New Testament Greek 1 | Beginner Upper School

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New Testament Greek 1: Beginner is designed for rising and current Upper School students who have little or no previous experience with the Greek language. This course introduces students to the alphabet, vocabulary, and foundational grammar of both Classical and Koine Greek, which is the language not only of the New Testament and Old Testament Septuagint, but also the Church Fathers, the hymnography, liturgy, and iconography of the Orthodox Church, and the authors of classical Greek antiquity (e.g., Homer, Plato, Aristotle). All Greek courses at St. Raphael School are taught according to Modern (or Received) Pronunciation, which is how the language is pronounced today, both by native Greek speakers and in the Greek Orthodox Church. Furthermore, since there is a large overlap (around 80%) in vocabulary between New Testament and Modern Greek, students can feel confident using the skills gained in this class to go on to further studies in either Ancient Greek, Modern (conversational) Greek, or both.
 
This course thus aims at a unifying and holistic approach to the Greek language within the context of the Orthodox Church, giving students a lasting foundation that will help deepen their faith, broaden their cultural understanding, and strengthen their general knowledge of history, grammar, and etymology. We believe that the best way to do this is to engage the students as much as possible with New Testament Greek as a “living” language, giving them ample opportunity to be active participants, and not simply passive recipients, in the learning process. As with a modern, spoken language, frequent repetition, familiarization, and reinforcement is key to success. This is done through exposure to selected classical texts, verses of Scripture, and other Orthodox prayers and services, including the Lord’s Prayer, the Trisagion, Kyrie Eleison, the Creed, Vespers, Orthros, Divine Liturgy, and various festal hymnography and iconography.
 
Aside from regular in-class participation, assigned work will fall into a few basic categories:
 

• Translations
• Vocabulary quizzes
• Paradigm memorization
• Composition
   
  In terms of content, this course will cover roughly the first half of the assigned textbook, leaving the second half for Greek 2: Intermediate.
   
  In this course, students will learn to:
   
• Pronounce Greek, including diacritics, diphthongs, and consonant blends, according to Modern/Received pronunciation
• Write and type Greek
• Recite common texts and prayers of the Church, including:
  • The Lord’s Prayer
  • The Nicene Creed
  • The Trisagion
  • Vespers
  • Orthros
  • The Divine Liturgy
  • Festal hymns
• Recognize and memorize basic Classical and New Testament Greek vocabulary
• Read Classical and New Testament Greek using the following:
  • The Greek alphabet (both upper and lower case)
  • Punctuation and basic sentence structure
  • Case, number, and gender of articles, nouns, and adjectives
  • Person, number, tense, mood, and voice of verbs
  • Pronouns (personal, relative, and demonstrative)
  • Adverbs
  • Particles
  • Prepositions and prefixes
  • Attributive, circumstantial, and supplementary participles

High School Credit: This course is the equivalent of one high school credit in foreign language.

What is the difference between New Testament KOINE Greek and Classical Greek?

Saint Raphael’s School teaches what is often called “Koine Greek.” It is the dialect of Greek which was spoken throughout the Eastern Mediterranean following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, and persisted throughout the Roman and Byzantine periods and eventually evolved into the Modern Greek language which is currently spoken in Greece today. Koine Greek is the dialect of Greek with which the New Testament was written (which is why is Koine Greek is often called “New Testament Greek”).

Along with the New Testament, the various services of The Eastern Church, hymns, prayers, and saints lives were also composed in Koine Greek. At Saint Raphael’s School, Koine Greek is taught using the “Modern” or “Received” pronunciation. This pronunciation is identical to that used by speakers of the Modern Greek language today, and it is also the pronunciation currently used for the liturgies and services of the Orthodox Church of Greece, and most of the Orthodox Churches under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch, including The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOARCH).

Schole Academy teaches both Classical and Koine Greek. Classical Greek is slightly different from and grammatically more complex than Koine Greek. While our course at Saint Raphael’s focuses on equipping Orthodox Christians with the tools to understand the New Testament, the church fathers, and the liturgy, Scholé course exposes students to the Greek of a lengthier period, from Homer (8th century BC) through “The Golden Age of Athens” (5th century BC) and into the Hellenistic/Koine period (including the New Testament and Patristics). Whereas our course uses the modern pronunciation employed in the Orthodox Church, Scholé Academy uses a pronunciation “reconstructed” to approximate that of the time period of 5th century Athens. We hope this description of the two sets of courses helps you decide which is more appropriate for your purposes.