I plan to post an extended bibliography on Greek linguistics. But I know some of you will want to get up and running right now. Here is my opinion.
For beginning Greek grammars I recommend Rodney Decker’s first year Greek grammar coming out November 18 (soon), Reading Koine Greek: An Introduction and Integrated Workbook; and I recommend Stanley Porter’s excellent thorough first year grammar. I do not recommend William Mounce’s first year grammar, The Basics of Biblical Greek, because his understanding of the verb system is flawed in my opinion, among other issues I have with his grammar. I realize it is the most popular first year grammar out there. But don’t commit the fallacy of confusing popularity with what is the best.
As far as an intermediate Greek grammar I highly recommend Stanley Porter’s Idioms of the Greek New Testament. I realize Dan Wallace’s intermediate grammar is the most popular, but, again, don’t confuse popularity with what is the best. There are parts that are helpful, and parts that are not as helpful. Porter should be the first intermediate grammar you go to.
To avoid very common lexical and other fallacies, for example the word-concept fallacy that I am always inveighing about on this blog, be sure to read Biblical Words and Their Meaning: An Introduction to Lexical Semantics by Moses Silva; and Exegetical Fallacies by D.A. Carson.
Finally, don’t use the Erasmian pronunciation system that is taught by the vast majority of seminaries today; instead, use the modern pronunciation that I use or at least Randall Buth’s Koine Reconstruction system. I really believe that the Erasmian pronunciation is a major impediment to learning Greek and retaining Greek. So many more seminarians will retain their Greek if they learned to read or listen to it aloud with the modern system. This is what I listen to. If you do use the Erasmian at this time, it only takes a week to switch over to the modern system. Well worth it, trust me.
Okay, that’s it for starters.
