The Greek Alphabet

Course Overview and Class Requirements

Tonight we are beginning something that I am very excited about, and yet at the same time very nervous. Because if there was ever a class where I am woefully inadequate, it is this one. Because when it comes to the Greek language, there is so much to know that I just don't.

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. So, that is my basic introduction. What we are going to do tonight is several fold.

We are going to look at the syllabus so that you understand exactly what is expected of you. 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.

There are reasons not to, and we will talk about that. I also want to mention that the dates of this class is starting tonight, January 9th through February 27th. We have a class every Thursday night for eight weeks.

I will need you to sign in when you come in, and it would be helpful if I had the sign-in sheet. Did it make itself around? Ms. Kelly, would you go in my office and see if you see the sign-in sheet?

I must have left it in there. Thank you. I hate to make you the runner. I am sorry. I know you know where my office is, so that is helpful. I need you to sign in, and then each week I need you to check off that you are here.

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.

Other than that, to receive the credit, to get the certificate, you have to be here for at least six of the eight classes. Other than that, you are going to have to turn in your work, and we are going to talk about that when we get to the syllabus portion.

In fact, let's go ahead and do that. Go ahead and take out your syllabus. You should have been given a copy of it, and you should have printed a copy. That's okay. That's okay. I have some extra copies here.

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. Do you need a staple? No, you can have that. Okay. Would you take those down there to them?

Thank you. Yes, if you would. Make sure your name is legible, please, because I am going to go back and type it, and that will be helpful to me. Yes, you are right in Greek, and I will be impressed. I won't add to your score, but I will be impressed.

Now, we plan to have four sessions this year. 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, and it will take us through May.

It is March 19th through May 14th. We will have one week off. The week of Resurrection, Holy Week, we will take that week off. But that is going to be a survey of the Old Testament. So that has already been chosen, already decided on.

So we know we are doing Greek the first semester, the first term. We are doing a survey of the Old Testament in the second term. We haven't decided on the third and fourth. What I am trying to do, and I want to give you a little heads up for those of you who have been coming, 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.

And 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. So not only would you get a certificate for every class, but at the end of two years you would get a certificate that says, you know, preparation for ministry course complete or something.

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. So let's say you started in Greek and you missed all last year.

Well, in two years we would start back over and you would be right back where everybody else. And if you come for all two years, you will graduate the program as it were. And the goal is to try to produce people who are fit to serve in their churches better.

We are not necessarily a seminary that is trying to produce ministers yet because there is a lot more to it than that, but we want you to be better equipped to serve in your local church and provide you the foundations for that, how to study the Bible, understanding the Old Testament, understanding the New Testament, having an introduction to the original languages.

Those types of things are the things that we are going to be focusing on. They are very academic things that are often left out in a lot of churches. 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, and we are trying to turn the tide.

What is my motto? Church is an institution of higher learning. 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.

Now they teach the opposite. So what does the church do? We rise up and we teach and we train and we do the things that are difficult. One of the things that is difficult is study. The Bible says, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

So we are going to begin tonight with our basic Greek, and I want us to look at the syllabus, our course overview. This course will introduce students to Koine Greek. The word Koine in Greek means common.

It is the Greek that was spoken and written during the time of Jesus Christ. There are forms of Greek that predate Koine, and there is a modern Greek which is used today. There are similarities and there are differences.

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. We are only concerned with the Greek that is in the New Testament.

So that is what you are going to be introduced to. Koine Greek is the original language of the New Testament. Students will learn how to recognize, pronounce, and use the Greek alphabet to read biblical words and begin building their personal vocabulary.

Our goals are simple, and these are stated in your textbook. Recognize and pronounce the Greek alphabet. Read Greek words quickly and fluently. By the end of this course, you should all be able to do that.

Learn about 200, it says over 200 Greek words. That is actually if you do the whole book. This course is probably going to be less than 100 that you will actually know and remember. 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.

So you already know one Greek word. Kardia relates to the heart. There are a lot of those that you will learn simply by seeing them. You will see them on the page. You will remember that there is an English equivalent, and your mind will make that connection, and it will be really easy.

But here is the interesting thing. About 90 of the New Testament is made up of a repetition of the same 200 words. So if you learn these 200 words that are in this book, you will know about 90 of the words that are in the New Testament.

