Morphology of Biblical Greek, The

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Explanation of the Language
Review: "I hate memorization" is how the book begins, and Mounce makes it so you do not need to do mindless rote memorization either. This book explains in simple language the rules used by Greek in the formation of words. Once one understands the rules, the language behaves VERY regular and in an understandable fashion. For example, one you realize the spelling changes are for the sake of pronunciation, they make sense! This book is well worth its weight in gold. You can use it as a stand-alone reference work, but it is designed to go with Mounce's Grammar and Lexicon. I can't encourage you enought to get this book if you want to understand the langauge instead of just memorizing a bunch of paradigms.

Rating:
Summary: Morphing in style
Review: Just about everyone who teaches Greek knows William D. Mounce's material. His "Basics of Biblical Greek" is now the standard first year grammar. The Morphology of Biblical Greek (MBG) is an important text for those in their second year of Greek and are beginning to experience both the joys and the sorrows of reading the Greek New Testament (GNT) I instruct my students to purchase Sakae Kubo's "Reader's Lexicon" and this volume once they successfully finished their first year of Greek.
MBG gives every lemma that appears in the GNT a unique morphological code and places the lexical form and the code in an index at the end of this book. When you find a word in the GNT whose form you don't understand; simply look up the lexical form in the index, get the code and then read that section in the body of the textbook. Mounce explains the 'whys' of the form so the student can understand each step in the words formation. Since the rules learned apply to an entire class of words, the next time you encounter any similar word (i.e., a word with the same code), you will understand it as well.
I believe that the best way to master Greek is to read the GNT. This book, coupled with a good Reader's Lexicon and Syntax will give you the tools you need to master reading the GNT (obviously more tools will be required for in-depth study).
My only criticism of MBG is that Zondervan printed this as a softcover -- what in the world were they thinking!!

Rating:
Summary: Morphing in style
Review: Just about everyone who teaches Greek knows William D. Mounce's material. His "Basics of Biblical Greek" is now the standard first year grammar. The Morphology of Biblical Greek (MBG) is an important text for those in their second year of Greek and are beginning to experience both the joys and the sorrows of reading the Greek New Testament (GNT) I instruct my students to purchase Sakae Kubo's "Reader's Lexicon" and this volume once they successfully finished their first year of Greek.
MBG gives every lemma that appears in the GNT a unique morphological code and places the lexical form and the code in an index at the end of this book. When you find a word in the GNT whose form you don't understand; simply look up the lexical form in the index, get the code and then read that section in the body of the textbook. Mounce explains the 'whys' of the form so the student can understand each step in the words formation. Since the rules learned apply to an entire class of words, the next time you encounter any similar word (i.e., a word with the same code), you will understand it as well.
I believe that the best way to master Greek is to read the GNT. This book, coupled with a good Reader's Lexicon and Syntax will give you the tools you need to master reading the GNT (obviously more tools will be required for in-depth study).
My only criticism of MBG is that Zondervan printed this as a softcover -- what in the world were they thinking!!

Rating:
Summary: Morphing in style
Review: Just about everyone who teaches Greek knows William D. Mounce's material. His "Basics of Biblical Greek" is now the standard first year grammar. The Morphology of Biblical Greek (MBG) is an important text for those in their second year of Greek and are beginning to experience both the joys and the sorrows of reading the Greek New Testament (GNT) I instruct my students to purchase Sakae Kubo's "Reader's Lexicon" and this volume once they successfully finished their first year of Greek.
MBG gives every lemma that appears in the GNT a unique morphological code and places the lexical form and the code in an index at the end of this book. When you find a word in the GNT whose form you don't understand; simply look up the lexical form in the index, get the code and then read that section in the body of the textbook. Mounce explains the 'whys' of the form so the student can understand each step in the words formation. Since the rules learned apply to an entire class of words, the next time you encounter any similar word (i.e., a word with the same code), you will understand it as well.
I believe that the best way to master Greek is to read the GNT. This book, coupled with a good Reader's Lexicon and Syntax will give you the tools you need to master reading the GNT (obviously more tools will be required for in-depth study).
My only criticism of MBG is that Zondervan printed this as a softcover -- what in the world were they thinking!!

Rating:
Summary: Excellant as a reference but don't get bogged down
Review: There is no doubt that this is an excellant resource and if you master it you will really know Greek. My experience was that I got bogged down in it. At some point I found reading and understanding the why more difficult than just memorizing it. It's intended as a reference tool and that is how it's best used early in your Greek - use occasionally but mostly just read the Greek and figure it out. After some practice you can read the Greek without having to think about what form it is or why, you just know it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellant as a reference but don't get bogged down
Review: There is no doubt that this is an excellant resource and if you master it you will really know Greek. My experience was that I got bogged down in it. At some point I found reading and understanding the why more difficult than just memorizing it. It's intended as a reference tool and that is how it's best used early in your Greek - use occasionally but mostly just read the Greek and figure it out. After some practice you can read the Greek without having to think about what form it is or why, you just know it.

Rating:
Summary: Here's how to own Greek!
Review: Yes, you can own Greek for yourself by using this precious gem of a book. Free yourself from endlessly reviewing paradigms and principal parts. Prevent yourself from using analytical lexicons and interlinear texts, which are the fastest ways to forget the Greek you worked so hard (and paid so much money?) to learn.

By making a habit of looking up "hard" word forms in MBG first, your command of the details of Greek word formation will become stronger and stronger.