Introduction to our presentation of New Testament Greek

Please note that until this site is completed (if ever), the amount of information here will continue to increase. Please email me if there are other items concerning Greek that you want to know which are not discussed here. Also, please feel free to join the email list for NTGreek.org so you can be informed when major updates have occurred.

The purpose of the material presented here is to better equip people with the ability to dig out many of the hidden riches in the Word of God. Many words, phrases, and paragraphs in the New Testament cannot adequately be known without some knowledge of Koine (biblical) Greek and the ability to use some of the many study aids available today.

Often students of a Biblical language get bogged down with the memorization of many word forms and long vocabulary lists. This site tries to use Greek grammar and syntax to give insight into New Testament passages without a person having to memorize all the declensions, paradigms, and vocabulary required for learning Greek. However, after a number of years of teaching Greek and, conversely, trying to explain passages of scripture to people who don’t know Greek (but who want a deeper understanding of what the Greek of the New Testament actually says), I am convinced that the best way to understand the New Testament is to actually make the commitment to learn the Greek language. Although I believe the explanations and definitions on this web site will help anyone wanting to understand the Bible (and help a person in the process of learning Greek), in order to obtain the most benefit from this site (and the Greek New Testament) I don’t believe there is a short cut to actually learning Greek.

All too often the beginning student of N.T. Greek gets discouraged and loses interest (or runs out of time) before acquiring any substantial benefit of studying N.T. Greek. (Although a little Greek and some good reference books can go a long way.) This web site is meant to help provide other resources and avenues in your quest for learning Greek (so you can better know God and His living Word). I have heard it said that, "Learning Greek is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration." This is true, but my feeling is closer to, "Learning Greek is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent repetition and reiteration." In other words, the long-term commitment to learn a little bit every day is what is critical. Greek is not that difficult of a language if you are persistent!

 For those of you making the decision to study and master the New Testament in Greek, know for sure that you are a wise person and are spending your life on the highest calling in the universe. Know also that all hell will break out to discourage, distract, and otherwise thwart your knowing of God's word. For it is through the living word of God that people come to know our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and through which the church is built; Satan and all his dark forces know that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the "builded church".

Today there are more study aids available for the Greek N.T. than ever before. We have study aids and helps available to us that were virtually non-existent ten years ago. One kind of tool available is a set of books such as "The Complete Biblical Library" (or others like this) that actually tell you the form of every Greek word. Once a person knows the form of a word, (for example that a particular verb is present tense, active voice, and indicative mood), then they can have a much better understanding of the original meaning and even subtle feeling that the Holy Spirit was conveying through the New Testament writers. Thus with a little knowledge and the right books, one can get at many of the riches only previously available to people that have studied Greek for years. We will focus on learning enough of the basics of Greek grammar and syntax to be able to use some of the Greek study helps available without having to do a lot of memorization. We want to immediately begin applying what we are learning to start enriching our understanding of God's Word. Thus we plan to use many N.T. examples.

We will be discussing many aspects of the Greek language of the N.T. such as:
- how the understanding of Greek verb tenses brings light to every sentence of the N.T.
- how Greek participles enrich our understanding of the actions of the N.T.
- how to find the emphasis of the writer in any particular sentence.
- how many hard-to-understand passages are cleared up by understanding Greek syntax (even if you don't yet know what syntax is).

This Greek Web Site is continually under construction and updating. It can be used in many ways. A couple of ideas are as follows: 1) It can be used as an on-line reference tool. When you have a question about the meaning of any Greek grammatical term, you can look up that term here in the index and get a quick understanding of how that may relate to a passage of scripture which you are studying. 2) You can also print out the pages and use them in a systematic way to better understand the Greek language. There will be different levels of definitions available; some will start out very easy to just give a short and simple explanation. We will go on further to more fully develop the intricacies of each grammatical point so you can come to a more mature understanding of Greek grammar (and thus of the New Testament). In this way we hope to help build a framework, or structure, in your understanding which you can continue to build on and mature your understanding of the Greek New Testament.


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Created by Corey Keating at: http://www.ntgreek.org/