That's why I said Abraham.
- 53:06
- Not Abram, but Abraham.
- 53:10
- Petrus.
- 53:13
- Isaac.
- 53:14
- Which is Isaac.
- 53:16
- And Andreas.
- 53:19
- Yep.
- 53:19
- Alright.
- 53:20
- We have finished Lesson 1.
- 53:22
- You feel better? Or you feel worse? Take five minutes.
- 53:27
- Go get some water.
- 53:27
- Take a break.
- 53:28
- We'll come back and we'll learn the alphabet.
- 53:36
- Okay.
- 53:36
- Now for the fun part.
- 53:37
- We actually learned the alphabet.
- 53:39
- And many of you might say, why didn't we do this first? You will be better having done Lesson 1 in the book.
- 53:49
- Lesson 1 in the book has already helped you see some of the ways that the letters are different from what you might already know.
- 53:56
- You are going to do better now than you would have if we had started with this.
- 53:59
- But this is your homework by the way.
- 54:01
- Take it home.
- 54:03
- You can photocopy it on your computer.
- 54:05
- Put it all over.
- 54:05
- Put it on your cell phone.
- 54:07
- Put it wherever you go.
- 54:08
- Put it in your bedroom, bathroom.
- 54:10
- Put it next to where you brush your teeth.
- 54:13
- And learn the alphabet.
- 54:15
- Now we are going to go through the alphabet.
- 54:18
- I am going to explain to you how the...
- 54:21
- And it says the traditional way of pronunciation.
- 54:23
- That is what it says at the top.
- 54:24
- That is actually the Erasmian.
- 54:26
- This is the Erasmian pronunciation.
- 54:30
- As opposed to modern or reconstructed.
- 54:34
- Alright.
- 54:34
- So let's look at the letters.
- 54:36
- First is alpha.
- 54:38
- Alpha.
- 54:39
- The A sound.
- 54:42
- Looks just like the A in English, right? Should be very easy.
- 54:46
- And if you are writing it.
- 54:47
- Writing it.
- 54:48
- Simply start at the top.
- 54:51
- Make a circle.
- 54:52
- And come down.
- 54:54
- Alpha.
- 54:55
- The capital looks just like the capital A.
- 55:00
- Beta.
- 55:02
- I am okay if you say beta.
- 55:05
- I prefer beta.
- 55:07
- Because that is again following the Erasmian pronunciation.
- 55:11
- Beta.
- 55:12
- And what do we call it? The alphabet or the alphabet? Where does the alphabet come from? Alphabeta.
- 55:20
- Yeah.
- 55:21
- So.
- 55:22
- Yeah.
- 55:23
- Yeah.
- 55:23
- Beta.
- 55:24
- Beta.
- 55:25
- So beta.
- 55:26
- Now.
- 55:27
- How do I write that? How do I write beta? Start at the bottom.
- 55:31
- Come up.
- 55:31
- And do that.
- 55:33
- So it looks like a B with a tail.
- 55:36
- And the capital is just like your capital B.
- 55:40
- Now you will notice there is not a C.
- 55:44
- It goes right to the G.
- 55:48
- Gamma.
- 55:48
- You will hear gamma.
- 55:50
- If you say gamma.
- 55:51
- Like gamma.
- 55:53
- I am not going to care.
- 55:55
- But I typically say gamma.
- 55:58
- Again.
- 56:00
- You have starting here.
- 56:01
- Make your loop.
- 56:02
- Come back.
- 56:03
- That is gamma.
- 56:04
- And the capital looks like this.
- 56:08
- That is a really weird one.
- 56:11
- If you look at the Greek Galatians.
- 56:14
- It will be written with the first letter as capital gamma.
- 56:19
- And I remember that because that looks like gallows.
- 56:23
- It looks like a gallows.
- 56:25
- You know like a hangman thing.
- 56:27
- So the G looks like gallows.
- 56:31
- Alright.
- 56:31
- Next one.
- 56:34
- Delta.
- 56:35
- Nothing difficult there.
- 56:36
- How would you write it? You start here.
- 56:38
- You loop around.
- 56:39
- Come up.
- 56:41
- Alright.
- 56:42
- And the delta.
- 56:44
- You should all know delta.
- 56:46
- Because you fly the friendly skies.
- 56:49
- That is the symbol on the delta airline.
- 56:51
- It is just a triangle.