Koine means common. It is a simple Greek. Simple in the sense that for those who spoke it. But it is sort of like English. How many words do you actually use on a regular basis? Not a lot, really. In the grand scheme of how big your vocabulary is, you don't really use a lot of those words that you know.

So in the Bible, you are going to see a lot of words over and over and over and over. In fact, the one word that you will see more than any other word is my favorite word. It is the word Chi. Chi. Chi is the most common word in the Greek New Testament.

What does it mean? And. And. So, think about how many times you use the word and as you speak every day throughout your language. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. So, that's our goals and objectives. Are required text, you need to have a Bible.

Because there will be at times in this course we will be looking at Biblical passages. I want to recommend a Bible to you. Even though it says student's choice, I want to recommend a Bible to you. If you want to buy one they are about $30.

This is an English to Greek reverse interlinear Bible. This has both the English and the Greek. English is on top. Greek is underneath it. And it has the morphology of the word written in English. 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.

Okay, well, I can't I can't sell this to you. I only got mine. But it is edited by john swand and that's s c h w a n d t. This is a english to greek reverse interlinear and it's esv Bible it's only the new testament.

So of course because new testament's a greek. So if you want to get a bible you don't have to have it. This is a very I think it's an investment and you know in your own study about 30 bucks I think is what they run online.

You also have to have the book for the course the book for the course basic greek in 30 minutes a day by James found. Does everyone have this book? Okay, because I have two more copies that I will sell you.

At only twice the market price. No. Now we have to have the book this this will be if you've taken our other courses last year. We did christian ethics. We did church history. We did hermeneutics if you took those courses.

They were not as book dependent as this one is this is an this is a book driven class. We're going to be in the book every week. If you don't bring your book, you will not be able to follow along the book is absolutely Uh required this time.

So so you have to have it what I did just in case you're interested. And I say I did it my very sweet and and encouraging administrative assistant did it for me. I took all the pages out and put them in a notebook so I could fold it and look at it flat.

Uh, this is this is the only way to do it as far as i'm concerned because that book you're going to be holding it. Open writing on it. All you got to do is pull it out put it in a notebook get you a whole punch.

Spend spend 20 minutes. It'd be worth a lot of you know. Five minutes at the beginning sometimes save you 30 minutes at the end. That's the way this is. All right. Moving on through our syllabus looking at the second page I know many of you are new.

So I want to just very quickly. Help you understand. Some of the requirements that we have number one class attendance. This is 10 of your grade. Uh, but if you do miss more than two classes you you automatically get an f but if you're if you miss.

Uh, uh classes this can affect your grade. So you want to be here for all eight classes. Notebook assignment you are to keep. A notebook devoted specifically to introduction to greek vocabulary. The notebook should contain all course handouts along with all the notes and assignments that you do for the course.

Organization of materials is important to make them accessible for future use basically I just want to see that you're keeping up with the handouts that I give you. And at the 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. I'm, not just giving it to you to go in your trash. This is to help you in the future. So it's part of just part of the requirement is to keeping a keeping a notebook.

Of whatever notes you take along with whatever I give you. Academic character. Don't cheat. You say well, how could I possibly cheat in this class when you write your paper? Plagiarism is stealing. Now what's the difference between plagiarism and research?

Well. Plagiarism is when you try to pass something off as your own. If you research something cite the person you're researching if you've never done that before. And you need help with it. I'll be glad to help you.

There's several different methods for citing. Sources we use. I I use the apa method. There's the mla method. There's several ones that you can use. 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 uh than not do it at all or i'd rather you try and then not not just say well he won't know. I might not know but you'll know and it's it's part of the uh, part of your grade is your character, you know.

Uh weekly submission students should complete their textbook assignments each week and be prepared to have their. Have them examined by a peer in class now that may not happen but each week when you come in you're going to have a.

Something in your book that's required. I may say hand your book to the person next to you. We're going to grade them. So be prepared for that even though we might not do that every week. It's a good way to make sure you're not just filling in the blanks as I give them to you.

You understand you should come in with your book finished so that I say, okay open up the lesson three. We open up lesson three. Everybody's lesson three should be filled in even if it's wrong. You did it.

