[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Vine's Greek Grammar

Vine's Greek Grammar

I walked into a Baptist book store today, and lo and behold (IDOU?
EUQUS?), a new beginning Greek grammar. Apparently W.E. Vine (Vine's
Expository Dictionary - died 1949) wrote a course on learning NT Greek
as a series in a magazine and ended up publishing it. Now Thomas Nelson
has decided to revise it and put it out in book form - ISBN
0-7852-1232-9 - $9.99 paperback. Such a deal!

It's called "Vine's You Can Learn New Testament Greek! - An Easy Teach
Yourself Guide." It has 34 lessons (the last one is just on accents,
though), and the exercises for each chapter consist of translating Greek
passages from the New Testament (beginning as early as lesson 3 -
phrases from John 1:19,34,49; 3:1; 14:6; 15:5; 17:16; 21:24) into
English, then after you've done that and compared your results with a
good English translation, retranslating them back into Greek and
comparing what you wrote with the verse as originally given in the
exercises. He gives vocabulary lists and tells which paradigms need to
be memorized. Students are told in the first lesson to get a UBS 4 New
Testament (Vine originally said Nestle's small edition Greek NT) and by
the end of lesson 17 are told to get Gingrich and Danker's Shorter
Lexicon (Vine originally said Souter's). From what I've read on the
B-Greek list, I'd stick with UBS 4 (with Greek-English Dictionary) but
have students get Abbott-Smith instead of the "Shorter Lexicon" - and
then by the time they finish the course, the new BAGD will be in print
(hopefully)!

I have only had time to read a few chapters, and found a typo or two -
this must be a first printing. It looks kind of good, though, and the
price and portability are great. Whether it's as good as a more modern
grammar like Mounce or D.A. Black is something I'm probably not
qualified to determine. What I do like about its approach is the
immediate introduction to the New Testament text and the "hands-on"
translation/retranslation approach, which I think would help a student
get a feel for the NT at an early stage. Though I was thinking of using
"Greek To Me" if I found more church members willing to learn koine,
Vine's may be a serious candidate because it's small, inexpensive, looks
less intimidating than any other Greek grammar I have, and doesn't
require purchasing a workbook like Mounce or Summers or Goetchius.

Has anyone else seen it (or it's "original" form when it was first
published over 50 years ago)?

--
"Eric S. (and Karol-Ann) Weiss"
part-time grad student at The Criswell College
http://home1.gte.net/eweiss/index.htm
"Send those testimonies!"
eweiss@gte.net
Follow-Ups: