(See bottom of my review for the Discount Code)
The Zondervan Academic Online Course for Greek I is taught by William Mounce, best known for his book Basics of Biblical Greek along with his commentary on the pastoral epistles (WBC). He used to teach at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, but is now the President of BiblicalTraining (which offers free lectures from top scholars). Zondervan has approximately 43 online courses, though some have yet to be released.
The course is self-paced, but it must be completed within 12 months. It is 16 units long with each unit following a four-part structure: Overview, Study, Review, and Assess, and ends with a midterm. Greek II is also made up of 16 units and ends with the final.
Class Lectures
- Alphabet, Pronunciation, Punctuation, and Syllabification
- Beginning Nouns
- Genitive and Dative
- Prepositions, εἶμι, and Adjectives
- Third Declension Nouns
- First and Second Person Personal Pronouns
- αὐτὸς
- Demonstrative Pronouns/Adjectives
- Relative Pronoun
- Introduction to Verbs and Present Active Indicative
- Contract Verbs
- Present Middle/Passive Indicative
- Future Active/Middle Indicative
- Verbal Roots, and Other Forms of the Future
- Conclusion
One value with these videos is that you can replay them as many times as you want, and most run from 25-45 minutes per video/chapter. As you can see in the course lectures above, Mounce takes you through the Nouns, adjectives, and pronouns first before you learn about verbs. Without getting into all the reasons, throughout his years teaching Mounce saw that one of the most confusing aspects to students learning Greek was constantly switching back and forth between nouns and verbs. Mounce has found that it’s easiest for students to learn the nouns first before the verbs. And, really, the noun/pronoun/adjective chapters go pretty quickly. You’re going to want to have those down before you start learning verbs and all of their different moods, aspects, and tenses.
The vocabulary program used was developed by Cerego. It shows you the vocabulary word, lets you hear the pronunciation, and it tracks which words you are strong in and which ones you are weak in. I found the system to be pretty fun, actually. Each unit ends with a quiz. There is a keyboard system to know how to type the letters (and it’s a lot easier than the one provided for Hebrew).
Audience
Those who will do this will either need to be self-learners or motivated enough to become self-learners. These could be pastors, students, or anybody who wants to learn/re-learn biblical Greek. You could use this for yourself, as a group study, or a class at church. Professors could use it and integrate it into their classrooms alongside their courses or as a new online program. As classes are slowly going the way of online learning, schools can implement these courses too.
Recommended?
- Pros:
- Replayable
- Self-paced
- Words and their new forms are written out and explained.
- The course is cheaper than a physical seminary class.
- 8 hours of video
- Cons/Limits:
- You can’t ask questions
- You have access to the course for only one year (though, that’s more than you get with a seminary class).
- The course is more expensive than if you were to buy only the Grammar and Workbook (and other helpful material).
With many subjects, once you read a few books on that subject, you had a decent grasp of it, at least enough to be able to hold a small conversation. But when it comes to languages, the best way to learn any language is to have a teacher right in front of you who can answer every question you might have. Those who aren’t able to go to seminary have to rely on books to learn Greek, and you can’t ask books questions. While you can’t ask Mounce questions directly, he has more time to explain the subject matter. Most of the grammar that you would find in the Grammar book is found here, but you will want to buy the Workbook so that you can practice, practice, practice. The Workbook will help you more than you can believe.
Lagniappe
- Teacher: William D. Mounce
- Time: 25-45 minutes each
- Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar
- Basics of Biblical Greek Workbook
- Zondervan Online Learning Course List
- Bill Mounce’s Amazon page
This course discount code will get you 15% of of the course price: SPENCER
- See my review of Zondervan’s Hebrew I Online Course
Disclosure: I received these lectures free from Zondervan. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html.
spoiledmilks 
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
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