- 56:53
- Alright.
- 56:56
- Alright.
- 56:57
- So that is alpha, beta, gamma, delta.
- 57:00
- And then epsilon.
- 57:01
- The capital looks just like our capital E.
- 57:04
- Lower case does not look like our lower case E.
- 57:07
- It looks like a smaller capital E.
- 57:09
- I will move that over there so you can see.
- 57:12
- Alright.
- 57:12
- John, can you see that from where you are at now? Okay.
- 57:16
- So alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon.
- 57:18
- That is the first five.
- 57:21
- Now we are going to start a new line going down.
- 57:26
- Next one.
- 57:28
- Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon.
- 57:31
- Zeta or zeta.
- 57:33
- Alright.
- 57:33
- And capital looks just like our Z.
- 57:36
- The lower case looks really funky.
- 57:40
- But I am going to give you a trick.
- 57:44
- You can do the lower case Z.
- 57:47
- Basically do a Z with a tail.
- 57:49
- That is what it is.
- 57:50
- A Z with a tail.
- 57:52
- It looks like a three.
- 57:58
- Well, the one on there is a cursive.
- 58:00
- It is cursively written.
- 58:02
- Again, it is just like English.
- 58:04
- I mean if you write English, you can write the letter A like this.
- 58:08
- You can write it like this.
- 58:10
- You can write it.
- 58:11
- How does that fancy one look? Like that.
- 58:14
- But they are all A, right? Sort of that way.
- 58:18
- You are going to see it.
- 58:19
- I am trying to give you the simplest, right? If you do a little Z with a tail, that is zeta.
- 58:24
- Alright.
- 58:27
- Eta.
- 58:29
- Eta.
- 58:30
- Now it looks like an H.
- 58:33
- But it ain't no H.
- 58:35
- It is the long A sound.
- 58:38
- That is why I keep saying ah-ah-ah here.
- 58:40
- Never A.
- 58:41
- The long A sound is that.
- 58:46
- So when you see that, that is the long A sound.
- 58:50
- Okay.
- 58:50
- So ah-ah, A-A.
- 58:53
- Ah-ah, A-A.
- 58:57
- Next one.
- 58:59
- Everyone should know the next one.
- 59:07
- Or theta, theta.
- 59:09
- Alright.
- 59:09
- So what does it look like when it is small? It is the same.
- 59:15
- Just little.
- 59:18
- Now, something you should know about theta.
- 59:23
- This is the beginning of the name theos, which is the word for God.
- 59:33
- Alright.
- 59:33
- So you will see this a lot because the word God comes up many times in the Greek New Testament.
- 59:40
- So you will see the word God written.
- 59:43
- And you will see this letter.
- 59:44
- If this is the first letter of a word, it is not always going to be.
- 59:48
- I mean, because thanatos, you know, death, also starts with this letter.
- 59:52
- But when you see this word and it is followed by epsilon, theta, or epsilon omega, you can almost rest assured you are coming to a word that means God.
- 01:00:04
- Because there will be different endings.
- 01:00:06
- It will be theon, theu.
- 01:00:08
- There will be different endings.
- 01:00:10
- But these three at the beginning, and typically the ending will be os, so it will be theos.
- 01:00:15
- You are looking at the word God.
- 01:00:18
- Okay.
- 01:00:19
- So, that is an important letter obviously.
- 01:00:24
- Okay.
- 01:00:27
- Yeah, theanoustos, the word for God breathed, right? Two words put together.
- 01:00:31
- The word we learned earlier, pneuma, and theos put together makes theanoustos, which is the scripture is God breathed.
- 01:00:38
- 2 Timothy 3.16.
- 01:00:40
- Okay.
- 01:00:41
- So, the next word, or the next letter is the one we have been talking about.
- 01:00:46
- Huh? Well, this is, again, the argument of how to say it.
- 01:00:55
- Because obviously...
- 01:00:57
- Oh, there is no dot.
- 01:00:58
- Why did you put a dot? My English is jumping out at me.
- 01:01:01
- Alright.
- 01:01:02
- So, do you say it iota or do you say it eota? Well, Erasmian pronunciation would be eota.
- 01:01:13
- And I tend to, when I get to talking quickly, I tend to say eota, like the Star Wars guy.
- 01:01:21
- Because it is eota.
- 01:01:25
- Eota.
