Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 84:1 (Spring 2022)
Article: Short Notice
Author: Anonymous

Short Notice

John D. Schwandt, An Introduction to Biblical Greek: A Grammar with Exercises. Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2001. Pp. 497. $20.99, cloth.

John Schwandt has produced a Greek grammar that shares the same pedagogical emphases as H. P. V. Nunn’s The Elements of New Testament Greek (1915). These emphases include mastering “the grammatical fountainheads” of the language and composing sentences from English to Greek. The latter is usually the first thing Greek professors tell students to ignore, but Schwandt rightly recognizes that composition is the means to mastering the language. He conveniently includes the answer key to all exercises in the appendix. One also finds there a helpful section on accentuation.

Considering this Greek grammar more broadly, there is much to appreciate: (i) verbs are introduced by the third lesson; (ii) each chapter has a sufficient amount of grammatical information, with the most pertinent paradigms clearly laid out; (iii) he has three lessons on the third declension as opposed to the single chapter you find in other grammars; and (iv) every exercise section includes a memorization section (e.g., principal parts to memorize), made-up Greek to English sentences, English to Greek sentences, and texts from Scripture to translate, with supplemental vocabulary in the footnotes.

An Introduction to Biblical Greek is certainly worth considering as a professor, student, or interested layperson.

B.D.C.