The Bible in its historic languages for everyone. App: biblingo.com // YouTube: biblingo.com/youtube // Community: community.biblingo.org
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The time has come.
Kevin Grasso's Greek textbook will be available on November 2nd online and in print.
Reading Greek Deeply: A Linguistic, Exegetical, and Fluency-Based Introduction is published by De Gruyter Brill.
The online PDF will be free and open-access, and print copies will also be available. You can enter to win a free copy here: biblingo.com/textbook
Why yet another Greek grammar in the crowded world of excellent Greek textbooks? A few reasons:
(1) INTEGRATED WITH BIBLINGO
While it stands alone, this textbook also serves as the perfect companion to the Greek lessons in the Biblingo app.
It is designed to provide a way for Biblingo learners to dive deeper into the grammar of Greek. Those of you who use Biblingo have already been using much of this material in draft form inside the app lessons.
(2) APPLICATION OF LINGUISTICS
This textbook seeks to apply the latest research in linguistics to the study of NT Greek.
Linguist Paul Kroeger (DIU) said: "The book models an integrated approach to linguistics and Biblical studies, illustrating some of the ways in which each tradition can benefit from the insights of the other."
(3) MARRIAGE OF METHODOLOGIES
With this project, Kevin aims to synthezize the best of varying approaches to learning Greek.
Greek professor @smehorn (HCU) says of the textbook: "I recommend it heartily to any students and especially teachers of Greek who are seeking to bridge the gap between living-language approaches and traditional grammar instruction.
4. UNIQUE INTEGRATION OF EXEGESIS
Rather than relegating exegesis to the later stages of learning Greek, this textbook integrates exegetical practice early and often.
New Testament scholar @jasonstaples said, "The interspersed exegetical sections are also of value on their own even beyond the demonstration of methods, making robust and sometimes novel cases for strong readings, though not all will agree with every conclusion. Highly recommended."
This textbook will be adaptable for:
- Seminary and university classrooms (covers a typical 4 semesters of Greek)
- High-school study (can span 4 years of study)
- Self-study (serves as a fantastic complement to Biblingo)
Learn more about the textbook and enter to win a free hard copy at biblingo.com/textbook.
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Anyone who gets serious about Bible study will quickly run into true-sounding misconceptions about the biblical languages. Here are 5 of the most common:
myth no. 1 - There are secret messages encoded in Hebrew letters
myth no. 2 - The past perfective tense signals a “once for all completed action”
myth no. 3 - You can derive a word’s meaning from its etymology
myth no. 4 - The “literal” meaning is always the right one
myth no. 5 - The biblical languages are “special” and should be treated differently than other languages
Full breakdown of each myth here: biblingo.com/biblical-langua…
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Biblingo retweeted
This update is likely the GREATEST addition to the @biblingoapp ever made (from a usability perspective)!
Bravo, team 👏
Gone are the days of installing clunky third-party keyboard apps to type Greek and Hebrew in Biblingo.
Biblingo now has its own native keyboard on mobile and web.
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Gone are the days of installing clunky third-party keyboard apps to type Greek and Hebrew in Biblingo.
Biblingo now has its own native keyboard on mobile and web.
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Many people assume that learning a language is 25% perspiration (hard work) and 75% inspiration (being naturally good at languages).
In reality, it’s 25% perspiration and 75% *strategy.*
Everyone is capable of learning languages (just look at the one you’re reading now!), though it certainly comes more easily to some. But most don’t understand the mechanics of how to learn a language. They just start doing vocab flashcards and ploughing through a grammar textbook – hoping their hard work will pay off.
But it probably won’t.
Forgetting the eggs when baking a cake makes a dense, doughy mess. So goes it for language learning. If you don’t have the right mix of ingredients in your learning process, you likely won’t get fluent (or it will take a lot more time and struggle.)
Enter, the "four strands" of language learning.
This is a framework developed by Paul Nation, a leading scholar in the field of second language acquisition.
The four strands are:
1. Meaning-focused input
When reading or listening to your target language, you should not be thinking about the language. You should be thinking about the meaning that’s being communicated. This means you should know 95-98% of the words in the text or audio you’re consuming. It must be comprehensible - and you shouldn’t have to constantly look up words.
2. Meaning-focused output
Passive consumption of language material can only get you so far. Actively using the language through speaking and writing requires greater depth of processing, so engaging in this skill commits the language to long-term memory more efficiently.
3. Language-focused learning
This is where you focus on learning particular features of the language. Any activity where you are focused on the language itself rather than the meaning being communicated by the language falls into this bucket. Many language courses over-emphasize this strand at the expense of the others.
4. Fluency development
Developing fluency is all about going fast, so fluency drills should always involve texts where you know 100% of the vocabulary and are comfortable with the grammatical constructions. That way, you can push yourself to comprehend the material quicker and quicker on each run-through until your brain is able to use the language quickly and automatically.
