The Right Kind of Ancient Greek

Which Version of the Greek Language Should I Learn?
By Regan Barr

When I was in junior high, my best friend and I discovered the magical world of Middle Earth and quickly became Tolkien addicts. To our delight, we discovered that my dog-eared paperback edition of The Return of The King had an appendix with a table of Dwarven Runes in the back.  For countless hours we practiced writing notes to each other in runes as we gradually mastered this new and fascinating code. Other close friends, however, thought we were crazy. Why spend so much time learning to write “meet me at my house in an hour” in a new alphabet?

Fast forward several decades to a homeschool conference at which The Lukeion Project was an exhibitor. A mother hurried up to our booth and excitedly announced to me, “My daughter wants to learn Greek!” I was thrilled. I grabbed the sample copy of our textbook from the table and opened it to begin explaining the new adventure she was about to undertake.

And then her daughter saw the first paragraph in Greek. She jumped back, visibly shaken, as though she’d seen a ghost. “What is that?!” she exclaimed. I answered, “That’s Greek. Look, we start here with the alphabet, and then…” She interrupted me, “I don’t wanna do that! What are those funny marks?” She turned on her heels and was off through the convention hall to find a language that offered the comfort and familiarity of her own alphabet.

Well, Greek isn’t for everyone. Yes, you do have to learn a new alphabet to even get started, and then there are those pesky accents and breathing marks. Everyone’s heard of Active Voice and Passive Voice, but what pit of doom spat out this new-fangled Middle Voice? I find that a students’ approach to the alphabet can be a good indicator of how they’ll do in the language. Some approach it with fear and trembling, and perhaps they should start with Latin. But others are magnetically drawn to the alphabet, eyes wide with wonder – as Bobby and I were to Tolkien’s runes. These are the students I love to have in my Greek 1 course.

I didn’t have a chance to learn Greek until college, but Sir Winston Churchill famously wrote of schoolboys, “I would make them all learn English, and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honour, and Greek as a treat.” In my experience, Greek is challenging, but it is certainly a treat. There’s nothing like reading the words of Plato, Jesus, or Thucydides in the original language!

Perhaps you, or someone you know, has considered learning Greek. There are many reasons for doing so: a desire to read the Greek historians and philosophers in the original language, a thirst for Biblical studies, or perhaps an infatuation with ancient civilizations and languages. The first question to answer is: “which Greek should I learn?”

Ancient Greek courses generally fall into one of three categories: Homeric Greek, Classical Greek, or Hellenistic Greek. Classes that focus on that last one may also be called Koine or Biblical Greek. The one you choose to start with might depend on your motivations, but I’ve studied all of them and definitely have an opinion about which gives you the biggest bang for your buck.

Homeric Greek (750 to 500 BC) is, as you might guess, the Greek in which Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are written. It’s not our earliest written Greek; that honor goes to the Mycenaean Greek (1500 to1200 BC) found on Bronze Age tablets written in Linear B. But it is the earliest Greek to tell stories. (If you like reading financial records, Mycenaean Greek is for you; otherwise, I’d move along.) Make no mistake: reading the Iliad and Odyssey in the original Greek is a delight, but most of the body of great Greek literature is from a bit later.

Classical Greek (500 to 300 BC) is the language of Herodotus, Euripides, Plato, and Xenophon. Some of our earliest and greatest literature is written in Classical Greek: Tragedy, Comedy, History, Philosophy, and more. This is the Greek that universities, a few special high schools, and programs like ours at The Lukeion Project, will focus on. It’s well worth the effort.

Hellenistic Greek (300 BC to AD 600) emerged as a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great. As his army marched south into Egypt and east as far as India, people who spoke different Greek dialects were thrown together with people learning Greek as a second language. The result was a somewhat simplified version of Greek, often called Koine or “common” Greek. This was the language of Strabo’s Geography, the New Testament documents, and Plutarch’s Lives. This is the kind of Greek that most seminaries teach.

The engaged student will profit from studying any of these, but I believe that the best place to start is with Classical Greek, whatever your ultimate goal.  Both Homeric and Hellenistic Greek are well within reach if you begin with the masters of Attic and Ionian Greek in the Classical period.

Many learners are very happy with that answer, but I get the most pushback from people who are particularly interested in Biblical studies. They often say, “but my real goal is reading the New Testament; isn’t it easier to just learn koine?” It’s a valid question, and one to which I am sympathetic; that’s where I began my journey with Greek. In fact, some seminary professors will tell you that’s all you need. I disagree with them.

Imagine someone who doesn’t speak English saying, “I want to read Shakespeare.” A friend might respond, “then you’ll need to learn English.” “But I don’t want to learn ALL English – I just want to learn Shakespeare.” Hmm… Shakespeare didn’t write in a vacuum. The words he used came with baggage and nuances and a variety of meanings, depending on context. Sometimes he used words in surprising ways that can only be grasped if you’ve encountered that word in other contexts.

So it is with the New Testament. Many classes on Koine Greek are actually classes that teach only New Testament Greek; if it’s not found in the New Testament, it’s not mentioned in class. You’ll leave class unprepared to read Strabo, the Septuagint, Plutarch, or the early Church fathers. If a word has a meaning that Bible translators and editors believe is never found in the New Testament, it won’t be in your glossary, either. You’ll never have a chance to consider that meaning along with the others.

The original recipients weren’t working from a New Testament glossary, and they weren’t encountering these words for the first time in their lives, like beginning Greek students are. For the first century audience, the words were already steeped in meaning. It was only when I began to read Classical literature that I could appreciate some of the surprising, original, and sweeping ideas that the New Testament writers expressed using words in ways that challenged their readers' assumptions. To truly read the New Testament as the original recipients did, get your translator and editor out of the way – read it for yourself, with as much context as you can. And that means starting with Classical Greek.