> Bruce Metzger has published a book called _Lexical Aids for Students of
>New Testament Greek_ which gives, in descending order, lists of words
>according
>to the number of times they appear in the NT. The book starts, for
instance,
>
>with words appearing more than 500 times, then words appearing 500 the 201
>times, then words appearing 200 to 151 times, &etc. Some etymological
>relationships to words in English are also noted. The book is helpful,
since
>it
>gives the student an idea of which words to concentrate on learning first.
Let me plug Thomas A. Robinson's _Mastering Greek Vocabulary_. It lists
roots in order of frequency, which I have found to be an invaluable help.
Learning a single root may open the student to between 50 and 100 words,
many the meaning of which will be identifiable (of course in conjunction with
learning the compounded meanings of prepositions, and various noun endings --
-IA, -MA, -THS, etc. -- a list of which he includes in the book). The idea
is that a person will learn more words by memorizing 5 roots than he or she
will be memorizing 5 words. An effective technique.
However, I have also found that the most effective way to learn vocabulary,
and to learn about vocabulary, is to use two or three of these tools in
conjunction with each other. Each tool will have features not found in the
others. I have found Robinson and Metzger to be an effective combination.
Robert Brindle
M.Div. Student
Instructor of NT Greek
Nazarene Theological Seminary
Kansas City, MO