Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek

Introduces Greek students to the field of linguistics and shows how its findings can increase their understanding of the New Testament.

Customer Reviews:

Linguistics explains the secrets of New Testament Greek

By A Customer - September 19, 1996

New Testament (Koine) Greek has long been taught as just another dead language. Black, an experienced teacher of Greek, changes the paradigm.
Applying modern linguistic theory, Black shows how many of the so-called irregularities of Greek are actually normal and regular.
The book covers the gamut: phonetics, morphology, syntax, semantics, etc.
each section concludes with a short bibliography which can help students and teachers learn even more about linguistics and Koine Greek.
An important text for newcomers and a useful review of Greek to sharpen rusty skills.

Not bad (litotes--understatement)

By L. M. Jordan - February 11, 2008

Black invites the reader to apply the techniques of modern linguistics to the analysis of New Testament Greek. This excellent general introduction covers the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and historical linguistics of koine Greek. It assumes no Greek or linguistics background.

I give the chapter headings and some subheadings:

1. Introducing Linguistics: The Landscape and the Quest
2. Phonology: The Sound of Greek (Phonetics and Phonemics)
3. Morphology: The Anatomy of Greek Words
4. Syntax: The Architecture of the Greek Sentence
5. Semantics: Determining Meaning (The real jewel in this work--Word and Concept, Semantic Classes, Ambiguity, Denotation/Connotation, Idioms, Rhetorical Language, Semantic Change, Discourse Analysis)
6. Historical and Comparative Linguistics: The Biography of Greek

In a Greek course I taught 2004/2005 based upon the Gospel of John... read more

Greek Linguistics

By Jerry Tim Winters "Tim Winters" - September 28, 2007

For any serious NT Greek student, this book is very insightful to the many phonemic changes in the language. It is not a definitive book on lingustics, which the author himself claims, but, it does get you started in the area of linguistics that might give you some insight into the English language. Black writes in a way that doesn't overwhelm the student with his scholarship, which he definitely has, but he writes in a way that even someone who is a beginner in the study of the language can understand. I recommend it for any beginner or intermedeate student who would like to get a better handle on why some things change in the Greek language that may have confused you before.