Learn New Testament Greek

An ability to use the Greek of the New Testament is a great help in studying the Bible. Most pastors are required to study the Koine' Greek common during the First Century when the New Testament was first set down on vellum and papyrus. Many lay people have a desire to learn Greek so they can study the Bible more deeply.

The graphic is the Greek text of John 15:1-7

I did not mention the Old Testament because it was first written in Hebrew, and learning it is another subject. But, the Old Testament was also translated into Greek a couple of centuries before Christ. It is a similar Greek in comparison to the New Testament. Some of the vocabulary requires a dictionary a bit different from the Greek of the New Testament. There were seventy translators and it goes by the Latin word for seventy, or Septuagint. Its name is often abbreviated with Roman numerals as LXX.

What do you really want to do and how much time do you want to invest? You may be able to satisfy your needs by learning to use some available tools that do not require actually learning Greek.

The image is a screen shot from a Wikipedia article on James Strong and Strong's Concordance. Strong assigned a number to each Greek and Hebrew word used in the Bible. He listed passages from the Bible grouped according to the English word used in the King James Version, but he also attached the number key for the word in the original text of each passage listed. Users do not need to know how to read the Greek or Hebrew alphabets, nor how to pronounce the original words. They need only find all entries with the same number and compare those. Since the advent of computers, there are many programs that help you do this electronically. What took hours with a bound paper concordance now takes minutes with a computer program.

Note: Some things have changed since I first published this Instructable in 2009. In November 2022 I updated links and mention of available helpful web pages. Some things changed or disappeared. Other even more helpful things appeared. It will likely continue to be that way. Parts of what is presented in this Instructable may seem a little disjointed because my revisions have tried to mention new things without completely rewriting the entire Instructable.

e-Sword is a very fine piece of free Bible software available at www.e-sword.net. Click on Downloads at the top of the page (lime green hotlink as shown at the top of the graphic). Download the basic module for Windows. I believe e-Sword can now be used on Apple devices. An app. for it allows a version of it to be used on smart phones and tablets.

Blue Letter Bible is an app. you can use on a smart phone or tablet. It also can be accessed as a web page. It uses a two column display. One column is the Westcott-Hort edition of the Greek New Testament. The other column is one of several English Bibles you select. The Greek column becomes Hebrew when working in the Old Testament. Old Testament passages also display that verse from the Septuagint at the bottom of the page. There are various lexical helps on board.

Something also available is a very helpful page at Abirim Publications for the Greek New Testament. The user clicks or taps on a chapter number. The page that results allows the user to select a verse within that chapter, and then a word in that verse. Lots of analysis is offered on a particular word. Tap on a word and you are taken to articles about the history and use of that word in Greek literature, including the Bible.

This is a screen shot of e-Sword once it has been installed on your computer. You can see KJV+ is highlighted in gray. I have additional versions installed, and that is why you see tabs with DRB, ESV, GLB, GNB, etc. in addition to the KJV+. Most additional modules are free, although some require a payment to cover applicable copyright royalties. The NIV (New International Version) would require a copyright royalty.

You see an additional box in the screen headed by G2814. "G" means Greek as opposed to "H" for Hebrew, which would be the case if you were working in the Old Testament. "2814" is the number James Strong assigned to the word translated as "branch" in John 15:2. If you move your cursor over the green superscript hotlink for a Strong's number, a box appears with basic information about the original language word. In addition to pronunciation and spelling information, you are told it derives from a related word, G2806, which you can also examine. And, it tells you the basic meaning, as well as all of the words used to translate it in the King James Version. In this case there is only one word used: branch.

Dictionary definitions are a first step. But, words mean what they mean because of the way they are used in context. You really want to see all of the occurrences of a word as the New Testament uses it so you can compare them.

In John 15:2 move your cursor over the green superscript hotlink number for "branch" and right click. The boxes you see in the screen shot appear. Click on "New Testament" to generate a list of all passages in the New Testament using the Greek root word translated "branch" in John 15:2. If there were apt to be many, many hits; you may want to limit yourself to all occurrences in the Gospel of John. In that case, you would move the cursor down and left-click on "John" rather than on "New Testament."

After clicking on "Accept" the results of your search appear in the small drop down menu at the top of the screen located below the word "Dictionary." Notice that I have also switched versions and the ESV (English Standard Version) tab is active. Clicking on an entry in the drop down window would change the Bible screen to that reference. Or, notice the very small binoculars to the left and right of the drop down window. Each has a forward or backward arrow under it. Left-click on a very small binocular to move the Bible display forward to the next verse or backward to the previous verse in the search.

There is not much controversial about the word "branch" and its meaning. Other words are the subject of much discussion. Examine their use asking questions about who does what to whom under what circumstances, and what are the results of that. This is a type of detective work in which experience brings an awareness that helps you make better and better deductions. Check commentaries and other resources to see if people with more knowledge and experience concur with you.

Either what has been presented thus far satisfies your curiosity, or you are more eager than ever and you really, really want to learn the language. This Instructable will point you to a free course in New Testament Greek once available for download at iTunesU. But, iTunes no longer exists. However, the Greek course I found there is still available at this link. It is a summer course for seminarians preparing for pastoral ministry. Many pastors and others have learned Greek from the man in the videos.

Note: The video course linked in this step is a very traditional way to teach a language. The student learns new material in a logical order and often memorizes tables of forms. Dr. Stephen Krashen has done a lot of research on how we acquire a language. Rather than all of the drills, he advocates hearing simple stories in the language. A free video course at YouTube uses his approach. It is called Alpha with Angela. Give it a try. It is still in development, but some lessons are available. If you are interested in Dr. Krashen’s material on language acquisition, just do a search for his name. An overwhelming amount of material by or about him is available. Check YouTube for other video courses in New Testament Greek.

