What's beautiful about Koine Greek is that not only is it mutually intelligible to modern Greeks....but the dialect used in The Gospels reflects the common speech of Greek speakers all over the Mediterranean, especially Judeans and such. So it's not so much a literary language, like The Attic authors or Homer, as it is an actual spoken language, with some formality, put to paper. The Apostles wrote The Gospels in a language that their dispersed Israelite audience could comprehend.

A point worth making; the Greek Orthodox Church who read the New Testament in the Koine version, use the modern Greek pronunciation. As long ago as 1852, Prof J S Blackie of Edinburgh University's New College argued in his lecture, 'The Living Language of the Greeks And its Utility To The Classical Scholar' that we should be using Greek, not Erasmian pronunciation of Koine. I have found this makes the text flow - and note, the accent marks are there to show where to stress the words! (As opposed to what I was taught, to ignore the accents marks!)

My Koine Greek professor (at Alaska Bible College, Palmer, AK) grew up in a Greek-American home, spent 8 years in ministry in Greece, then came to Alaska and began teaching Koine at ABC. Recently he went back to Greece and his friends there told him he spoke better Greek now than the eight years he spent there as a missionary. He always stresses speaking the language aloud, and familiarizing oneself with common phrases and chunks. I've been learning that that isn't what most professors stress and I count myself very lucky.

Please do not say, It's a dead language. It isn't. Greek has been spoken non stop for at least 40 centuries, and ancient Greek is very much alive within modern Greek. We may not speak it exactly as our ancestors did back then, but its largely the same vocabulary and the grammar has the same logic and reasoning behind it. Koine is easy to read and understand by any modern Greek who s been to school. Koine words and phrases exist and are used by Greeks today all the time. It's one and the same language in different stages of development. And yes, I hope they drop this unacceptable Erasmian pronunciation, which only distorts the language. I am Greek and I teach Koine and it's my greatest joy and pleasure.

I'm an American that attends a Greek Orthodox Church that does all the services in Greek and singing some of the chants has really embedded the structuring of phrases and made them more familiar to me.

thankyou so so much, incredibly helpful. Although I feel much more natural saying forks and knives and not knives and forks as you suggest. Thelogy students always have to find an issue with something !

I love everything you say in this video (except regarding pronunciation; modern pronunciation is preferable). I'm learning the language in this way myself - at a glacial pace - by worshiping at a Greek Orthodox parish and incorporating the language into my prayers. For those interested, you might like _The Synekdemos (English and Greek Edition), N. Michael Vaporis._ It's a small Orthodox prayer book with Greek and English text on facing pages 🤓

FYI, Randall Buth (Biblical Language Center), Christophe Rico (Polis Institute), Paul Nitz, Ben Kantor (koinegreek.com), Seamus Macdonald (thepatrologist.com), and others are using communicative approaches to teach Koine Greek.

You learn grammar as you learn to speak, just like a child learn any language.

Forgive me, but terms like 'optative mood' aren't the reason people are failing Greek. The thing is, Koine is taught by Western professors with thick American/English accents, plus the bizarre 'academic' pronunciation. We've tried the weird way for decades, and it hasn't worked, so why not try the simple way: hire native speakers of Modern Greek to teach the students, drop the Erasmus nonsense, and watch people's capabilities in Greek magically skyrocket. The recording you've played in the video has been done by a native Greek speaker - no wonder the language springs to life within seconds.

Read up on Dr. Stephen Krashen's techniques for ESL/EFL (English as a Second Language/English as a Foreign Language). They can be applied to learning any language. I picked up my minimal-yet-growing Koine without those turn-off grammar rules.

There is a Latin series called Latin by the Natural method (Fr William G Most), this sounds like that but in Koine.

Excellent introduction to learning Greek

Chunking. Interesting idea. It's like learning music. Learn the common chords in a key and repeat then incessantly. After the student gets to the point where they're no longer dealing with the common, then theory is introduced. Rather than becoming a burden and a chore, if taught properly, theory becomes a framework that you can use to logically dissect a piece, or, after writing a piece intuitively, be able to dissect and explain why the tones fit, are dissonant, or are a catastrophe, which can be a matter of opinion in the case of music.

I agree about code breaking. Ive said for years that learning Koine in Bible college was set up completely wrong. It was never about learning the language, it was about breaking the grammatical code. Thats a terrible way to learn a language. and it explains why no one in class had a clue how to actually THINK in Greek. Good video.

