Koinê Greek...
The Study of Koinê Greek
Instructor:
Dr. Kenneth R. Walters
Associate Professor
Classics, Greek, and Latin
Wayne State University
The instructor of this course is Dr. Ken Walters, a new parishioner of St. John’s (along with his wife Sandy) since 2006. Dr. Walters, who received his BA from Bowdoin College, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University, has taught ancient Greek at the university level for 37 years. Currently he is an instructor at Wayne State University in Detroit where this year he is teaching Honors Classical Civilization, Ancient Athenian Oratory (in Greek), Ancient Greek Lyric Poetry (in Greek), and Intermediate Introductory Greek. Among Dr. Walters’ teaching and research specialties are Ancient Greek and Roman Religion, Roman Law and Society, and Greek and Roman Coins and Coinage.
About the Course
About Koinê Greek at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Detroit
This fall (2007) St. John’s inaugurates a year-long course of instruction in the basics of koinê Greek, taught by Dr. Ken Walters, a parishioner of St. John’s and a long-time instructor in Classics, Greek, and Latin at nearby Wayne State University.
The course is open both to parishioners and to the greater community.
There will be ten meetings each Sunday (Noon – 1:00 PM) both fall (2007) and winter/spring (2008) semesters (see the calendar for particulars). The textbook is William Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar . Our focus is the Gospel of Mark, and the goal we strive for by the end of classes is to have proficiency in reading the Gospel of Mark in Greek, for greater spiritual understanding.
Course Calendar
Class is scheduled to meet from Noon – 1:00 PM on the following Sundays:*
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2008
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January
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February
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March
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April
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6
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3
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2
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6
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13
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10
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9
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13
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20
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17
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16
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20
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27
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24
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23
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27
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30
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* Schedule subject to change
Course Documents
Adobe Reader
The documents below are in Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Reader, or do not have the latest version for your platform (strongly recommended), it may be downloaded, free of charge, via the “Get Adobe Reader” link.
General Documents
Icthys
Icthys 2
New Testament Readings
Year C
Trinity Season
All Saints’ Sunday (11-04-07)
Year A
Advent Season
The First Sunday in Advent (12-02-07)
Christmastide
The First Sunday after Christmas Day (12-30-07)
Epiphany Season
The Feast of the Epiphany (01-06-08)
The First Sunday after the Epiphany (01-13-08)
Pre-Lenten Season
Septuagesima/The Second Sunday after the Epiphany (01-20-08)
Sexagesima/The Third Sunday after the Epiphany (01-27-08)
Quinquagesima/The Last Sunday after the Epiphany (02-03-08)
Lenten Season
The First Sunday in Lent (02-10-08)
The Second Sunday in Lent (02-17-08)
The Third Sunday in Lent (02-24-08)
The Fourth Sunday in Lent (03-02-08)
Passiontide
Passion Sunday/The Fifth Sunday in Lent (03-09-08)
Palm Sunday: The Liturgy of the Palms (03-16-08)
Class Updates
2 DEC 07
The Bibliotheca Augustana (“The Augsburg Library”)
This link gives access to very many literary texts on-line. Of particular interest to us are the Internet editions of the Old (Septuagint) and New Testaments in Greek.
In the Bibliotheca Augustana, click on the link with this rubric, Ἡ καινὴ διαθήκη, and you will be taken to the New Testament.
Click on the link with this rubric, Ἡ παλαιὰ διαθήκη, and you will be taken to the Old Testament (in koinê Greek).
In the words of the creator of the page (Dr. Ulrich Harsch):
Hae paginae proponent Musa adiuvante in lingua Latina - nunc etiam in lingua Graeca, Germanica, Anglica, Gallica, Italica, Hispanica, Polonica, Russica - facta et ficta. non solum «arma virumque» canunt, sed etiam «fulliones ululamque». Dicebat Bernardus Carnotensis «nos esse quasi nanos gigantum umeris insidentes, ut possimus plura eis et remotiora videre, non utique proprii visus acumine aut eminentia corporis, sed quia in altum subvehimur et extollimur magnitudine gigantea». Ergo, benevole lector, tolle, lege et carpe data. lectoribus enim habent sua fata libelli.
Augustae Vindelicorum, Kal. Mart. anno MCMXCVI, Ulrich Harsch
translation by krw: “These pages will set forth, with the help of the Muse, facts and fictions in Latin – now too in Greek, German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and Russian. They sing not just of “Arms and the Man” [first words of Vergil’s Aeneid -- krw] but also of “Fullers and the Owl” [a misquote (and misspelling) taken from a famous graffito scratched in a fullery (drycleaner’s shop) in the ruins of ancient Ostia: ( Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum IV, 9131 -- krw) “ Fullones ululamque cano non arma virumq(ue)”]. Bernard of Chartres once said [referring to the great writers and thinkers of antiquity], “We are like dwarves sitting on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they and farther, not because of our own keen vision or bodily size, but because we ride higher and are lifted up by their giant size.” Therefore, kind reader, “pick it up, read”, [quote from Augustine, Confessions 12.8 -- krw] and reap its gifts. For their readers books do have their fates” [a misquote of a famous saying of the grammarian Terentius Maurus (from his book de litteris, de syllabis, de metris), pro captu lectorum habent sua fata libelli.” -- krw]
Augsburg, March 1, 1996. Ulrich Harsch”
Early Christian Writings
Author: Peter Kirby
Overview: This meta-site claims to have gathered links to all early Christian writings available on line, in the original and/or in English translation. It also provides information to off-line (e.g., solely print) resources. Finally, the page editor also provides some of his own analysis for the various sources.
- Description in the words of the editor:
- “The purpose of this web site is to set out all of the Christian writings that are believed to have been written in the first and second centuries, as well as a few selected from the early third. I have also included non-Christian documents that may have special bearing on the study of early Christianity in order to make this web site a comprehensive sourcebook. I have provided links to English translations for all of these documents. When available, the work has also been provided in the original language, usually Greek. I have also provided information and scholarly opinion regarding the background, authorship, dating, and provenance of these documents. These comments are intended to provide an introduction.”
The Greek New Testament Gateway
Under the direction of Dr. Marc Goodacre, Dept. of Religion, Duke University
A meta-site bringing together a number sites on the New Testament (NT). Of primary interest to us are links to texts of the Gospels and the rest of the NT, and also to search engines of the NT.
Some historically, religiously, or cultural oriented sites listed on this page may have points of view with which we as Episcopalians may not agree. I believe that St. John’s parishioners are theologically sophisticated enough to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Many thanks to Allen Bass for telling us about this site.
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