Greek Vocabulary) and learn the words in the gap. The second option is to use the appendix at the end of the Reader’s Edition, which consists of a simple lexicon of the words that occur thirty times and more in the NT. Whenever you encounter a word that you don’t know while reading, simply flip to the back of the text and look it up. The advantage of this method is that you don’t have to memorize words. Instead, you will eventually learn the words through use. The third option is a variant of the second one. For this approach, rather than looking up unknown words, use the context of the word to help you learn the meaning by observation. Probably a combination of option 2 and option 3 will yield the best long-term results.
As with any book, the Reader’s Edition GNT has some typographical errors, omissions, and other imperfections. Happily, there are very few of these kinds of problems in this edition. But when you encounter one, it can be frustrating. Most of the time when a footnote appears to be missing, the word was footnoted in a preceding verse on the same page. So when you think a word should be footnoted but isn’t, before attempting one of the options mentioned above, try looking for the word in the previous verse or two. If you can’t find it, then move on to option 2 or 3. If you try looking it up in the lexicon in the back and it’s not there, that probably means it is an omission. In that case, you can either stick with option 3, look up the word in a full-sized lexicon, or look up your verse in a modern translation and try to figure out the meaning of your word by the process of elimination.
Exercise 2
Directions: Look up the following verses in the UBS Greek New Testament Reader’s Edition.4 Skim as many of the verses as possible in the allotted thirty minutes (see the preface). As you look at each verse, see if there are any words you recognize. Also, pay attention to the footnotes. See how helpful they can be! Don’t worry too much about comprehension at this point. Celebrate those words you recognize (if any), but don’t feel bad about the ones you can’t figure out. We’ll build comprehension throughout the coming forty days. (If you are able to read all the verses within thirty minutes, you may either read them again or read another passage of your choice.)
| 1. Luke 2:522. Mark 10:143. John 3:164. Rom 3:235. Rom 6:236. Eph 2:8–97. 1 John 4:7–88. John 11:35 | 9. John 8:1210. Rom 1:1611. 2 Cor 12:912. Eph 3:20–2113. Rev 1:814. Rom 10:1315. Gal 1:10 |
Reminder: If you committed to spending an extra fifteen minutes per day, be sure to set aside time to do that today, too.
4. If you have chosen to use an electronic text rather than the Reader’s Edition, feel free to look up the same verses listed here. Practice looking up the meaning and parsing of words using the built-in tools.
Day 3: Alphabet and Pronunciation
Without looking, recite the letters of the Greek alphabet in order. How did you do? Were you surprised by how much you remembered, or by how much you forgot? No matter, it’s good to review the alphabet as a way of getting back into Greek. Don’t feel that you have to memorize the alphabet again. The main thing at this point is that you can read every letter and make the correct sounds associated with each one.5
Many of the letters look a lot like their English counterparts that are pronounced the same way, so we won’t spend time on those.6 Here are the ones you may have forgotten:
| γ | gamma | makes the hard “g” sound (like gate) |
| makes a “ng” sound when there are two gammas together (like singing) | ||
| ζ | zeta | makes a “z” or “dz” sound (like zoo or ads) |
| η | eta | makes a long “a” sound (like eight) |
| θ | theta | makes a soft “th” sound (like theater) |
| μ | mu | just like “m” in English |
| ν | nu | looks like English “v” but sounds like English “n” |
| ξ | xi | makes the “ks” sound (like the x in taxi) |
| π | pi | just like “p” in English |
| ρ | rho | looks like English “p” but sounds like English “r” |
| σ | sigma | just like “s” in English (the sigma looks a lot like “s” when it comes at the end of a word) |
| φ | phi | just like English “f” |
| χ | chi | like the German “ch” (as in Loch Ness monster) or like English k |
| ψ | psi | makes “ps” sound (like oops) |
| ω | omega | makes long “o” sound (like no) |
Hopefully the letters are coming back to you pretty well now. Let’s move on to something just a little bit harder: doubled vowel sounds, aka diphthongs. When two vowels come together in Greek, they usually make a single sound—but not always. The trick is remembering what that single sound is and when they make two sounds. The rule is: If the two vowels make a diphthong, they make one sound; if they do not make a diphthong, they make two sounds. Here are the diphthongs you need to know:
| αι | makes English “ai” sound (like the ai in aisle) |
| ει | like the Greek η and the long English “a” (like the ei in eight) |
| ευ | like “eu” in the word feud |
| οι | like the “oi” in oil |
| ου | like the Greek υ and the English “ou” (like through) |
| ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ | some people consider the iota subscript to be a diphthong; pronounce as if the iota isn’t there—but pay attention to this letter later, as it makes a difference for translation |
There’s also the diaeresis, which is two dots over the second letter of what is normally a diphthong (¨), indicating that you should pronounce both letters separately, like the “ai” in the English word naïve.
So, there you have it, a quick review of the things you need to know in order to read the Greek words out loud. We’re not yet worried about knowing what all the words mean, just being able to sound them out. Understanding the words will follow along directly!
Exercise 3
Reread the verses from day 2’s exercise. This time, read each verse out loud. Spend thirty minutes reading aloud. Again, if you are able to read all the verses within thirty minutes, you may either read them again or read another passage of your choice.
| 1. Luke 2:522. Mark 10:143. John 3:164. Rom 3:235. Rom 6:236. Eph 2:8–97. 1 John 4:7–88. John 11:35 | 9. John 8:1210. Rom 1:1611. 2 Cor 12:912. Eph 3:20–2113. Rev 1:814. Rom 10:1315. Gal 1:10 |
Bonus: Pick one or two of these verses and memorize them in Greek!
Reminder: Are you doing the fifteen extra minutes each day? If you didn’t commit to that already, it’s not too late. Start today!
5. Recent research supports the claim that Koine Greek was pronounced more like modern Greek than like the “Seminary Greek” that you probably learned. Nevertheless, since this book aims to be a refresher for what you already learned—and since you probably already learned the “Seminary Greek” pronunciations—I will continue to use those here. If this topic interests you, you can learn more in Constantine R. Campbell, “Pronunciation,” in Advances in the Study of Greek: New Insights for Reading the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015), 192–99.
6. Here is the complete alphabet: α, β, γ, δ, ε, ζ, η, θ, ι, κ, λ, μ, ν, ξ, ο, π, ρ, σ/ς, τ, υ φ, χ, ψ, ω.
