Nichael Cramer recommends the use of B. B. Scott's (& his students')
_Reading NT Greek_, published by Hendrickson.
May I demur?
I myself often suggested this aid to those wanting to do reading on their
own, after picking up a copy at CBD a few years ago. I WAS surprised that
the very first Greek word in the lists was accented wrongly (EIMI), but
thought it was done on the whole quite helpfully.
Then, for the first time, I had my Greek class this spring buy it, in
addition to getting Bauer. (My students here have to have had two years of
classical Greek before reading the NT.) I thought it would speed up their
awareness of the words important enough to track in Bauer (the ones not
in the running lists, i.e., the words used 10 times or more). And
DISASTER! I quickly discovered that the glosses in this book (everywhere
in the book, even in the lists of high-frequency words) are *dreadful*.
They show the marks of having been compiled by students (as they were),
rather than by a long-time teacher with some sense of what glosses to offer
beginners. I became more and more frustrated, since their translations
were usually nonsensical. Finally I asked them to stop using the book, and
to consult nothing but Bauer's lexicon.
Glosses are dangerous at best; and when not at their best
(as in this book), they are counter-educational, undoing what one might
have learned.
I think I would now have to side with Clay's rejection of gloss-manuals.
I never used them myself, but thought maybe (after 50 years of teaching
Greek) I'd try them just once. Never again!
Edward Hobbs
---------- Nichael wrote -->>>>>>>>
If I might suggest another useful alternative to an Interlinear for the
beginning LitteGreek reader, you might wish to consider _Reading NT Greek_
by Scott, Dean, Sparks, LaZar (Hendrickson, 1993).
Part I contains the standard in-order lists of words occurring 10 or more
times. Part II contains a list for each chapter of the NT of the "rare"
words appearing in that chapter (i.e. those words that occur fewer than 10
times in the entire NT).
Nichael Cramer
<<<<<<<----------- End of quote