- 01:01:26
- So, there is a yuh, yuh sound.
- 01:01:29
- From eota to omega, or from eota to omicron, there is a eo.
- 01:01:35
- So, I just say eota.
- 01:01:37
- And it makes me laugh every time I say it.
- 01:01:40
- Okay.
- 01:01:40
- So, eota.
- 01:01:42
- Kappa.
- 01:01:43
- Kappa.
- 01:01:44
- It is like, you are never going to get me, Kappa.
- 01:01:47
- Okay.
- 01:01:51
- That is right.
- 01:01:53
- Also known as Kappa.
- 01:01:55
- If you want to say Kappa.
- 01:01:56
- Kappa.
- 01:01:57
- But is it father? Kappa.
- 01:02:01
- Right? The alpha is an ah, ah sound.
- 01:02:05
- Alright.
- 01:02:06
- Moving on.
- 01:02:08
- We have already learned.
- 01:02:09
- Lambda.
- 01:02:10
- Right? So, lambda is the triangle, or the lower triangle.
- 01:02:15
- So, lambda.
- 01:02:19
- The next one is mu.
- 01:02:22
- Mu.
- 01:02:24
- Looks like regular m, or an m with a slightly long tail on the left side.
- 01:02:31
- So, we have mu.
- 01:02:34
- Not to be confused with meow.
- 01:02:36
- I am glad I make somebody laugh.
- 01:02:41
- The next one is nu.
- 01:02:45
- But what does nu look like when it is capital? It looks like it is supposed to look.
- 01:02:49
- Right? It looks like the n.
- 01:02:50
- But what does it look like when it is not capital? It looks like a v.
- 01:02:54
- That is it.
- 01:02:54
- That is nu.
- 01:02:56
- Alright.
- 01:02:58
- The next one is the letter.
- 01:03:03
- Well, I would pronounce it kasi.
- 01:03:06
- Kasi.
- 01:03:06
- Kasi.
- 01:03:08
- And this is one of the harder ones to pronounce.
- 01:03:13
- If you think of how do you pronounce the letter x? X.
- 01:03:19
- Well, take the ah off and just go ks.
- 01:03:22
- That is the sound.
- 01:03:24
- Ks.
- 01:03:26
- Alright.
- 01:03:26
- And so, it is.
- 01:03:29
- Yeah.
- 01:03:30
- Yeah.
- 01:03:30
- Again, looking at Erasmian a little differently.
- 01:03:34
- It is typically kasi.
- 01:03:38
- The way you write this is really kind of funky.
- 01:03:41
- It looks almost like a mathematical symbol.
- 01:03:47
- And then you have the lower case version.
- 01:03:50
- It is basically like that.
- 01:03:52
- It is a strange.
- 01:03:55
- Just remember, it is basically three lines.
- 01:03:58
- There are three lines here connected.
- 01:03:59
- Three lines here disconnected.
- 01:04:01
- But it is kasi.
- 01:04:05
- Huh? Yeah.
- 01:04:09
- Yeah.
- 01:04:10
- It is a hamburger.
- 01:04:11
- Kasi.
- 01:04:12
- It is a hamburger.
- 01:04:15
- Kasi.
- 01:04:19
- Alright.
- 01:04:19
- What is the next one? Omicron.
- 01:04:23
- Omicron.
- 01:04:24
- It is pretty easy.
- 01:04:26
- Next one.
- 01:04:27
- P.
- 01:04:30
- P.
- 01:04:32
- I promise you it is P.
- 01:04:34
- It would be not pi.
- 01:04:36
- It would be P.
- 01:04:40
- And it looks like, honestly, if you look at it on the capital, it looks like pillars.
- 01:04:47
- So, think pillars for P there.
- 01:04:51
- Alright.
- 01:04:52
- We will start a new going down the line.
- 01:04:55
- What is the next one? Rho.
- 01:04:57
- Rho.
- 01:04:58
- Now, that one looks like a P.
- 01:05:00
- This will throw you off.
- 01:05:02
- Because it is actually rho.
- 01:05:06
- Capital and lower case.
- 01:05:09
- The next one.
- 01:05:12
- The sigma.
- 01:05:14
- But the sigma looks weird.
- 01:05:16
- Because that looks like a big old E.
- 01:05:18
- That is written like a tattoo.
- 01:05:19
- Like that is a tattooed E.
- 01:05:21
- You know, somebody would get like a sweet, you know, something with an E on it.
- 01:05:24
- But they would actually have an S.
- 01:05:25
- Because they did not realize it was a sigma.
- 01:05:28
- And it has got the double way of doing it.
- 01:05:32
- You have got the middle and the ending.
- 01:05:34
- Now, I love it when I see people do this.
- 01:05:37
- They will try to be cool.
- 01:05:38
- They will say, yeah, I am going to study Greek class.
- 01:05:40
- And they will do that.
- 01:05:41
- And they will put the two sigmas thinking it is two epsilon.
- 01:05:44
- Thinking it is two Es.
- 01:05:45
- It is not.
- 01:05:46
- Oh, that says Greek.
- 01:05:50
- That would be wrong.
- 01:05:51
- That would be wrong.
- 01:05:53
- Alright.
- 01:05:54
- So, where are we at? Sigma.
- 01:05:58
- Tau.
- 01:05:59
- Tau.
- 01:06:00
- Uppercase T.
- 01:06:01
- Lowercase T.
- 01:06:02
- Easy.
- 01:06:03
- Tau is easy.
- 01:06:05
- Upsilon.
- 01:06:07
- Upsilon.
- 01:06:09
- Looks like a big old Y when it is capital.
- 01:06:12
- But when it is lowercase, it is real easy.
- 01:06:14
- It just looks like a U.
- 01:06:15
- But the U there is not like uh-uh in up.
- 01:06:20
- It is ooh in hoop.
- 01:06:22
- It is like the long ooh.
- 01:06:25
- Do not let it kill you guys.
- 01:06:27
- I know you are tired.
- 01:06:28
- I know you are starting to feel like, oh, that is a lot.
- 01:06:30
- I am going to give you something in a minute.
- 01:06:31
- You are going to memorize the whole song.
- 01:06:32
- Or the whole thing.
- 01:06:33
- We are going to do it in a song.
- 01:06:34
- We are going to sing together.
- 01:06:39
- Alright.
- 01:06:41
- Phi.
- 01:06:45
- Phi.
- 01:06:47
- And when it is lowercase, phi.
- 01:06:51
- By the way, anytime you hear an English word that has the fa-fa sound, but it is spelled with a P-H, you can know that that word has a Greek root.
- 01:07:03
- Because the Greeks did not have a fa-fa sound like the F.
- 01:07:09
- Their fa-fa came from this letter, the phi.
- 01:07:14
- And so, we derive that rather than making it our F, we derive it as the P-H.
- 01:07:22
- Putting the two together to make that letter.
- 01:07:24
- Because English is stupid.
- 01:07:27
- English is absolutely stupid.
- 01:07:28
- I can prove it to you in five seconds.
- 01:07:35
- S-O-M-E spells? Some.
- 01:07:38
- H-O-M-E spells? Shouldn't those rhyme? N-U-M-B spells? That rhymes with some.
- 01:07:47
- But home don't rhyme with some.
- 01:07:49
- English is stupid.
- 01:07:50
- Okay, so moving on.
- 01:07:51
- And you can do that all day.
- 01:07:53
- There is no rules.
- 01:07:55
- It is like Thunderdome.
- 01:07:57
- English is language Thunderdome.
- 01:07:59
- So, if you know English, this is a walk in the park.
- 01:08:03
- Alright, so, O-P-S-I-L-O-N-E-P-H-E.
- 01:08:07
- Now, this one is key.
- 01:08:09
- Let's just write it real quick.
- 01:08:11
- You've all seen the big X, right? And the lower case, it's the same thing.
- 01:08:15
- It just looks like that.
- 01:08:18
- Know this letter.
- 01:08:20
- Because like theta is the opening for theos, which is God.
- 01:08:26
- Key is the opening for Christos, which is Christ.
- 01:08:31
- So, when you see that big, that big X, you're seeing that.
- 01:08:36
- And it's actually not, I say key, but it's actually key.
- 01:08:41
- Key.
- 01:08:42
- It's got that sound.
- 01:08:45
- Huh? Yeah, now it's Hebrew.
- 01:08:48
- I've got a little something in my throat.
- 01:08:51
- So, it's key.
- 01:08:53
- Key.
- 01:08:54
- And that's what separates it from the kappa.
