Greek Tools for Seminary

Now that I’m a full-fledged seminarian taking Greek, I thought it might be helpful to share the tools that are helping me this semester. These are applications that had already been a part of my workflow, or have already found a place in my studies.

Greek vocabulary for Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek iPhone app

There IS an app for that!

While most students would agree that the syntax and grammar are more difficult than the vocabulary, if you don’t know the words, you can’t understand what the language is saying. Though a bit pricey for iphone apps ($10.99), this app was recommended to me by a recent seminary grad (HT: Chad) and has already become one of the apps that I use the most.

It’s simple and easy. It’s a great interface to learn your vocabulary words. Join the digital age, dump the flashcards, and get the app here.

LearnBiblicalGreek.com

Another great tool to help with your studies is LearnBiblicalGreek.com. Bill Mounce (the author of the particular Greek Grammar that we’re using) has posted lectures, outlines, summaries, powerpoint presentations, and a myriad (yes, I said myriad) of other helps on his website.

After a few chapters, I’ve found that my workflow tends to be to read the chapter, look over the workbook (not necessarily do the exercises), listen to the chapter summary online, and then fill out the workbook. Of course, that’s followed by our work in class following the lesson.

There’s something about utilizing multiple methods of learning and instruction that seem to help it make sense. Then again, I’m taking a break from studying right now because I needed a brain-break to help it make sense.

ESV Greek Tools

Interlinear FTW!

I’ve written about ESV Greektools before and it’s become something I really enjoy utilizing. As you can see, I primarily use it in the interlinear format because that helps me get a better grasp on what’s going on.

YouVersion.com

Most people know that youversion.com is one of the most successful apps on the mobile market, and that it’s a Bible with dozens of translations available. What most people don’t know (or at least I didn’t) is that they actually have “Ancient Greek” as an option with three available Greek translations!

While it doesn’t display the text in Greek and English at the same time, it’s a great way to immerse yourself in the Greek text.

No cheating.

Just you and the Greek text. You either understand it, can figure it out, or not. There’s no middle ground. (Unless, of course, you click and switch the translation to English.)

Transliterate.com

Logos always comes up with the coolest stuff!

Ryan in the comments shared transliterate.com a free tool by Logos, that allows you transliterate unicode Greek into a Latin transliteration or SBL Greek.

This isn’t in my workflow yet, but I certainly see it becoming more and more helpful down the road.

Thanks Ryan!

Your Turn!

What about you? Are you taking Greek? Maybe you’re a beginner like me. Maybe you’re well beyond that and are parsing participles already. Maybe you’re not in seminary at all, but are using some other tools to help you get a handle on the Greek text.

What tools do you use to better learn and understand Greek?