But if you're just sitting there going, oh, it's b. Oh, it's a. That goes back to the academic character. That is cheating. And you're only cheating yourself again. All right. Research project. The research project will be assigned during the final class each student will be asked to choose five greek words from the textbook.

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 what? And in what way students should look for ways this analysis might give more understanding of individual individual biblical texts.

And include that information as well the written analysis should be no more than one page per word. So what am I asking for a maximum of five pages? Because one it's a maximum of one page per word. I don't want 30 pages on agape.

Okay, I know what agape means. All right. I don't i'm serious because it's oftentimes too much. Rather than not enough because we get to we get to we get to bloviate. All right be pithy uh be focused when you do a word study.

Focus on what you're learning. And if it's less than a page per word, that's fine, too. Just don't let it be any more than that. It's just too much uh. The analysis will be submitted in the following format.

You'll have a title page the body of the project and a and a page of bibliography. At the end so you'll have actually seven pages if you do if you do one Word per page you'll have five pages plus a page at the beginning page and it'll be seven pages.

You can email it to me as a pdf. That's what most of you all did last semester because we didn't see each other over the christmas holidays. And I print it out and I grade it and give it back to you printed.

So that's fine. So you can even save the paper. If you want to email it to me, that's fine. On the last page, you'll see the course schedule. This gives you the dates for the course which are apparently I am Wrong.

I give you. This is incorrect. The dates are wrong. This is uh I apologize. That's incorrect. Uh, those dates should begin with january the uh, january the 5th. So does anybody have one that starts with january the 5th?

Okay, so I made a mistake there. I apologize. All right, so you'll see though lecture one is tonight lecture two is next week and so on the introduction. What we're going to talk about tonight. Why study greek?

We're going to look at the textbook lesson one and then we're going to memorize the greek alphabet. 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.

Yes by next week, you will have all memorized the greek alphabet. I'm going to teach you my young padawans How to memorize the greek alphabet. It's not that hard. Uh, once you once you figure it out. So anybody any questions on the syllabus?

All right. Sorry, I gotta keep wetting my whistle here. All right. Let's move on to why are we doing this? 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.

We start at 6 30. We take a break at 7 30 for 10 minutes, and then we come back for a final 20 minutes 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.

Why Study Greek for the New Testament

Okay. All right. 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 and as part of my introduction I want to say a few words about why I believe it's beneficial to study greek.

Four reasons why I believe it's important to study greek. Number one greek. Is the language of the new testament? 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.

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. I was talking to uh, one of the brothers earlier posted on facebook about um, About hebrew and greek or posted that he was coming to a greek class and somebody says well you should be studying hebrew.

And a lot of people think that that you should study hebrew first and i'm i'm fine if that's something that you want to do. But I am convinced that uh That greek takes precedence. Because the new testament is written in greek.

Some people will argue that there is a hebrew original of the new testament. And the greek is a translation of the hebrew original. There is Absolutely, no evidence to support that suggestion. 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. It was greek. Now were there people who spoke hebrew? Yes, but even a lot of the jews Spoke greek they were called the hellenists.

We read about them in acts chapter 7. When the disbursed deacons were called because the hellenists the greek-speaking jews were not receiving Their portion of the daily offering that was needed for food.

Remember this the the situation greek was the common language and greek was the Language which was used to write the new testament. And that begins with matthew mark luke john all the way down to revelation.

So that's the first reason greek is the language of the new testament. Therefore. It's worthy of our study. Number two. Greek is also the language of the septuagint. Does anybody know what the septuagint is?

Pastor mark knows. Go ahead and tell him what it is. That's right. The old testament was translated into greek. About 200 years prior to the coming of christ and it is sometimes referred to as. The lxx you'll see this.

In some of your if you're studying you'll see the use of lxx and that's referring to the septuagint. Uh, uh, the septuagint is the greek translation of the hebrew old testament. The vast majority. Oh, uh, sorry s e p t u a g I n t some people call it septuagint.

Septuagint. No problem. Don't be sorry 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. We use the masoretic text to translate the hebrew old testament. The masoretic text dates to around 1000 a .d 1200 years after the septuagint.

It's an interesting historical note. The septuagint has major historical value and if you learn greek you can study it as well. All right, number three. Greek tools. Are readily available for those who are able to use them.