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These are the four key ingredients – the four types of language-learning activities – that are essential to developing fluency.
Activities in each strand should take up about one-fourth of the total time spent in learning a language. The amount of time given to each strand may vary depending on the goal of the student, but the more time you put into each strand, the better you will be at that strand.
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At some point, most Greek/Hebrew learners hit what @billmounce calls "the fog."
This is the muddy phase that comes when you are waste deep in vocab and grammar paradigms and can't seem to find a path forward.
When you hit this slough of despond (which comes for most Biblingo users around Level 10 in the app), you have 2 options:
1/ Muck around until you finally find a way forward
2/ Get guidance from those who have travelled this path before
Biblingo's Community is designed for those who want to take the second route. It's for those who want to be given every tool to quickly develop fluency in biblical Greek and Hebrew.
That means:
- a lively online community of in-house scholars and fellow Biblingo learners
- weekly intensive reading groups
- fluency workshops to help you internalize the language
- grammar reviews to commit paradigms to long term memory
Trying to learn biblical Greek or Hebrew without a local community or outside of a classroom setting is a lonely grind. If you are in that grind, Biblingo's Community could be your ticket out and into the green pastures of fluency.
Learn more at biblingo.com/community.
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What has challenged you the most in learning Greek, Hebrew, or Latin? And what keeps you going?
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Biblingo is now on Substack.
Subscribe for nerdy deep dives on the biblical languages and second language acquisition.
Our most recent article explores the importance of reading aloud for language acquisition.
You can save it to read later here: biblingoapp.substack.com/p/o…
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All translations are interpretations.
Necessarily, even if the translator is doing word for word, they have to decide that this particular Greek word matches this particular English word best, and that means interpreting the original Greek word. You can't get around this.
Some translations do this better and some don't do it as well. But you are reading through the translator's lens, and that lens is going to color the text. The key is to be aware of *how* it's coloring the text.
This is why, when you are studing a passage, it's important to look at multiple translations with different translation philosophies.
Take a more word-for-word translation, like the ESV. Take a freer translation, like the NLT. And take one in the middle, like the NIV. Read them together and see what the differences are.
From there, you can think about how the different translators are understanding the passage and reflecting that in their translation. Through this comparision, you can come to a better understanding of the text and pick a translation you think is best in that particular passage.
There is no single most accurate translation. It's all dependent upon how they take particular passages and how they interpret them, because every single one of them is doing interpretation.
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If you've been thinking about fast-tracking your Greek or Hebrew learning with one of our live courses, the time of decision approaches!
Classes begin next week (Sept 18). You can see details and select the times that work best for you here: biblingo.com/live
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Introducing Progress History on Biblingo
You can now see weekly XP, words learned, time spent, words per minute, and % of the Bible's vocab known - measured across various time frames from 4 weeks to 1 year.
Download Biblingo version 2.7.5 or check it out at app.biblingo.com.
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Introducing a new Biblingo feature:
~ Words You Know ~
You can now browse, search, and sort every word you've learned, see when each is due for review, and add or remove it from your rotation. Practice any word individually, or up to 20 at a time, from the list.
Download Biblingo version 2.7.5 or check it out at app.biblingo.com.
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Biblingo Latin now has Ecclesiastical Pronunciation.
biblingo.com/latin
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Consistency.
It's the main thing successful language learners have in common. They took consistent steps in the right direction over an extended period of time.
Biblingo gives you the "right direction," but you have to supply the consistency. And even the most disciplined among us struggle to form and maintain a learning habit.
That's one reason why our live courses exist. They provide a structure for the rhythm of your learning.
Biblingo user Cosima said that using the app: "I did a lesson here a lesson there and then stopped for a couple of weeks and then did several lessons a day. And also I just went ahead even if I wasn't sure if I really understood it. I thought okay, later it will make sense."
But with the live courses "it was completely different. Now I had a structure - every week a lesson. And I had to show up and prove that I understood everything. [The pressure] in this case was really, really very helpful. A huge difference."
If you want to quickly grow in your proficiency with the biblical languages, consider joining a Biblingo Live course beginning next week (Sept 28).
Learn more at biblingo.com/live.
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You're not reading Greek when you rely word-for-word on a system of pre-assigned English glosses. You're just recreating [your favorite Bible translation] by memory.
Trust us: The biblical languages are more exciting, enjoyable, & enriching than this.
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Yes, Augustine could not read Hebrew and still did incredible things with his life and ministry. But can you imagine what he would do with all the resources we have today?
Bet he'd be on Biblingo right now. 😎
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One of the best reasons to learn the biblical languages is that they defamiliarize the Bible to you. They make it strange again. Encountering the Bible in its original languages can be disorienting, unsettling, and confusing –– and therefore, far more difficult to tame.
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