Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar
by William D. Mounce
Reviewed by Anna1111
Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar by William D. Mounce. Hardcover, 496 pages. Please purchase from HomeschoolChristian.com's Amazon link or Christian Book Distributors link.
This is the most popular introduction in its field, according to the publisher. It has many great qualities, and would be a great addition to the library of any serious scholar of Biblical Greek.
William D. Mounce, Ph.D., the author, is also the highly respected compiler of The Analytical Lexicon (a reference which allows the user to look up a Biblical Greek word in the exact form it is found in the Bible, rather than having to know and use the root of the word), and the son of a well-known Greek scholar.
Because of his great knowledge of Biblical Greek in all its complexity, Dr. Mounce is able to simplify rules and reduce memorization of charts to an absolute minimum. He also has a great gift for explaining the grammatical rules in an understandable way. For each new grammar concept, he first explains the English grammar and how it works, and then compares it with and uses it to explain the Greek grammar.
Dr. Mounce is a devout Christian, and never loses sight of the purpose of Biblical Greek study – an understanding of the Scriptures, and a closer walk with God. He uses the Biblical text to teach the material, and has frequent excerpts from other scholars which clarify how each grammatical principal can enhance our understanding of the Scriptural text. He strikes a denominational-neutral tone, and presents the grammatical material in a way that generally doesn't take sides on doctrinal issues. As with any college-level text that discusses Theology, the reader might have minor disagreements, but overall, this text is as objective as such a text can be. I appreciate that the author's emphasis is on a better understanding of Scriptures, rather than just on knowledge for knowledge's sake.
Throughout the text, Dr. Mounce offers overviews, summaries, charts, and special notes which enhance and clarify the subject matter. At the end of each unit, he offers advanced material which the student may either study or skip, according to need. He also has footnotes in the vocabulary sections which offer mnemonics using English words with roots in the Greek words being studied (for instance, drawing a connection between the English word Math and the Greek word Mathitis [disciple/student].)
Dr. Mounce has carefully selected the vocabulary to memorize according to the frequency of word occurrences. This means that after mastering the text, the student will have memorized 355 words – but will be able to understand 80% of the word occurrences in Scripture! A dictionary will still be needed for reading the New Testament text in its entirety, but the student will be a good part of the way there.
Dr. Mounce prefers teaching all of the noun concepts in Greek before moving to verbs, but gives the student or teacher the choice of studying in either order by providing a cleverly designed two-path text.
There are two common methods of studying Greek (or any language, for that matter): deductive and inductive. Deductive language study is what you might imagine as a classical style – learning all the analysis of a language, the rules, charts, declensions, and conjugation. Inductive is a more natural language learning style, learning how to read or say a sentence, even if you don't understand all of the reasons behind the structure. Both styles have their advantages, and Dr. Mounce's text attempts to combine the two methods to the student's benefit. But, Dr. Mounce's analytical abilities are very strong, and probably because of that, the text is much more heavily deductive (analytical and rule based) than inductive (getting the hang of the language in a more natural style).
The text has no exercises, and little to no practice in applying the rules, or testing your mastery of the memorization work. (There is a workbook which may be purchased separately, but I have not perused it, and cannot speak to its helpfulness.)
For learning to read Greek Phonics, the text teaches the Erasmian method of pronunciation. (See separate article on this site which discusses the pronunciation methods of Biblical Greek.) This text simply provides a few charts with what sound each letter or combination of letters makes, and expects the student to know how to read Greek. This is a very common method in college-level texts addressing languages that are not currently spoken ("Dead" or Classical languages.) After the introductory material on pronunciation, the text does not discuss pronunciation, so that someone who uses modern pronunciation would still be able to benefit from this text.
This text has a few confusing points in pronunciation, like saying the letter eta is pronounced like the long /e/ in obey. My dictionary says that obey has a long /a/ sound at the end, which leaves me confused as to how exactly the author wants me to pronounce the letter eta.
Many of the examples have a sentence in Greek with a few words underlined, and only the underlined words are explained. These examples are generally Bible verses that the student will probably need to look up on an Interlinear Bible for a complete understanding of the point being made. When dealing with these examples, I found myself turning to my Greek-speaking husband to ask for an explanation of some term or concept that I didn't understand from the text alone. I think I could have turned to a reference such as an Interlinear or Analytical Lexicon instead, but I was aware of having to occasionally look for more information than the text provided.
Recommendation: This text would be most beneficial as a primary text for the adult learner, college student or the very gifted late high school student who is a self-starter, ambitious learner, very analytically-minded, and does well with memorization, rules, and charts. If the student does not fit that description, this text would be an outstanding component of a larger library of Biblical Greek resources. Due to the difficulty of the material and the style of presentation, I would not recommend it as a text for students in 10th grade or below, although advanced younger students might still benefit from it as a reference.
As a grammar, it is a huge help, and I would highly recommend it as the grammar component of a program of Biblical Greek Studies, but for most students it will not be a course in itself.
Because of the lack of exercises and tests, the student using this text must be the kind of self-starter who actually memorizes things when told to by the text. All but the most exceptional student will also need to find an additional resource of some kind to practice and test his mastery of the material.
Whether you choose to use Erasmian pronunciation, or Modern Greek pronunciation, you will probably want to find a supplemental text or website to help with learning to read Greek (Greek phonics.) See this list of resources. Once you are past the section on learning to read – which is only a few pages – either pronunciation style will work fine with this text.
Since this is a college-style textbook, it will be most appreciated by families that use a textbook-based method of instruction.
HomeschoolChristian.com resources related to this review:
HomeschoolChristian.com's Classical Languages Resource Section
Review of Biblical Greek Survival Kit
Review of A Greek Alphabetarion
Review of Basic Greek in 30 Minutes a Day
Review of Greek Hupogrammon
Review of Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek!
Review of Learn New Testament Greek
Review of Mastering New Testament Greek
Review of At Home with Hebrew
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