Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar,   ISBN:9780310250876

Customer Rating: 

this is a great text book if first of all: if you know your english grammar, and are good with memorization. the problem with this book is that it is the very traditional style of learing (memorize, memorize, memorize) I would recomend you get "New Testament Greek in 30 Minutes a day" because it is a more natral style of learning (no memorization required), but if your good with the traditional textbook style learning then Mounce is for you. Also Mounce is the most widley used textbook in semenaries and universities around the country.

Customer Rating: 

The only thing I can add to the many positive reviews of this book is to take advantage of the tremendous additional work Mounce has done in the form of a companion web site (http://biblicalgreek.teknia.com). The site has summary audio/powerpoint lectures for each chapter, a page for every vocabulary word with audio clips on pronunciation and memory aids, study guides, exercises and more. Mounce could have easily charged the price of the book again for access, but it's all there for free.

Customer Rating: 

I have tried numerous times to find this order under my recent purchases and have never been successful. I did not receive this product and have been charged the amount for purchase.

Customer Rating: 

This a very good book on Grammar, and the CD is also worthwhile.I would have given the book 5 stars, but for the following reasons went with less. Let me be clear though, the book is a very good book and is worthwhile getting, but I would suggest keeping an open mind when he gives you the phonetics and pronounciation. Mounce himself understands that this may be incorrect, but since it is the standard taught to all western Ancient Greek scholars, he had no choice but to perpetuate what I believe is an error.

Having fluency in modern Greek, I was looking forward to polishing up my rudimentary ancient Greek. Right from the beginning of this book where he lists the letters and dipthongs, I could see that this resembled an anglicised kind of Greek, and shared nothing with Demotic Greek whatsoever.
For example in modern Greek D is pronounced Thelta, not Delta, U is properly pronounced "ipsilon" and not "oopsilon". The "U" is an "ee" sound, not an "oo" sound. In biblical Greek, he pronounces "Kurios" which is Lord, incorrectly as "koorios" instead of "Kirios".
"Eime", I am, he pronounces "aimee". It should be "eeme".
He calls brother "adelfos" which should be "athelfos". I could go on, because almost 90% of the words are incorrectly pronounced.
All the letters and dipthongs befall the same fate.

I cannot blame the author as it seems that all these "experts" are using "Erasmian" Ancient Greek. That is ancient Greek pronounciation as estimated by a guy who never spoke Greek. I did some research on the web and discovered that when Ancient Green was first "discovered" by the western Europeans, a guy called Erasmus decided that there should be one standard of pronounciation (which had nothing to do with Greek), which he of course created in his own image. This is the pronounciation now used across the world when teaching ancient Greek, but it is very contentious amongst Greek scholars (understandably, since it sounds like American or English, but not Greek), one wonder why it would not even remotely share any of the modern Greek sounds. Surely a delta, was never EVER pronounced as a hard "d"?
Of course nobody really knows how it should be pronounced, but it is more likely closer to demotic Greek than to American or English. Erasmus apparently also changed his mind later on in his life.
If you are a Greek scholar trying to learn ancient Greek the jarring language pronounciation will be frustrating. But as a grammar book teaching declensions it is excellent.

Customer Rating: 

This grammer is a well accepted first-year NT Grammer, ranked No.1 by many. While this may be ture, one should be alert that this is only a basic grammer and doesn't cover some essential areas. So for serious students who want a really master of NT Greek, I recommend auxiliary books to help the study:

(1) Accent: reading aloud is important for learning a languange, and accent is important for reading aloud.
Philomen Probert
D.A. Carson

(2) Morphology: BBG doesn't cover all the essential morphology patterns, say, the aorist infinitive and aorist participal of liquid verbs. further more, MBG, referenced frequently by BBG, tells you 'why' in Greek. indispensable for a really mater of NT Greek.
William D. Mounce
J.A. Brooks , C.L. Winbery

(3) Syntax: I recommend Dana-Mantey for study at this stage, which fills the gap between BBG and by Daniel B. Wallace, and this latter one fills the gap between intermediate grammer and standard reference works such as BDF and Robertson.
H.E. Dana and J.R. Mantey

Another notice is about the Workbook. don't put it aside after finishing the transation. READ IT, RECITE IT! I translated it three times and recite it three times, every time I can learn something new. Read aloud and recite it, it really help me in learning this languange, maybe any languange.

The final point is about pronunciation. This grammer adopts Erasmus system, an artificial one, though adopted by most seminary. I recommend modern greek pronunciation system. So before diving into this grammer, spend three months on modern greek, say .

May God bless us in learning his words.