Greek tools are readily available for those able to use them. Very few people will become fluent in reading and translating greek and this is certainly not within the scope of this class. But with a basic knowledge of greek vocabulary.

You can better use the tools available to modern students of the bible the more you build your vocabulary. And understand grammar the more useful those tools will become. 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 brings up a greek word? Can you read it? Well, you can read it if there's a english equivalent next to it, right?

But you can't read the original. And that's what this the goal of this class is and the goal of this class will help you understand. Why that word is the word that it's being. Why the word is being used?

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. For instance the word hell in the king james bible sometimes it's a translation of gehenna.

Sometimes is a translation of hades. Sometimes 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. How do you know which is which and does it matter? Some would say it doesn't matter. But I would like to know 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 right. Even if I don't understand everything i'm reading I can at least be able to go and see. This is philos or this is agape. Okay. So greek tools are available.

But you got to be able to use them and the only way to be able to use them Is you're if you're able to read along and that leads to my fourth and final reason textual criticism. Textual criticism requires a basic understanding of greek.

And I know this is something my friend to my left here is very interested in. 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.

There are over 5 ,000 handwritten greek manuscripts that have been passed down since the writing of the new testament some Fragments of those manuscripts date all the way back to the early second century.

5 ,000 plus greek manuscripts and no two of them agree. No, two of them agree. Because every one of them's handwritten. You say oh boy, that makes me scared of me. I can't trust my bible. No, you can trust your bible because 99 percent of the variants are either meaningless or non-viable meaning they were never Viable as alternatives for the original and or they're meaningless.

It was it was he uh, yes. Is it matter which comes first in word order. But it does create a variant there if you see jesus christ or christ jesus. You understand? How would you know? Well, you have to be able to go back and look at the sources look at the material 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.

So those are four reasons why I believe. Everyone who is interested in studying the bible should study the greek language now. I want to confess from the outset that in this class You are only going to learn a little greek.

And I stress a little greek because my friend and and and pastor. Dr. James white. I call him my friend. I mean we know each other. We we've met several times and and he knows me and I know him. I really love him.

Uh, and he says this he says a little greek is a dangerous thing. And you say well, didn't you say we're just about to learn a little greek? So i'm all i'm all I doing is giving you just enough information to be dangerous.

Yeah. But bill mounts says something different and dr. Mounts actually has written several textbooks on greek. And this is what he says a little greek is not a dangerous thing. A little arrogance is a dangerous thing.

A little greek is not a dangerous thing. A little arrogance is a dangerous thing. When it comes to greek it is very easy to fall into the trap of arrogance. Too often people become Almost like modern day gnostics taking great pride in their special knowledge that they've acquired that few others possess.

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. Here's here's here's how it often happens.

Somebody learns a little bit of greek and every conversation they have. Oh, well the the original greek said it's like Oh that's translated as ball. Well, the original greek is ball. 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. It's a trick. It's a time filler. Got to make 30 minutes or whatever. Or it's a way to make themselves feel superior intellectually.

And that type of ego is a dangerous thing that type of pride. It doesn't it doesn't belong in the pulpit. And it certainly doesn't belong in the pew. We're learning this for a reason we're learning this.

So that we can better understand the scriptures. Not impress people with what we know. Um that being said I I recently watched a Somewhat of a documentary sort of a homemade documentary about the greek language and.

The man who was doing it is a uh. Sort of an oddball guy out in tempe, arizona who uh. Who was saying that the only reason to study the greek language is is to go and witness to greek people. And he said because we don't need the greek we have the king james bible.

He's a king james only advocate. You know i'm talking about don't you? Yeah, and uh, 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.

Well, I would disagree with him because I do think there's another reason and i've given you four reasons um 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, come on. That's it's a good joke. Okay. No, I the niv is fine. We'll talk about that later, but Whether i'm no matter what translation i'm reading i'm always one step away from what was originally written.

No matter how good the translation is i'm always one step past what the original said. So my goal is to know what was originally written not that it necessarily will change the meaning. But i'll know for sure.

I know what the meaning is. I'll have more certainty in my understanding if I know what the original said now. Uh, I want to also mention this before I know we want to get to the book you guys look like you're you're just chomping.

At the bit to get to the book. One of the things that we're going to talk about is the idea of pronunciation. We're going to learn the alphabet tonight. And we're going to do the first lesson in the book.

