Accordance has just released a trio of products that can serve well as a stand alone, traditional introduction to Greek. Each resource is around 50% off at the time of writing this post:
- An Introduction to Biblical Greek Grammar (Zondervan, 2020)
- An Introduction to Biblical Greek Workbook (Zondervan, 2020)
- An Introduction to Biblical Greek Video Lectures (Zondervan, 2020)
For the first time, Accordance users have access to a thorough, self-paced, video introduction to the grammar of the New Testament. At just under $150 and in light of the scope of the material, I think these three resources are a bargain for motivated students — especially if you have someone farther down the road of Greek learning with whom you can discuss the material.
Course Structure
The outline of the course follows a familiar pattern:
- Introductory material
- Verb introduction
- Basics of nouns, the article, pronouns, and prepositions
- Chapters on the verb tenses of each principal part
- Contract verbs and moods other than the indicative
- -μι verbs and the optative
This structure is very similar to Clayton Croy’s grammar, the grammar I learned from and one that I have taught in middle and high school for the past ten years. Every pattern of introducing grammar has its pluses and minuses, but I like this breakdown. You get started with the prensent tense, introduce nouns and pronouns, and then walk through the other tenses and moods.
Video Lectures
In Accordance, the videos resource has a nice, simple format. You can see below how there is a clear link to launch the video and a link to the chapter covering the same material in the grammar.
The videos take up just over a gig of space on your device. Downloading them on the front end is great because it frees you from dealing with buffering and streaming issues when you are ready to study.
While pre-recorded video lectures are not ideal and tend to have a pretty heavily scripted feel, the presentation in these videos is clear and thorough.
The presentation is a traditional, grammar-translation approach emphasizing parsing and grammatical analysis.
Grammar
The grammar is nicely hyperlinked and easy to navigate.
I appreciate how each chapter has a study guide section that summarizes the key points.
Beside each vocabulary word, Harris gives the number of occurrences in the NT.
Clicking the hyperlinked 77 beside ἀνοίγω opens all the occurrences of the word in NA28. You can hover over each instance and see the word’s parsing in Accordance’s instant details at the bottom of the screen.
Harris also includes integration/review chapters that allow students time to pull together what they have been learning over the past few lessons. Below you can see parsing and translation exercises from the first integration chapter. Accordance’s annotation features allow you to do exactly what the exercise is asking for, double underlining the finite verbs.
Workbook
The workbook includes parsing and translation exercises for each lesson.
You cannot type your answers into the workbook. You can, however, screen shot them on your iPad or print the sections you want to complete.
Here’s an example of selecting the exercises for chapter 8 and printing them:
After selecting the text, you can right-click and select print selection
At this point, you could also choose save as PDF and compelte the translation/parsing exercises on a tablet.
Students who are considering working through the material on their own will be happy to see that the answer key is far better than normal. It is very clear, detailed, and easy to follow. It’s nice that the answer key for each lesson is included at the end of that lesson, not at the back of the book.
Here’s an example of the key to a parsing exercise:
Here’s the answer key to the translation exercises in chapter 9:
One more answer key example:
Conclusion
This trio of resources, distinguished by about thirty video lectures, will be exactly what some Accordance users have been hoping for. Harris offers a thorough introduction to the Greek of the New Testament with grammar, workbook, and video lectures at an affordable price.
- An Introduction to Biblical Greek Grammar (Zondervan, 2020)
- An Introduction to Biblical Greek Workbook (Zondervan, 2020)
- An Introduction to Biblical Greek Video Lectures (Zondervan, 2020)
Although most chapters have less than ten translation exercises, the answer key provided is very thorough and helpful for those studying alone. I recommend this collection of resources if you are looking for a traditional, grammar-translation approach to NT Greek — especially if you have a friend further down the road of Greek learning with whom you could discuss your progress.
For a video overview of this resource, check out Abram’s YouTube review here. Note especially his overview of the unique formatting features in Accordance’s digital edition starting around 3:20.
Brian W. Davidson 