So You Want to Learn Greek? 7 Questions to Consider

Maybe you’ve always wanted to learn biblical Greek, and you’ve decided that this is the year to make that happen. Good for you! Knowing Greek can be a great tool for teaching and preaching, or even personal Bible study.

Just be prepared: Learning any language takes time and intentionality.

I’ve been teaching Greek for many years. Here are the top seven (a biblical number!) questions I get asked about learning Greek.

1. Do I really even need to know Greek?

The answer depends on your gifts and calling. If you are called to a ministry of the Word, including teaching and preaching, then knowing Greek is important. You don’t need to be fluent, but you do need to be able to track discussions in commentaries that interact with Greek. Knowing Greek also helps you use tools such as Logos more efficiently and responsibly. These tools are great, but knowing Greek will help you to understand the information and larger context that the tools provide.

You may also want to learn Greek for your own personal enrichment, which is a great goal! For example, I have many returning students who have always wanted to learn Greek and are finally able to do so now that they are no longer working full time. These are some of my most motivated students!

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2. How long does it take to learn Greek?

You can get a basic grasp of key elements of Greek in a matter of months, but expert proficiency can take years! So it’s best to approach learning Greek in two phases:

1. Focus on mastering the basics.
2. Expect to continue developing your expertise over a much longer period—the rest of your life!

Some seminaries offer intensive courses that cover first-year Greek in as few as six weeks. In-person intensive courses typically combine several hours of daily classroom instruction with several hours of independent study. Online intensive options are also available.

Be warned: Compressing an entire year of Greek into just a few weeks requires total immersion—you’ll be studying, eating, and sleeping Greek! It won’t be possible to maintain full-time work or ministry obligations while working through an accelerated intensive course.

3. How much Greek is “enough”?

This is a tricky question! If you’re trying to get into a Greek exegesis class, “enough” will mean mastering the forms, concepts, and vocabulary covered in a first-year Greek textbook. Most exegesis courses review and build on these basic concepts, reinforcing your Greek foundation and deepening it at the same time.

A solid first-year foundation also enhances your sermon preparation, if only because you will be able to interact with good exegetical commentaries more effectively. The same is true for understanding some theologically rich Greek words, such as “mercy seat” (ἱλαστήριον) and “redemption” (ἀπολύτρωσις). However, remember that words have meaning in context, so knowing a Greek word is only a starting point for understanding theological concepts associated with that word.

4. Can I learn Greek on my own?

It’s certainly possible to learn Greek on your own, but it can be very challenging.

The most important thing for successful self-study is to break the process into manageable units and to spend time interacting with Greek every day. This holds true whether you have a few months or an entire year to complete your study.

Think of this as a major project that needs a good project manager. Assess all the material you need to cover, review your current schedule, then determine a realistic amount of time that you can commit to study each week. Identify weekly goals and then break down those weekly goals into daily goals. The key is to be very realistic. Be honest with yourself: Are there days that will make studying nearly impossible? You probably also need one day to give your mind a break. But consistency is key, so try to come up with a steady study schedule.

You’ll need a quality textbook to study on your own. Having taught Greek for many years, I eventually wrote my own—so that is the one that I would recommend! If you focus on just one chapter a week, you could complete my textbook in about five months. I recommend the following schedule:

• Monday: Read the chapter and begin memorizing new vocabulary.
• Tuesday: Review the chapter and focus on new forms that you need to learn while continuing to review vocabulary.
• Wednesday: Begin working through the assigned exercises (the accompanying workbook includes a detailed answer key) while reviewing vocabulary and forms.
• Thursday–Friday: Repeat Wednesday’s schedule.

There’s no magic formula. Consistency is essential. Thirty minutes every day beats a six-hour session on just one day. That’s how we best learn!

It also really helps to learn alongside other people. Maybe there are others in your church who would like to join you on this adventure. You can also form an online community of Greek beginners. Ideally, find someone who already knows Greek who might be available to answer questions that might come up. Studying with others will help you to stay motivated, especially when it gets hard and you want to give up.

5. Is it better to take Greek from a seminary?

Although it’s possible to learn Greek on your own, I encourage you to consider taking a class from a seminary.

