New Testament Greek: A Reading Course is a complete introductory course in Koine Greek that offers a clear, step-by-step approach to the fundamentals needed to read the New Testament in its original language. Concepts are presented in small, manageable increments, followed by short exercises that promote mastery. With a wealth of practice drills, readings, and conceptual questions, New Testament Greek: A Reading Course is ideal for many kinds of learners—including those in homeschool, college, and seminary, as well as autodidacts. Levels 1 and 2 of the student text are each accompanied by a teacher’s manual and a workbook with its own teacher’s manual.
This comprehensive program helps establish a strong foundation in biblical Greek. Each chapter logically and methodically builds on previously introduced material. New Testament Greek: A Reading Course does not assume any prior experience with Greek, or other inflected languages. Abundant practice, starting with the alphabet, allows learners to proceed at a pace appropriate for their goals and needs.
In its approach, New Testament Greek: A Reading Course firmly grounds itself in the Koine Greek of the Bible. Scope and sequence proceeds according to vocabulary and grammar most frequently used in the New Testament. From chapter 7 on, each chapter culminates in a set of carefully selected unadapted readings. Upon completing Level 1, learners will have read more than 100 verses from the Septuagint and more than 400 verses from the New Testament. An additional 44 verses are used to illustrate important concepts. An index of Greek citations makes it easy to locate a particular reference.
Level 1 of New Testament Greek: A Reading Course presents the following language topics:
- the Greek alphabet and Greek orthographic conventions
- the concept of noun case and declensions
- noun declensions 1–3
- use and forms of the definite article
- the concept of noun-adjective agreement
- first-second declension adjectives, third declension adjectives, and irregular adjectives
- comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
- pronouns (personal, demonstrative, interrogative, and indefinite)
- the full present active indicative verbal system (–ω verbs, –μι verbs, and contract verbs)
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“After trying several textbooks for my high school Ancient Greek program, we have happily settled on Sally Teague's New Testament Greek: A Reading Course. Students take great pride in reading unadapted passages from the New Testament and Septuagint after only a few introductory chapters! Teague's chapters present just the right amount of vocabulary and grammar for students, and the lessons cumulatively and carefully build up increasing fluency. More than with any other method or book, I have found that students retain what they have learned as it is reinforced with carefully selected passages. Each chapter begins with an interesting image from the material culture which leads to great questions and conversations about the scope of Greek culture. I recommend the workbook as well, whose chapters include drills, etymology, and exercises that can be used for practice or assessment. Students can be reading and reciting scripture in less than a semester—a great tool for starting a Greek club, class, or program! Sure to get a positive response from students, parents, and administrators alike!”
Elizabeth Wise
Classical Language Chair
Greek & Latin Teacher
Loyola Blakefield High School
Towson, MD
The most progressive and thoughtful new resources for beginning Greek continue to come with a focus on readings and material beyond the standard Classical canon. Especially at pre-collegiate levels, the growth and innovation of pedagogical materials for Biblical Greek outstrip comparable materials for Classical texts. Continuing this trend, from a press with a distinguished history of focused pedagogical materials, Bolchazy, is a promising new beginning Greek curriculum, this one focused on the New Testament, but rooted in solid pedagogy that can serve equally as a springboard to a wide array of ancient readings.
Much of the strength of this volume derives from the patient and thoughtful way Teague structures, sequences, and articulates the enduring fundamentals that will equip students for solid comprehension of Biblical Greek. Twelve units, divided into four chapters each, provide explanations and well-constructed practice of a specific component of the language. I want to emphasize the patience and diligence of Teague’s presentation, virtues too rare in the vast majority of introductions to Greek. An early and rewarding example is her presentation of the alphabet. Teague introduces half of the letters in the first chapter, the remaining letters in a second chapter, diphthongs in a third, and then reviews it all, adding alphabetical order, in the ourth. Each chapter comprises careful presentation of the individual letters and related topics (diacriticals, use of capital letters, and so on), along with readings (such as place and personal names) and plentiful exercises. This is emblematic of Teague’s work, clearly the result of long experience working with students and meeting them where they are, while providing a path forward.
