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Bridging the Grammar Gap

Voice, tense, mood, participles . . . learning biblical Greek is tough enough with a firm grasp of the building blocks of English and daunting to those without. But that’s just where many first-year students are. Through many years in the classroom, veteran language instructor Gary Long has learned that it’s in the first semester that many students get bogged down in grammatical basics. Soon confidence, morale—and then grades—start to slip.

A growing number of students have forgotten, or never learned, the fundamental grammatical concepts needed for studying Biblical Greek. Explanations of these concepts in standard Greek textbooks are either too skimpy or too complex. This practical resource will help.

Written for learners with little or no formal study of grammar, this invaluable complement to standard classroom textbooks clarifies English grammar in order to more effectively teach concepts that are specific to New Testament Greek. Arranged to supplement teaching grammars, each chapter takes up individual concepts, first explaining how the concept works in English, then illustrating its use in biblical Greek.

Abundant English and Greek examples illustrate each concept, most of them visually analyzed. Glossaries and translations help students comprehend the Greek words in each example.

"Gary Long has written a book on a topic that most people would prefer to avoid. We all know that grammar is 'good for us,' but we cringe at the prospect at having to relearn everything we learned (or were supposed to learn) in grade school. Add to that the study of a second language – and one as challenging as New Testament Greek – and you have a recipe for disaster. Enter Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Greek. I rate this book as four stars (out of five) because it almost achieves the impossible – it makes grammar as painless as possible. I will definitely recommend it as a reference tool to my Greek students. If anyone wants a concise, easy-to-understand definition of any given part of speech (both in Greek and English), it’s all here!"
—David Alan Black, Professor of New Testament and Greek, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and author of Learn to Read New Testament Greek and It’s Still Greek to Me

Reviews

“The author of this work is a veteran teacher of biblical Greek and he notes that often students are learning 'two' languages at once—the Greek itself and the grammar of their native language, English, which is often poorly understood. The purpose of this resource is to help beginning Greek students make the connections between the familiar grammatical concepts and structures of their native language and the distinctive features of biblical Greek. Thus successive chapters explore the meaning of such categories as 'case,' 'gender,' 'mood,' and parts of speech. Those who teach biblical Greek may find this a helpful resource to consider.”
—The Bible Today

“Designed to complement standard teaching grammars, this book assists the entry-level biblical Greek student in learning basic grammatical concepts by moving from English grammar to Greek grammar. After a three-page introduction, it treats foundational con-cepts: linguistic hierarchies, sound production, syllable, and translation. Then under "building blocks" it deals with declension, gender, number, case, verb, tense and aspect, imperatives (2nd and 3rd person), mood, voice, article, conjunction, nominal, noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb, participle, and infinitive. Finally it considers the clause and beyond: clause, subject, predicate/predication, semantics (processes, roles, and circumstances), and discourse analysis. Long, professor of biblical and theological studies at Bethel University in St. Paul, MN, is also the author of Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Hebrew (2002). ”
—New Testament Abstracts

"This book could and should be used with good effect as a supplement for Greek beginners. It would add value to most existing text books."
—Review of Biblical Literature

“Those who have used Gary Long's previous book on Hebrew will recognise immediately the format employed again with this volume. It is not a teach yourself grammar but an introduction to biblical Greek using English grammar. This has the advantage of reinforcing English grammar first, and then presenting the Greek. Many diagrams and charts help and students studying by themselves or in class will find this a very useful adjunct to other grammars.”
—Reformed Theological Review

“Every teacher of ancient languages will welcome a book like this since it is fast becoming the experience of teachers in the academy that their students lack the fundamentals of English grammar. As a result it has been a regular conundrum for those of us confronted with this issue to work out how best to proceed with the teaching of an introductory language course, especially with respect to the choice of a suitable Biblical Greek grammar and the time that needs to be allocated to the acquisition of necessary foundational concepts. And all this has to be done within the time constraints of twelve or thirteen week semesters now common in tertiary institutions. What Long has achieved in this volume is indeed admirable. The book comes with plentiful aids for comprehension and memory work. This includes charts, diagrams, tables and illustrations, all of which are ably supplemented by frequent cross-references to earlier or later parts of the book where ideas were first introduced or are developed or subsequently linked into other concepts. Adding to its value is its good, comprehensive table of contents, a list of figures, and an index of topics that is both quite adequate and suitably appropriate at this level of knowledge acquisition. A bibliography of cited works is also appended. The book has been divided into three parts. Part 1 deals with “Foundations” and covers 26 pages. Part 2 concentrates on the “Building Blocks” that occupy most of our time in understanding how a language operates; this section spans 160 pages. Part 3 closes out the book and focuses upon “The Clause and Beyond,” dealt with in 30 pages.

“. . . Long must be congratulated for filling a gap in available teaching resources for first-time students of New Testament Greek. . . .[T]here is plenty here to satisfy the teacher and student who want to give themselves over to some serious contemplation of how Biblical Greek language works. Throughout the book there is plenty of repetition to reinforce earlier points made or to send the student back to revisit key information, and all this while expanding the pool of ideas or principles on which this language operates. Aiding this process is the regular use of short sentences or verses from the Greek New Testament given first in an interlinear format and then followed by the translation. Interacting with various grammars that are currently available, Long also helpfully gives precision to, corrects or makes clarifications of definitions or confusing practices that have over time become an accepted part of explanations in Biblical Greek grammars. Long has produced a very valuable work, collating and organising materials in a systematic way and then supplying summary definitions of key ideas, but it may have proved an advantage to have included a glossary of key concepts. Armed with that ready reference tool, today’s student might well be helped to lay his or her hands on major ideas without feeling slightly handicapped by having to search out something buried in a less user-friendly part of the book.

“In sum, then, it is a delight to welcome Long’s work to the bookshelf. It caters to a growing need and will be received with gratitude by teachers who recognise the immense contribution this volume makes to present-day Biblical Greek language acquisition. ”
— Colloquium

“The subtitle explains what the book is about: Learning biblical Greek grammatical concepts through English grammar. Concepts such as voice, tense, aspect, dependent clause, etc. seem to have disappeared from the linguistic awareness of students. In order to get a fuller understanding of biblical Greek, a general understanding of grammatical concepts in necessary. To increase grammatical consciousness, the present book offers a thorough introduction.”
—International Review of Biblical Studies

"Grammatical Concepts 101 is a portable and economic grammar that is highly useful for beginning and intermediate level students of biblical Greek."
—Biblical Theology Bulletin

Gary A. Long is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota.

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