From: Steven Craig Miller (scmiller@www.plantnet.com)
Date: Sat Dec 04 1999 - 17:47:06 EST
<x-flowed>To: David Ritsema,
<< What is the best grammar book for learning advanced Greek syntax. >>
The best advanced grammar IMO is: "Greek Grammar" by Herbert Weir Smyth
(1920), revised by Gordon M. Messing (Harvard UP, 1956). Danker states:
"there is no better one-volume reference grammar in English" (1993:131).
(If you read German, which I don't, Danker recommends: "Griechische
Grammatik" by Eduard Schwyzar and Albert Debrunner.) Runner-up would be: "A
Greek Grammar" by William W. Goodwin (1st published in 1879, new edition in
1894, reprinted by St Martin's Press).
As for NT Greek, the two major NT Greek reference grammars are A.T.
Robertson's "A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of
Historical Research" (1st edition in 1914; 5th edition in 1931) and
Blass-Debrunner-Funk's "A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other
Early Christian Literature" (U of Chicago P, 1961). Personally I prefer
Robertson's over BDF. There is also the Moulton-Howard-Turner grammar
(published by T.&T. Clark in 1906 through 1976), I don't tend to use it as
much, with the exception of volume two which covers accidence and
word-formation. Howard's section on suffixes is extremely valuable IMO. A
resent work is: "Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of
the New Testament" by Daniel B. Wallace (Zondervan, 1996).
In 1989 & 1990, there were two major works published in NT Greek verbal
aspect, namely (a) "Verbal Aspect in the Greek of the New Testament, with
Reference to Tense and Mood" by Stanley E. Porter (Peter Lang, 1989); and
(b) "Verbal Aspect in the New Testament Greek" by Buist M. Fanning (Oxford,
1990). See also: "Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics: Open Questions
in Current Research" edited by Stanley E. Porter and D. A. Carson
(Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), the first half of this volume discusses
Porter's and Fanning's theories of verbal aspect. A third book on verbal
aspect is: "A New Syntax of the Verb in New Testament Greek: An Aspectual
Approach" by K. L. McKay (Peter Lang, 1994).
Although not about Greek grammar itself, anyone interest in the history of
the English-speaking Greco-Roman philology might want to read: "A Century
of Greco-Roman Philology: Featuring the American Philological Association
and the Society of Biblical Literature" by Frederick W. Danker (Scholars
Press, 1988).
-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller@www.plantnet.com
Disclaimer: "I'm just a simple house-husband (with no post-grad degree),
what do I know?"
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