You’ll be helped by having an instructor who can answer your questions and provide detailed explanation of concepts and forms. Many instructors will draw upon additional examples from the Greek New Testament, beyond what a textbook can provide. Good instructors also ask probing questions that will encourage students to deepen their understanding.

In addition to a good instructor, the learning community itself can be a major part of successfully learning Greek. In-person classes offer social encouragement and motivation. When Greek feels overwhelming—and it will—having classmates who understand the struggle provides camaraderie. Think of it like having a workout buddy: Going to the gym with a friend is far more enjoyable than going by yourself!

You can also benefit from a learning community if attending online classes. In my online courses, we hold weekly virtual workshops in Zoom where we work through Greek sentences together on a shared Google doc. These groups often become very close-knit, despite often spanning multiple time zones!

6. What approach should I take to learning Greek?

It’s best to start with learning verbs since verbs are the anchor for Greek (and most languages). This is true for Greek beginners and for those teaching Greek.

Some approaches to learning Greek try to replicate how children learn language, so they focus first on nouns. But learning a second language is not the same as learning a first language. Since you already know at least one language (you’re reading this, after all!), you already have some basic understanding of how a language works. You already understand basic grammatical categories like verbs and nouns. Further, starting with verbs means you can get into actual verses from the Greek New Testament more quickly, which is really encouraging!

Another approach to learning Greek is to jump straight into reading the Greek New Testament, usually while reading the same text in English. This can be fun at times, but it’s difficult to understand how the Greek functions just by reading. A better approach is to start by working through a textbook and then, after getting some basics in place, start reading some familiar New Testament passages in the Greek. For instance, some people like to follow along with the Greek text in church while passages are read in English. It’s also a good idea to start reading the text out loud as soon as you can. You can find YouTube videos of people reading various New Testament passages.

This raises the question of which pronunciation to use. The pronunciation often taught in seminaries probably doesn’t sound very similar to what Greek would have sounded like in the first century. For this reason, some people prefer to use a modern Greek pronunciation. The advantage of the seminary (or Erasmian) pronunciation is that it includes distinct vowel sounds that help beginners hear different vowels more clearly. The advantage of modern Greek pronunciation is that it sounds much more fluid. (Besides, it might help you order something to eat if you visit Greece!)

7. How can I keep momentum and retain what I’ve learned?

Many students start out strong but lose momentum along the way. Sometimes they underestimate how demanding learning a new language truly is. Maybe they didn’t allocate enough time, or they had unrealistic expectations about how much time they could devote. There’s no way around it: Learning Greek takes a lot of time! If you’re working full-time, juggling ministry obligations, married, and raising small children, this may not be the best time to learn Greek. Or you may need to accept that it will take you longer to learn Greek, given how little time you can dedicate to study each day.

Another reason students lose momentum is that they lack a good support system. A learning community is incredibly helpful for making it to the end. As we’ve seen, this could be an in-person group or a virtual one, but learning in community is always better than learning alone.

Another challenge is retention. How can you keep your Greek over the years? The simple answer: Use it! Nothing replaces reading the Greek New Testament as often as you can. Consider getting a good reader edition, which contains the text of the Greek New Testament and lists vocabulary words that occur less than ten times. Once you’ve learned verb and noun forms, a reader edition allows you to focus on reading through the Greek New Testament without having to constantly stop and look up new words. Since many words appear fewer than ten times, you’ll always encounter unfamiliar vocabulary. But if you can recognize the forms—a skill you can gain from completing an introductory textbook—you can look at the new vocabulary and understand how the form is functioning.

You will retain your Greek if you enjoy interacting with the Greek New Testament. Start with a New Testament book you know well, or choose something more accessible, such as Mark or John. Avoid the trap of thinking you must “master” every word. Focus instead on enjoying the process of reading.

Also try to read aloud as often as you can. You won’t recognize every word, but you can begin to hear what an epistle might have sounded like when first read in a local house church.

Conclusion

If this is your year to learn Greek, congratulations! With good planning and realistic expectations, you can do it! And it could even end up being really fun and rewarding.

Resources for learning Greek

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