It's only four pages. So we'll we should get through that relatively quickly. 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.

There are basically four schools of thought on pronunciation. There is the arasmian pronunciation which was popularized by desiderius erasmus. Who lived during the time of martin luther if you remember the the reformation period he lived at the same as a contemporary martin luther.

In fact, the two debated on the subject of free will in the book the freedom of the will i'm sorry the bondage of the will um and desiderius erasmus was a Tremendous scholar a tremendous intellect very brilliant man and he uh devised a way of pronouncing the greek because remember the part of the renaissance was a rediscovery and uh of these ancient works in the in the in the greek language and and bringing it into A use again where the latin had been used for about a thousand years up until that point.

And so arasmian pronunciation is the pronunciation we will use in this class. But i'm going to tell you it is not the way That it sounded. Because we don't know how it sounded there is a attempt called Reconstruction uh pronunciation or reconstructed new testament greek pronunciation that's trying to Determine how these words would have been pronounced in the original um.

And there's those who say we should just use the modern pronunciation. Um, neither one of those I think is necessary. And there's also one that you will probably be familiar with. I said there are four the four main or arasmian modern Reconstructed and then there's what we call the fraternal method.

The fraternal method where's my marker? There it is. I'll ask you here. Uh, how do you say that? Hi, okay. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, 3 .14 and then something that is p. But you want to say pi because everyone knows that pi r square.

Which is not true cake r square pi r round. That's a bad joke. I'm Waiting all day to say that Pi. We all learned that in class right pi r square. This is actually we would pronounce it just like the letter p.

So you would pronounce it p not pi. Because pi is what's what we would call the the fraternal or the physics use the academic use. Um, but that's not what we're doing. Because they're not seeking to read or pronounce the language.

They're simply using the letters in place of numbers and using it for formulas. We're not doing that. So the the Pronunciation we're going to use is the arasmian pronunciation. Here is the secret to the arasmian pronunciation, which I do think makes it very helpful.

You pronounce every letter. Every letter is pronounced so for instance. Give you another greek word. All right, I messed up a little bit on that. Excuse me. All right. Ah, that's the first one. All greek to me that's the joke that will you will quickly get old.

All right, uh for the letter forms we have here p. We have here this is the new so this is new. Uh, I actually spelled it wrong. It's epsilon oops, so e u so that's an e, you know, that's an e that that's.

That one looks exactly like our e so that's easy, right? This one is our u looks like epsilon looks just like the u so. About 13 of the of the letters are the same. Right, this one was weird, but you at least know that's p because you know it this one.

It looks like a v but it's a the nuh nuh nuh sound. All right, so you have uh, p nu epsilon epsilon mu looks like. Exactly what it is alpha looks just like. That so what is this word? Pneuma. But how would you say it in the arasmian pronunciation?

Pneuma. You would say pneuma because you wouldn't leave out the p. Because we pronounce every letter, right? So when we talk about we talk about. By the way, the word pneuma Means air where you get the english word pneumatic like for a pneumatic tool.

It's air in a tool right that we call those pneumatic tools. I don't know why I had to do the sound effects. I just making sure you're still with me so pneumatic Comes from the word pneuma for air. It's also the word for spirit.

So when we study the holy spirit we study pneumatology. But if we pronounced it correctly, it would be pneumatology but because we are so Commonly english speakers we drop the p almost naturally. Uh, but in general we would pronounce every letter so.

You end up with sort of a funny sounding language. John 1 -1 nrk. Ain halagas. Kai halagas ain prostan theon kai theos ain halagas doesn't sound like a real language. Sounds like a robot but I ain't trying To speak it.

By the way, that was bad. I ain't I ain't trying to speak it. I'm trying to read it. This isn't grandma right it's yeah, well, it's not we're not we're not. I'm not trying to order coffee at the local greek bistro.

I'm trying to read the word of god. And so it's not so the pronunciation is not the biggest and most important thing. What matters most is that I understand what i'm looking at when I read? But you still want to know how it's supposed to sound and since we're using a rule for pronunciation.

We're using the rule of Uh the erasme and pronunciation and I want to want you to look up a youtube video when you get time you write this down. Look up all things are better in koine. All things are better.