- 01:08:56
- Because the kappa makes the ka-ka sound.
- 01:08:59
- This is where like the Johann Sebastian Bach.
- 01:09:03
- It's not Bach.
- 01:09:04
- It's Bach.
- 01:09:06
- That sound is what that C-H is supposed to make.
- 01:09:10
- Alright.
- 01:09:12
- And then, Psi.
- 01:09:17
- Psi.
- 01:09:19
- Alright.
- 01:09:20
- I'll write it.
- 01:09:21
- I'll start over here.
- 01:09:23
- Okay.
- 01:09:25
- Now, this one is the best one to know the sound effect, and I'll tell you why in a minute.
- 01:09:30
- Because it looks like a trident.
- 01:09:31
- If you imagine that trident popping a balloon, and it going psss, that's the noise.
- 01:09:37
- That's the sound.
- 01:09:38
- That trident, you won't forget that one.
- 01:09:41
- Because you, in your mind, think trident, think popping a balloon, and when it pops a balloon, you hear psss.
- 01:09:46
- That's the noise.
- 01:09:48
- Alright.
- 01:09:48
- And it's Psi.
- 01:09:50
- Psi.
- 01:09:52
- Alright.
- 01:09:52
- Last but not least, Omega.
- 01:09:56
- Omega.
- 01:10:00
- Ah, I did that wrong.
- 01:10:04
- Gotta get a little space in there.
- 01:10:06
- Alright.
- 01:10:07
- So, Omega.
- 01:10:08
- I am the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord.
- 01:10:12
- What is he saying? I'm the beginning and the end of the Greek alphabet.
- 01:10:18
- And the Hebrew, and everything else.
- 01:10:21
- Huh? Yeah, yeah.
- 01:10:25
- Yeah.
- 01:10:27
- Yep.
- 01:10:27
- And that's, and what's neat about Hebrew is that it follows a similar pattern.
- 01:10:30
- Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Daleph, Hey, En, Wau, and Zayin follows a similar pattern as this.
- 01:10:35
- But I want you to know, I know you probably are, you need to go.
- 01:10:39
- So let me just give you the song and a couple of quick things, and we'll close.
- 01:10:42
- I know it's 8 o'clock, and I don't want to keep you past time.
- 01:10:45
- Here's the song.
- 01:10:47
- How many of you are familiar, and don't you dare laugh at me, how many of you are familiar with, uh, the, the, the tune of Mama's Little Baby Goes Shortening, Shortening? Dah-dah-dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-dah.
- 01:11:05
- Dah-dah-dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-dah.
- 01:11:09
- Everybody know it now? Mama little baby goes shortening, shortening, Mama little baby goes shortening bread.
- 01:11:17
- Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Yoda, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nuka see Omicron P Rho Sigma Tau Upsilon Phi keeps e Omega that's the alphabet and that's how you sing it So let's go slow and do it together Alpha Beta Gamma Delta Epsilon Zeta Eta Theta Yoda Kappa Lambda move Nuka see Omicron P Rho Sigma Tau Upsilon Phi keeps e Omega Alpha Beta Gamma Delta Epsilon Zeta Eta Theta Yoda Kappa Lambda move Nuka see Omicron P Rho Sigma Tau Upsilon Phi keeps e Omega Alpha Beta Gamma Delta Epsilon Zeta Eta Theta Yoda Kappa Lambda move Nuka see Omicron P Rho Sigma Tau Upsilon Phi keeps e Omega That's three times through Yeah Actually, there is a video of me teaching this on YouTube I I did this course a few years ago and posted some videos so if you look at you can probably find it But there's another guy who does it too Nothing's original everything comes from somebody right so let me finish by saying this next week If you're having trouble still with the alphabet I'm going to tell you a story about how to remember the letters that helps me, and it really is neat We don't have time for it tonight, but we got plenty of time over the next few weeks So go home try to learn the song try to learn the alphabet do your absolute best come back next week We're going to see how well we do if you have any questions feel free to email me Hope you guys have a good night.
- 01:12:56
- Can we end with prayer? Father thank you for this night I pray Lord that through this study that you would be glorified that we would learn better How to understand your word as it was originally given to us We thank you Lord for your word your word is the lamp into our feet and the light into our path it is Inspired by God and it's profitable for teaching and for reproof and for correction and for training and righteousness so that the man of God May be equipped for every good work Lord.