You are about to embark upon an
exciting adventure - learning to read the New Testament in the original Koine Greek language! Here you will learn the Koine
Greek alphabet, the basics of the language, and finally, you will experience the joy of reading and understanding the New
Testament Scriptures the way the Apostles originally wrote it, which will give you invaluable depth into the Bible when you
read it in English.
So what exactly is “Koine”
Greek? It simply means “common Greek”. Koine Greek was the language of the common people, and varied quite a bit
from classic and other forms of High Greek used by ancient writers like Homer. And it should come as no surprise that the
Scriptures should be ordained to come to us in the common tongue of the people, when we consider these words of Jesus:
“I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth,
because Thou hast hid these
things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto
babes.”
The goal of this program is not
to teach you how to master the language, or even to be fluent in it. For indeed, Koine Greek is a long dead language, though
it has been kept very much preserved through the New Testament. Our goal is to help you grow closer to God through a
deeper understanding of His Word. If you wish for a more in-depth and intensive education in this language, our Valuable Resources
section will provide you with some wonderful and easily accessible resources.
Since Koine Greek has not been
a spoken language for many, many hundreds of years, the exact pronunciation of vowels and diphthongs (two letters that form
a single sound) are in debate by even the greatest scholars. Since we are not trying to teach you conversational
Koine Greek, the exact pronunciation of the language is only of minor importance. In most instances, and to aid in your
Bible studies, we have chosen to follow the pronunciations presented by the famous Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of
the Bible; with the exception of the diphthong "AI" - the Strong’s
pronounces it “ah-ee”, while we have gone with other sources which give it the more fluid sound of "I" as in aisle and Taiwan. Don't worry, we'll get into that later. But again,
we are not attempting to teach you conversational Koine Greek. It is sufficient for you, with this course, to just
be able to read and understand it.
At the end of each page will be
a link to the next page in this program; but for your convenience we’ve included a link to each section in the main
menu so that you can easily go back to any section.
You will, naturally, want a copy of the Greek Textus Receptus
New Testament for this course. "Textus Receptus", meaning "Received Text", is a term referring
to the New Testament which the Apostles received from God. If you do not have a copy, scroll down for info
on how to obtain one. If you are ready to start, please continue by clicking
HERE
QUESTIONS? YOU CAN CONTACT US HERE