The same patience explains why there are separate chapters that introduce the cases singly, the gradual accretion of verb forms, adjectives, prepositions, and pronouns. She takes the effort to keep each chapter focused on a single coherent topic in a bite-sized chunk. At the same time, she keeps many details focused so that they implicitly build crucial building blocks for students. The vocabulary is relevant and high-frequency. She repeats and builds her exercises (including, for example, regular etymological work and rhetorical structures). Her reading selections are clever and appropriate; they include solid selections from the Septuagint, as well as the New Testament. She leaves exegesis and interpretation to teachers and students. Thus the approach can be successful in a full array of doctrinal environments. Teague’s understanding of the fundamentals of Greek mean that this volume can as easily prepare students for a range of non-Christian readings as well (on which, more below).
In many places, I found myself quite admiring Teague’s unconventional but intelligent choices. She introduces some -µ? verbs early, for example (e?µ?, d?d?µ?) and devotes quality presentation to topics like forming questions (not just vocabulary words involving questions, but modeling how questions and answers actually function).
There are inevitably a small number of places where I would characterize items differently. In the note on p. 38, why not explain that the moveable -? appears with forms ending in -s?? On p. 39, “Observe #2” should clarify “personal ending.” On p. 41, the question mark in Greek resembles a modern semicolon, but it is more accurately an upside-down version of the English question mark. The Vocative case is a less distinct case than Teague presents it as in Chapter 9. The “Genitive of Association” in Chapter 10 seems vague to me and the examples better categorized as Partitive. Similarly, in Chapter 11, the Genitive with ????? is Origin. The idea of a Dative object of an intransitive verb in Chapter 12 is confusing and misleading. In Chapter 13, I think that the basic rules of vowel contraction, which apply beyond verbs, are easier to learn than rote memorizing of the contracted forms. On p. 201, the distinction between an adjective and adverb here seems to me inconsequential. In Chapter 33, pat??, as an important high-frequency noun, makes sense to introduce the third declension, but the variations in its stem make it a problematic first paradigm. On p. 273, it seems to me that understanding basic rules about contraction of sigma and vowels is easier than sifting through paradigms this way.
More rarely I observed small errors: In the title of Chapter 24 (pp. vi and 161), d?a should be d??. On p. 52, Practice #7 should not begin with the enclitic e?s??. “Discerning the Meaning” on p. 59 does not make clear a Greek word may correspond to multiple English words with different meanings, while a Greek speaker may not have perceived any distinction in meaning. The meaning of Sentence #3 on p. 100 is unclear to me. On p. 184, ?p? in D2 is missing its breathing mark. On p. 190, in C2, the plural verb with neuter plural subject is unusual. On p. 218, the list of endings obscures that nominative singulars in third-declension masculine and feminine nouns have, -? and neuters have no ending. On p. 236, Subjective and Objective Genitives have to do with the verbal idea in the noun, not whether it is abstract. On p. 241, Observe #5 is misleading, because the stem is always t??-, with predictable phonological changes, not changes in the stem.
My only real reservation overall lies in the risk of backloading crucial material. This volume is devoted mostly to nouns, so much material about verbs remains deferred to Level 2, including all tenses but the present, the middle voice, participles, other moods, and all the syntactical constructions that require these forms. Teague shows good judgment throughout this volume, however, so I am willing, without having seen the other volume in detail, to give her the benefit of the doubt, but any teacher wanting to use Teague’s book should assess the complete set.
To conclude, I want to resume my opening statement on the value of work like Teague’s in the context of the substantial and growing challenges that the teaching and learning of Greek face today. As enrollments and awareness of the tradition of the Greek language shrink continually, the focus of beginning Greek textbooks has paradoxically and unhelpfully remained narrow and unnecessarily siloed. The division of Classical from Koine from Biblical Greek is one such discrimination of almost no practical consequence for beginners, but one they are forced to confront. I have preached that one strategy that teachers of Greek should embrace is a much more expansive perspective on the readings that are open and inviting to beginning and intermediate readers (both chronologically, like medieval readings that build on the text in this book, and topically, to include STEM material and more). The Greek texts of the Christian New Testament rank among the most widely known and impactful readings in human history. For both those who are not adherents of the Christian faith and those who are, to explore these readings in the original is to explore and start understanding world history along a path not available anywhere else. Any teacher of the language with any perspicacious integrity should know that strand of the tradition, and all should evaluate honestly whether their teaching would benefit from an approach and reading like this volume and so enhance the experience of their students.
Bryn Mawr Classical Review
BMCR 2023.06.34
Review by: Jerry Green, University of Central Oklahoma
New Testament Greek: a reading course, level 1
