Monday, May 15, 2017

Review: Greek for Everyone

Greek classes are not my best memories. In fact, next to Hebrew, they were the hardest classes I took in seminary. I can honestly say that the 6 semesters I spent learning Greek and Hebrew and the exegesis classes that followed were down right painful. Like many things that are hard and painful however, I became a much better person for them. I found a much deeper appreciation for the work of translators and I came to view scripture in new ways. As such, I am continually looking for good resources to help me engage in the original languages as best I can. "Greek for Everyone" was one of two greek books I got about the same time and I must say I found this one to be of great value.

"Greek for Everyone" was not what I was expecting, as I was expecting something to help me brush up on my greek. I was expecting lots of exercises to help one memorize the various forms and key words but that's not what it was. Instead, I found it to be a great refresher of the key grammatical concepts and the language as a whole. Chapter 2 "The Big Picture of Language" is an excellent summary of how to approach language and difficulties in translating from one to another. The next several chapters deal with the various forms of nouns, verbs, cases, moods and other details of the Greek language. I'm not going to tell you these are easy concepts to wrap one's head around but Thornhill does a great job at presenting them succinctly and clearly. 

After dealing with the various elements of Greek Grammar, the book returns in Chapter 14 to the big picture of language and how the various pieces we've looked at over the preceding chapters fit together. The remaining chapters provide a good discussion on the various English translations, word studies and how to apply what you've learned here to on-going study and discussion.

I think what is most important take away from this book is that you will not be able to pick up a Greek NT and read away after finishing this book, that is not its purpose. What you will walk away with is the ability to engage in a much deeper level of Bible study and be able to understand how to use the tools so widely available now. In an age where, particularly the electronic tools are so readily available, I believe it is so important to know what those tools are doing for you, this book will certainly give you those tools and with less blood, sweat and tears, than most seminary greek classes.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review and was under no obligation to write a favorable review*



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