Language courses, even on-line courses, require a textbook for effective learning. Dr. Voelz has a textbook he authored as a companion for his course. It is "Fundamentals of Greek Grammar" and it is available at Amazon as well as from other sources, too. Voelz will want you to have as recent edition of his textbook as possible.

Eventually you will want a Greek text of the New Testament. Various editions are available through Amazon and other on-line sellers. But, e-Sword also has free modules containing a couple of different editions of the Greek New Testament. One of the more helpful for a beginning student is the Westcott-Hort with Strong's numbers (GNT-WH+). As a companion to it download the Strong's Dictionary module and install both. (The Byzantine text or Textus Receptus does not represent what is considered the most accurate text, although some ardently hold to it.)

Since this Instructable was first published, a great app. for a phone or tablet has become available free from The German Bible Society. I believe you do need to register with them, though. Go to where you find your apps. and search by their German name: Die Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. Install their app. It includes three familiar English Bibles, a dozen or so German Bibles, the latest edition of the Nestle Greek New Testament, Rahlfs Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, and the latest text of the Biblia Hebraica (Hebrew Bible [Old Testament]). Tap the box at the bottom of the opening page to get to the list of available texts from which you can open the texts. No helps with the biblical text are offered as in Blue Letter Bible, etc.

(Back to e-Sword, now) In the graphic notice the version tab now shows "GNT-WH+." That is Greek New Testament--Westcott-Hort with Strong's numbers.

In the window below the Bible text window is the Dictionary window. "Strong" is highlighted in gray. It is the Strong's dictionary. Note the two red boxes I made to draw your attention to specific pieces of information. The upper one shows the word translated in English as "branch" with its Strong's hotlink number: 2814. Also following it are some letters: N-ASN. The next steps will discuss what those can do for you. Hold that for the moment.

In the area outlined by the red box below I typed G2814 and the Strong's dictionary information appears in the main portion of the Dictionary window. For someone learning to read New Testament Greek while taking a basic grammar course like that offered by Dr. Voelz, using these two windows provides a ready vocabulary definition of an unknown word. (Update: I had updated the basic module for e-Sword, but did not update any of the modules with Strong's numbers. Strong's dictionary information is supposed to pop up when the cursor moves over a Strong's number in all such modules. I learned I needed to download updated Bible modules and install them. That makes using the Dictionary window for vocabulary purposes unnecessary.)

Parsing words here does not mean cleverly hiding the real meaning in order to walk through a verbal land mine. Rather, it means identifying the various aspects related to the parts of speech involved in a grammatical construction. Is the word a noun or a verb? If a noun, what gender, number, and case? If a verb, what tense, person, number, mood, and voice? All of these play an important part in understanding the meaning of a passage. If you learn Greek, you will become very familiar with all of these.

The Westcott-Hort Greek New Testament module (with Strong's numbers) in e-Sword parses every word of the Greek New Testament for you. Normally, you must buy a separate volume and look up each unknown word in it. To use the parsing feature in this module, pull down the Bible menu and select "Information."

In Step 9 I mentioned the N-ASN parsing code following the word translated "branch" in John 15:2. Below is the Information box for the Westcott-Hort Greek New Testament module. Scroll down through the categories and you learn the first "N" means the word is a noun. After the dash comes other information. "A" means it is in the accusative case, which means it is used as a direct object of the main verb, just like "ball" is the direct object in the sentence, "The boy threw the ball at second base." "S" means it is singular rather than plural. The final "N" means it is a neuter noun, not a masculine or feminine noun. While providing a lot of detail that may seem unnecessary, these things all become important when determining which pronouns refer to which nouns, and that becomes very important for understanding what refers to what in the text of the New Testament.

The parsing guide is easier to use if you can have a copy of it open in a second window, or if you can have a printed copy in front of you. Open the GNT-WH+ Information window. Click the cursor within the window. Press Ctrl + A to block highlight it. Press Ctrl + C to copy it. Then paste it into your word processor and save it. 

A language requires practice. A little practice every day will mean big progress over time.

When I was freshly out of school I decided I would go to my Greek text first whenever I needed to look up something in the New Testament. If I could not grasp the meaning, I would match up words with a a fairly literal English text. Then I would read the Greek text again and again until it began to fit together and make sense. Eventually, I read the entire Greek New Testament through cover to cover a number of times.

When you are beginning you will look at a word and begin the meticulous process of parsing all aspects of it as a part of speech. After you work with the Greek text for a good while you will just immediately recognize the meaning of a word in all aspects of its grammatical details without thinking, "Oh, it is accusative singular and a neuter." just as you do with your native tongue.

When you are aware of the Greek word translated in a particular verse, you can check its use other places in the New Testament and may be surprised to realize it is also used in other familiar passages where a different English word translates it. It is like discovering two people you have known for a long time are actually siblings. Suddenly, some things make more sense.

Earlier I mentioned the Septuagint. It can be helpful to see how a word from the New Testament was used in the Septuagint. It can help you see relationships between things you did not suspect are actually related.

Eventually, you will begin to be aware many words in the Greek New Testament are based on a picture from everyday life. The most common word in the New Testament for “sin” is based on archery. You shot an arrow, but it went wide and missed the target. Such pictures in sermons and Bible class discussions give people something easily remembered.

Finally, there are those who imagine that the versions, whether English or in another language, are not really telling us the true meaning of the text. But, those who have learned Greek now know the TRUE meaning kept from the rest of us. Such suspicions are so very false. The English versions really are generally quite good and accurate. Still, at times a translator must make a choice that impacts subtle aspects of the meaning. The advantage of learning some Greek is that you can evaluate those choices for yourself. It is also the difference between watching a travelogue about a place and actually visiting the place, yourself. The firsthand experience is always richer.