I don't know if it's where I'm from, but knives and forks sounds backward to me

kosys/neoos is something used for repetitious hearing by native speakers without loud sound. it's hearing via frequency via the skin and then the way you are hearing your own voice, so bones and that aspect of the ear. so it's not bothering anyone. it's maybe a bit expensive to get the device but for some it is worth it.

I get your point; however, I don't understand how you can claim that one can learn a new language without learning some amount of the language's grammar rules- formally or informally. I'm not suggesting that you have to break out a grammar book; but you will learn some grammar by careful observation (i.e., seeing the patterns) and/or trial and error.

Don't most people say forks and knives?

Do you have any tips on how to find out which verbs have which stems? Also, how do you remember which words have which accent marks?

Agreed. In my first years of studying Koine Greek and I have the same problems you do although I seem to be do much better than most of my classmates. We are using Bill Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek. What I think has spared somewhat is I have a decent knowledge of German, played around with translation in the past (1 Corinthians 13 is my go to), and also I found a copy of Bruce Metzger's Lexical Aids. Here are my complaints: 1) More emphasis on pronunciation especially since the last ten years there has been a better understanding of how Koine was spoken. It is greatly discouraging when people speak with a flat North American Accent and even hear a Southern US accents come through in how some people speak it, 2) More vocabulary please. This would be encouraging to students especially considering how many roots and affixes there are in English. That said nouns and verbs are easy to learn and can easily be looked up when having difficulty.. But smaller words like conjunctions are ignored. I was hoping to learn these words to avoid having to look them up and was expecting them to be a greater part of the course. Also Mounce's vocabulary at the end of the chapters seem to me to be haphazardly distributed. Metzger has context without having to dissect an entire passage. 3) You don't have to be a mechanic to drive a car. This wpuld be a reiteration of your videos More specifically with respect to Mounce I feel since he has struggle with Greek himself why not at least partner with others who get languages. I find BBG somewhat like greek for dummies and Mounces ideas are sort of one dimensional. If he could expleain things a couple of different ways that would be better.

How about reading a foreign language. I am starting to learn Koine, and most of it is reading comprehension, grammatical rules count, as it puts the word in the context, it was meant to be understood. I agree with the native speakers, which helps me tremendously.

Excellent excellent advice.

I needed this ...τέλια

What online class/ course would you recommend for Koine Greek? I want to get into deeper study in the Bible. I've looked at BibleMesh but am unsure of what is best.

great commentary, I was thinking the same thing for some time have you had the chance to look athe the greek course from The Teching Company? Any thoughts on that?

I also say "forks and knives" Never heard "knives and forks" until I watched this video.

High thoughts demand high language. By learning Greek, the brain creates synapses that will allow a more complete and genuine understanding of allmost all science, art and philosophy, including theology which is the subject here.

You out to try that ancient language called Lithuanian.

Can you answer the questions of Predestination in Romans 8 and revelations 13:8? I have a feeling that we poorly translated the text into seeming like we were predestined because our lack of understanding verbs in Koine Greek. I just started learning to read Greek today(because it’s familiar to the Russian/Ukrainian alphabet) I realize there’s some things I don’t understand, and probably won’t understand. But I want your take on it.

With respect, sir: I recommend perfecting your pronunciation and accent in Greek. You can use one of two pronunciations: A modern pronunciation, like the gentleman in that recording, or a reconstructed Roman Era 1st-2nd century A.D. pronunciation. I understand you made this video the years ago and your pronunciation and accent have probably improved since then.

Italki doesn't have "koine" but it does have "Ancient Greek" does anyone know if they are referring to the exact same thing? aka Biblical Greek?

Great tips for those into languages and drop out easily. I´m learning ancient greek or attic. The recording you shared was read by whom, i mean what nationality, sounded like a spanish speaker.

Check out the documentary on youtube: Going back to the greek steven anderson

I would say "forks and knives" that might be just an Americanism

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If learning the grammar is major for the theological principles, unavoidable and necessary, then why not learn the grammar first, get it out the way then when you read, you can pick up on the grammar and apply it as you read fluently?

Just modern pronunciation, please! We don't want the so called Koine pronunciation

Listening to your first 3 minutes of bla bla bla are enough to make people go to another video.

I listen to the greek audio new testament and I use an interlinear bible. Repeat repeat repeat.