The Biblical Greek Companion - A Review

The Biblical Greek Companion

by

Mark L. Strauss

A Review

It was a year ago that I reviewed the companion volume, Biblical Hebrew Companion. I ended that review expressing hope that a similar book would be forthcoming for Biblical Greek. Now it has.   

Similar to the earlier volume, this 100+ page reference book serves as a simple desk dictionary/encyclopedia on Biblical Greek Syntax and Morphology.  It is not designed to teach Greek, other books do that well; but to assist the user in understanding how the various syntactical and morphological issues can be used to better understand the Greek used in the New Testament. The author, in his introduction, does a good job of summarizing the audience to which this work is best addressed:

1. Pastors and other ministry leaders who may have learned biblical Greek at one time, but have experienced the loss of much of that learning because of the time demands of life and ministry;
2. College and seminary students who are engaged in a biblical Greek language course, but who could use this resource as a supplement to provide easily accessible and simplified explanations, along with clear biblical examples;
3. College and seminary students who are enrolled in an academic program that no longer requires them to learn the biblical languages, but who wish to have access to the wealth of available resources for original-language study;
4. Those who have never had the opportunity, resources, or inclination to learn the paradigms, vocabulary, grammar, and syntax of biblical Greek, but would still like to benefit from the deeper insights into the Bible that Greek study can provide

As with the earlier work, I wish I had it by my side while learning Greek - as it takes each major part of speech, each verbal conjunction, each grammatical construction and gives insight to the reader on its role in the language. The entries try to address three questions:

1. What does it look like?
2. What does it do?
3. How it might effect the exegesis of a passage?

A number of appendices add value as they bring together lists of topics that don’t fit elsewhere: The Greek Alphabet, Punctuation, ect. Also included are a scripture index and a suggested bibliography for further study grouped by topic.

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This review is based on a free electronic copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review.  The opinions expressed are my own.