1. Greek Tutorial Description
2. Required Materials
3. Prerequisites
4. Fees and Registration Information
5. Syllabus

1. Tutorial Description

The aim of the Reviving Biblical Greek Tutorial is to teach beginners to read New Testament Greek intelligently and with pleasure. The course covers all of essential Greek grammar in a year. In order to reading a language with any degree of fluency a person must be able to compose or communicate in that language. In order to enjoy reading Greek one must be able to think Greek. For this reason the tutorial stresses composition and conversational dialogue skills.

Contrary to popular opinion, Greek is not a dead language. The language has undergone a number of dialectical changes, but the language itself has maintained its integrity for thousands of years. God has seen fit to preserve the language of the New Testament to this present day with basically the same sound. If it were possible for you to hear Timothy speaking Greek and then someone from Modern Greece, you would certainly ascertain that they were speaking the same language. This would not be the case with Homer whose Greek dialect had significantly different sounds. Most biblical Greek courses taught in America today use the Erasmian pronunciation which began as an attempt to speak Greek as it was spoken before the koine period. However, the Erasmian pronunciation has now become merely an anglicized pedagogical construction which was never used by Greeks at any time. Since this course truly offers a historical and foreign language we will not use the Erasmian pronunciation but rather the Modern Greek pronunciation which is very close to how the New Testament writers spoke. Using the Modern Greek pronunciation has number of significant benefits. There are over ten million Greeks around today to maintain consistency in pronunciation. The Erasmian pronunciation can hardly be called a single pronunciation because of the proliferation of variant schemes. There are also many educational resources available in Modern Greek. Learning this authentic pronunciation will enable student to benefit more from their future visits to Greece.

This tutorial will attempt to be very interactive. It will be conducted live once-a-week in a two hour session each Monday from 3:00 -5:00 PST. The sessions will run from early September through late-May, in which the students and tutor discuss the material being studied, go over the student's work, and preview the work for the next week. Using the conferencing software, the students and tutor log onto a server address at the stated time for the tutorial and then are able to communicate by talking, typing, and collaborative web browsing to interactive Greek language sites.

The tutorial is supported by web pages which contain all information necessary for that class. These class pages list the course outline, reading and writing assignments and other work, announcements relevant to that class, and additional resources for the students to pursue; the student has access at all times to the class pages. There will also be a forum on which questions and work will be posted. Necessary information and announcements are also sent out by email.

The tutor is John Schwandt a Fellow of Classical Languages at New St. Andrews College . See his personal description on the New St. Andrews faculty page .

If you are excited about learning biblical Greek as a foreign language and want to learn it actively as other modern languages, this tutorial was designed for you. Remember, since Greek is not a dead language, there is no need to learn just enough to silently decipher the New Testament as one might translate a dusty gravestone inscription. Greek is a living language, and biblical Greek needs only be revived by this and future generations.

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2. Required Materials

Since there aren't any resources available which teach biblical Greek actively, I am currently in the process of writing a text which does just that. The text will be available online for enrolled students.

The tutorial will also use the time tested standard, Machen's NEW TESTAMENT GREEK FOR BEGINNERS . The preceding title link will take you to The Trinity Foundation's website where you can order the book (hardback) directly from them. The book is also available from Amazon.com, but only in a much more expensive paperback, and it is an uncorrected edition. Trinity Foundation offers the paperback version for $11 and the hardback version for $17 --a bargain-- and it's a better edition. It's the same book, same layout, good quality binding and paper, and with errors corrected and wider margins for easier note-making.

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3. Prerequisites

This beginning Greek tutorial is best suited for students who are at least 14 years old, and have some previous experience with Greek or Latin. Younger students, and those without prior classical language study will be considered, but please contact the instructor first.

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4. Fees and Registration Information

The tutorial is $400 (this is for the full year). A $50.00 non-refundable deposit is due at the time of registration for each tutorial in which the student is registering in order to reserve a place. The tutorial will only take a maximum of 15 students who on a first come basis. (The deposit will be refunded in the event that the course is cancelled.) The balance of the fee is to be paid in 3 equal installments of $117, due on August 1, November 1, and February 1. Of course, the balance may be paid in full at any time. There will be a $20 late fee for payments more than 10 days late.

Please print out the registration form