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Teaching Greek
Perhaps it would be useful if I, too, made a comment or two about the
Greek grammars I have used. Of the four (Machen, La Sor, Goetchius,
and Hewett): I still am partial to Machen for its simplicity and ease
of understanding, but it is deficient with respect to optative mood
and I think a bit simplistic on the aorist. The workbook by David
Thompson seems a helpful addition and corrective, but I did not know
about it at the time I used Machen.
I did not like La Sor's inductive grammar even a little bit.
Goetchius (1963) has the advantage of being thorough, well
presented (in format), and linguistically oriented. But there are
no vocabularies and no exercises. The workbook focused too much
on "fill in the blank" type questions, rather than translation exercises
for my taste. Some of the grammar was a bit technical for beginners.
Still, it is a good grammar.
Hewett presents good vocabulary lists and matching translation
sentences. Chapters 12-23 use sentences exclusively from the NT.
Explanations tend to be a bit wordy, and sometimes confusing for
beginning students. Chapters 12-23 also provides ample practice
in the use of a lexicon.
Has anyone used Efird's new grammar? I looked it over, but got
the impression it was not very helpful in the later chapters of the
book. I would welcome information to the contrary.
Gary D. Collier
University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology
gcollier@diana.cair.du.edu