Brief Guide to Biblical Greek Online: Frequently Asked Questions

What is the goal of the course? The goal of this course is to provide an intensive introduction to Biblical Greek, the language of the New Testament and the Septuagint. This course also provides an excellent introduction to the study of classical Greek. By the end of the semester, you will be able to read Biblical Greek on your own with the help of a dictionary. (The narrative portions of the Gospels and Acts, along with narrative portions of the Septuagint, are usually the easiest for beginners.)

What will the readings for class consist of? The readings for this class will come from four different sources:

• Septuagint: passages from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible
• New Testament: passages from the Gospels and other New Testament writings
• Greek patristic writing: passages from early writings of the church fathers in Greek
• Greek Orthodox liturgy: passages from prayers, hymns, and other Greek liturgical texts

What are the prerequisites? There are no prerequisites for this course, although students who have studied an inflected foreign language (Latin, Russian, German, etc.) will have an easier time with the Greek. This course can also serve as a review / refresher course if you have had some Greek previously but do not feel confident with your skill level.

Who will benefit from this class? There are lots of different reasons people might choose to take this Biblical Greek class. Here are some of the folks that I would like to be able to serve with this class:

• students who have an interest in Christianity and the history of Christianity (especially the early years of Christianity, the emergence of the Greek Orthodox tradition in Christianity, etc.)
• students who have an interested in Judaism and the history of Hellenistic Judaism (in addition to the Greek Septuagint, Greek gives you access to the astounding Jewish philosopher Philo)
• students with a general interest in religion in the ancient Mediterranean world (Greek is the language of many texts from a wide variety of ancient religious and magical traditions)
• students with an interest in linguistics (we will focus on two of the most interesting aspects of the ancient Greek language: its system of verbal aspect and its prosodic system)

What are the course requirements? This is a 5-credit-hour course which means that you are required to put in a solid 10-12 hours per week doing work for this class. Because there are no scheduled class meetings, you can arrange the schedule based on your other commitments, but you must be prepared to spend at least 10 hours per week, each week, without fail - preferably working on Greek for a specific period of time every day. You can compare this to a regular classroom-based class, where you would have one hour in class plus one hour of homework (sometimes more) per night. Take a look at the Suggested Study Schedule to get a sense of what a typical week would look like.

What textbook will we use? You will need to buy a copy of A Primer of New Testament Greek by Clayton Croy. This is a widely used Biblical Greek textbook and you should not have trouble finding a copy new or used. There will be copies available in the OU Bookstore as well.

How hard is Greek to learn? Greek is hard. You will have a new alphabet to learn and - unlike English - each word in Greek has many different forms in which it appears (this is called "morphology," the rules for the forms of the words). At the same time, Biblical Greek involves a very specific set of vocabulary and a very specific set of grammar rules. The textbook has been designed to help you learn Biblical Greek quickly and efficiently, and the online materials will make that process even easier, since you can get all the practice you need, focusing on your personal strengths and weaknesses. Here is what you will have learned by the end of the semester:

• vocabulary. excellent command of 400 Greek words commonly used in the New Testament
• morphology. strong familiarity with noun forms, adjective forms, and verb forms
• syntax. basic awareness of all the major syntactic structures found in Biblical Greek
• oral and aural skills. you will spend time each week listening and reading aloud
• web expertise. you will learn how to use valuable Greek resources online (such as Perseus, Crosswalk, Unbound Bible, etc.)

Does this course count for the General Education Foreign Language Requirement? No, this course does not count for the General Education Foreign Language Requirement. You will definitely be learning Greek (no doubt about that!), but the Religious Studies program is not able to sponsor this course for Foreign Language credit. You must take some other language course(s) to satisfy the General Education Foreign Language requirement. So, let me repeat: this Greek course does not count for Gen. Ed. Foreign Language.

What are the computer requirements? Obviously, you will need a reliable computer! No special software is required, but you will need:

• an Internet connection, preferably a high-speed connection (it will be difficult for you to enjoy the audio components of the course without a high-speed connection)
• a microphone that you can attach to your computer (you can buy one at Office Max for $5-10)
• if you are using Windows, your operating system should be Windows 2000 or higher
• if you are a Macintosh user, your operating system must be Macintosh OS-X (you will not be able to work with the Greek fonts unless you have OS-X).

How can language be taught online? Unlike a traditional classroom, the online classroom lets you zoom in on your specific strengths and weakness as a language student, helping you to focus on the areas that you need help with and providing you with continuous, immediate feedback about your progress:

• online games and activities: you will have lots of games and activities to choose from (like the QUIA matching and concentration games, unlimited audio, online flashcards, etc.) so that you can get all the practice you need (and have fun, too!)
• offline games and activities: in addition to the online games and activities, there will be an enormous supply of handouts and worksheets that you can print out and use offline (with answers provided, so you can check your work immediately)
• weekly quizzes: you will have quizzes over new material and review quizzes every week, and you can take the quizzes as often as you want (the quizzes contain randomized questions, so you will get a different version of the quiz each time)
• weekly composition: you will get individual feedback from the instructor each week to help you as learn to actually compose sentences in Greek (mostly your compositions will be based on describing pictures that you see, or writing small dialogues to accompany the pictures)
• weekly dictation and recitation: you will have dictation exercises each week to practice your listening skills, and you will prepare a Greek recitation of your choice each week (as well as listening to the recitations of other students in the class!)
• discussion board: whenever you have a question or problem, you can get help at the class discussion board

How will students interact with the instructor and other students? There are two main ways we will be communicating together online:

• email: you will get a daily email from the instructor and any email you send to the instructor will be answered within 24 hours (and often you will get an answer immediately - when I am online, which is much of time, I answer student emails very promptly)
• discussion board: the class discussion board will be a place where you can ask help from the instructor and from the other students - plus you will be posting your audio recitation and listening to other students' audio recitations at the discussion board as well

How will I type Greek? Thanks to a very simple and effective transliteration system called Beta code, you will have no trouble typing Greek with your regular computer keyboard. You will not have to buy any software or any special equipment, because there are free Greek fonts and free Greek word processors available to you.

How will I record the Greek audio? There are a variety of methods for recording the Greek audio, all using free software. No special software or special skills are required. As long as you have a microphone you can attach to your computer, you are ready to go!

Who is the instructor? You can read some information about me online, and please feel free to contact me with any other questions that you have about the course! My email address is laura-gibbs@ou.edu.