Keep Your Greek

by Constantine R. Campbell

Publisher:

Zondervan

, 2010

Overview

Seminarians spend countless hours mastering biblical languages and learning how the knowledge of them illuminates the reading, understanding, and application of Scripture. But while excellent language acquisition resources abound, few really teach students how to maintain their use of Greek for the long term. Consequently, pastors and other former Greek students find that under the pressures of work, ministry, preaching, and life, their hard-earned Greek skills begins to disappear.

Constantine Campbell has been counseling one-time Greek students for years, teaching them how to keep their language facility for the benefit of those to whom they minister and teach. He shows how following the right principles makes it possible for many to retain—and in some cases regain—their Greek language skills.

Pastors will find Keep Your Greek an encouraging and practical guide to strengthening their Greek abilities so that they can make linguistic insights a regular part of their study and teaching. Current students will learn how to build skills that will serve them well once they complete their formal language instruction.

Key Features

• Presents the reader with practical tools
• Teaches principles and practices to help the student of Greek retain their language skills
• Provides material well suited for pastors and former Greek students

Contents

• Read Every Day
• Burn Your Interlinear
• Use Software Tools Wisely
• Make Vocabulary Your Friend
• Practice Your Parsing
• Read Fast
• Read Slow
• Use Your Senses
• Get Your Greek Back
• Putting It All Together

Top Highlights

“It’s reading Greek every day that really counts, rather than other (often good) habits. Learning Greek vocabulary, practicing paradigms, and other such things have their place, and I’ll discuss them later in this book. But they are no substitute for reading Greek, and for busy people who can only afford to do one thing related to Greek each day, it must be this.” (Page 15)

“Long ago I learned a trick that can help the pastor—on four or five days a week spend ten to fifteen minutes in the Greek text just reading. Open up your Greek New Testament, have a translation to its side and a lexicon to consult, use a parsing guide for words you can’t parse, and just read the text itself.” (Page 13)

“When you are doing your ten to thirty minutes per day of Greek reading (see chapter 1), do not have an English translation open on the screen.” (Page 29)

“From my background in music, I am convinced that a little time practicing every day is much more beneficial than large chunks of practice interspersed by large chunks of inactivity.” (Page 14)

“The hardest thing to master in Greek (apart from, perhaps, the rules of accentuation) is the vocabulary. Learn the vocab, and you’ll be able to read Greek. It’s that simple.” (Page 37)

Praise for the Print Edition

Why hasn’t anybody ever written a book like this before? First-year Greek students should read it. Exegesis students should read it. Preachers who have had a year or two of Greek should read it. And it’s so short and straightforward, the same person should read it in all three capacities. Do what Con Campbell says and you will keep your Greek.

—Craig L. Blomberg, Denver Seminary

Rightly does Campbell insist that Christian teachers and preachers need to keep their Greek going, and shrewdly does he spell out the ways and means of doing that.

—J.I. Packer, Regent College

Keep Your Greek is a godsend. It’s chock-full of wit, humor, and good advice. Campbell’s approach is practical—and achievable. With all the tools available to us today, it only takes a little discipline to get your Greek back... Campbell ties together the reasons and the approach, the motivation and the principles, to keep your Greek. He drives home his message with a velvet-wrapped sledge hammer. You will feel convicted, challenged, and most of all encouraged to get back into the game.

—Daniel B. Wallace, Dallas Theological Seminary

Product Details

• Title: Keep Your Greek: Strategies for Busy People
• Author: Constantine R. Campbell
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Print Publication Date: 2010
• Logos Release Date: 2013
• Pages: 96
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Greek language, Biblical
• ISBNs: 9780310516293, 0310516293
• Resource ID: LLS:KEEPGRKCAMPBELL
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:00:28Z

About Constantine R. Campbell

Constantine R. Campbell (PhD, Macquarie University) is the author of several books on the New Testament and Ancient Greek, including Paul and Union with Christ—the 2014 Christianity Today Book of the Year in Biblical Studies. He is Professor and Associate Research Director at the Sydney College of Divinity, and was previously Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Illinois) and senior lecturer in New Testament at Moore Theological College (Sydney). Dr Campbell lives in Canberra, Australia. His website is found here.