Learning Hebrew & Greek

[Zecryphon]

Let's say I wanted to learn Hebrew and Greek so I can better understand the Bible. What would be the best way to go about doing this? Should I take an online course? Should I buy a book/workbook type of course? Should I go to seminary? If I have to go to seminary to learn this, does it have to be a Lutheran seminary, because I don't have any of those near me, but I do have this:

Phoenix Seminary - Scholarship with a Shepherd's Heart

What are your thoughts and/or suggestions?

 

[filosofer]

Howdy. I taught myself Greek before going to seminary using Machen’s book (this was 30+ years ago). I also then took Greek in seminary just to master it (best thing I ever did).

But keep in mind that prior to teaching myself, I had already studied Latin and German in the early 1960’s, and had taken a year of Russian while in the Navy. So I had a sense of language and structures, etc.

Best advice, buy James Voelz’s book on Greek (from CPH), and then download his entire class (audio and video) free. He is Professor at Concordia, St. Louis. Superb teacher, brilliant scholar.

Go to itunes.csl.edu or in iTunes itself search for the Concordia-seminaryElementary Greek Grammar class.

 

[Zecryphon]

Howdy. I taught myself Greek before going to seminary using Machen’s book (this was 30+ years ago). I also then took Greek in seminary just to master it (best thing I ever did).

But keep in mind that prior to teaching myself, I had already studied Latin and German in the early 1960’s, and had taken a year of Russian while in the Navy. So I had a sense of language and structures, etc.

Best advice, buy James Voelz’s book on Greek (from CPH), and then download his entire class (audio and video) free. He is Professor at Concordia, St. Louis. Superb teacher, brilliant scholar.

Go to itunes.csl.edu or in iTunes itself search for the Concordia-seminaryElementary Greek Grammar class.

Thank you, Filo. I thought I was never going to get a response to this thread.

 

[EzioAuditore]

Zecryphon! Just noticed you were in Phoenix. Me too! Hope the heat is treating you well.

 

[Zecryphon]

Zecryphon! Just noticed you were in Phoenix. Me too! Hope the heat is treating you well.

Yes it is. How about you? This is the first year I haven't gotten heat sickness during the summer months.

 

[GreekOrthodox]

I would suggest Mounce Biblical Greek to study on your own. I had both Voelz and Machen and neither is set up as a good self-study text book. I had a great deal of trouble of getting my mind around that Greek is an inflected language vs. English which doesnt have the variety. Instead we tend to use additional words to represent time or tense.

So for example,
Present λύνω I loosen / am loosening
Imperfect έλυνα I was loosening / used to loosen
Past έλυσα I loosened
Future θα λύσω I will loosen
etc.

Mounce covers this concept in a far friendlier way than the standard textbooks.

 

[DaRev]

I would suggest Mounce Biblical Greek to study on your own. I had both Voelz and Machen and neither is set up as a good self-study text book. I had a great deal of trouble of getting my mind around that Greek is an inflected language vs. English which doesnt have the variety. Instead we tend to use additional words to represent time or tense.

So for example,
Present λύνω I loosen / am loosening
Imperfect έλυνα I was loosening / used to loosen
Past έλυσα I loosened
Future θα λύσω I will loosen
etc.

Mounce covers this concept in a far friendlier way than the standard textbooks.

You made a boo-boo...

Present λύω I loose
Imperfect έλυov I was looseing
Future λύσω I will loose

 

[GreekOrthodox]

Yeah I realized that after you noted it... that will teach me to plagiarize from some unknown website