Syllabus: New Testament Greek (Trobisch)

NT manuscript New Testament Greek
NT/BL1511 Bangor Theological Seminary
Bangor: Thursday 1-4 // [Portland: a video link will be active during that time.]
[David Trobisch] e-mail: DTrobisch@bts.edu

(preliminary)

Short description

This one semester study of New Testament Greek is intended to furnish the rudiments of New Testament vocabulary and grammar for the lexical and exegetical purposes of the pastor and theologian. It may be taken as a stand-alone elective. The language requirement will only be satisfied by the completion of a second semester of reading New Testament texts.

3 elective credits. Cross listed as BL 1511 which will fulfill the language requirement only when BL1512 has been completed

Introduction

Many seminary students admit that learning the Biblical languages was the biggest challenge they had to face during graduate studies. However, the same seminary students will often insist that learning the languages was the single most important tool to help them gain confidence in interpreting the Christian Bible. Many doctoral programs will require Biblical languages as a prerequisite. Language studies are very time consuming and there are no short cuts. Adult learners will have to be especially patient with themselves. In addition, it is a good cross cultural exercise – especially if you are taught by a native German (Greek was the fifth language I had to learn.)

Objectives

At the end of the semester the student will

	be able to read aloud any passage of the Greek New Testament
	possess a working Greek vocabulary
	be able to use state of the art scholarly tools such as dictionaries, concordances and grammars
	be able to analyze the structure of Greek sentences
	be able to parse nouns, adjectives and most verbs
	be able to critique English translations of New Testament passages
	be able to translate any passage of the Greek New Testament into English with the help of scholarly tools.

Method

Class instruction will consist of brief explanations and group exercises (speaking and listening). Most work will be done in small groups.

Students should commit to six to nine hours, in addition to class time, for individual learning each week. Study groups are strongly encouraged.

The progress of each student will be monitored by the students themselves. Every effort will be made to allow participants to learn at their own pace.

Grading

To avoid anxiety the first semester will be taught on a pass / fail basis.

Textbooks

Required textbooks (contact bookstore@bts.edu)

	Barbara Aland, Kurt Aland: Greek-English New Testament (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994).
	Ray Summers (revised by Thomas Sawyer): Essentials of New Testament Greek (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1995). [There is a second volume, a workbook with exercises etc., not required but some students have found it very helpful).

End of September (on order in the bookstore):

	Barclay M. Newman, Jr. (ed.): A Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament (United Bible Societies, 1993).
	Robert E. Van Voorst: Building Your New Testament Greek Vocabulary. Second Edition (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1999).

Not required for the course but recommended (contact bookstore@bts.edu)

William D. Mounce: The Analytical Lexicon to the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing, 1993)
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott (Editors): Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon 7th edition (Oxford Univ. Press, 1959)
Walter Bauer, Frederick Danker: A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd edition (University of Chicago Press, 2000)
Alfred Schmoller: Pocket Concordance to the Greek New Testament (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994)
Greek Tutor (interactive CD-ROM), Parsons Technology.

Dates

Bangor Campus
(Thursday 1-4)

Portland Campus

	9/8
	9/15
	9/22 (Portland)
	9/29
	10/6
	[10/13 Reading Week]
	10/20 (Portland)
	10/27
	11/3
	11/10
	11/17 (Portland)
	[11/24 Reading Week]
	12/1
	12/8 (Portland ?)
	12/15

Because Greek was offered in Portland last year, it is now offered on the Bangor campus. However, Portland students who want to participate can participate via our video-link.

About once per month I may teach the course from the Portland campus and will stay after class to give Portland based students a chance to interact with me.

Second Semester

The second semester class will use passages from the Septuagint, Apostolic Fathers, ancient Christian and non-Christian literature, and papyri as the basic texts. Special attention will be given to the analysis of verbs and to developing reading skills that enable the student to cover larger amounts of text. Students will receive a letter grade.

BTS Home