foreign languages

I actually found this book years ago when I knew no Greek at all and was looking for grammars of the Attic dialect. I had no idea that I would one day commit myself to the understanding of the bible. It is actually through an advertisement in the back of this book that I found the whole Zondervan line, including William Mounce's fantastic introductory grammar. Now, years later, as I prepare for seminary, I find that I am already equipped with most of the Greek textsbooks that I will need there.

This book is a real treasure. Long before I could read any Greek I combed over the excellent essays at the beginning about the nature of New Testament Greek and the issues of teaching and learning Greek in his "purpose of this book" essay. Also, the book is designed as a reference, giving you everything you ever wanted to know about cases in one swoop, then verbs in one swoop, etc., yet Wallace keeps the various components of the Greek language distinct from one another and is very meticulous in assuming greater knowledge from the student as one works through the book, indicating that it is designed to be methodically worked through from beginning to end in seminary courses. The result is a teaching aid that is a well-indexed reference, usable for one's entire lifetime. Also, Wallace includes a number of examples with each of his paragraphs, and each of the examples is translated from the Greek. This is a wonderful boon for someone like me who, though having started Greek 4 years ago before before learning any foreign language, has since learned to speak German and read Hebrew fluently, but never got the time to acquire great fluency in New Testament Greek. My daily biblical studies have prompted me to do many advanced word studies and pose a number of syntactical questions involving Greek, yet I have never really attained the vocabulary or fluency in the language as one who can just pick up a Greek New Testament and read it. In this respect, Wallace's clear language and numerous translated examples have helped me to no end.

I guess what I am trying to say is that this book is very user-friendly and makes a wonderful companion even to beginning students in the language, or for pastors whose Greek has gotten rusty.

Please do not misunderstand the provocative title of my comment: I am not saying that this book is worthless and that you should avoid buying it.

On the contrary, I think that Wallace's grammar is an invaluable work worth every dollar you spend for it. First of all, unlike other grammars, this one is as thrilling as a detective novel. Of course, unless you are deeply interested in NT exegesis, you will probably find Wallace's huge treatise anything but gripping. But if like me you are an impassioned reader of the Gospel and its original text, you will surely love this book.And the good news is that it is not for advanced learners of koine Greek only. In fact I started using it with minimal knowledge of Greek and I have little doubt that a complete stranger to the language of Luke and Paul could also glean immensely useful information from its pages provided he be a serious student of the Scriptures.

Having said that I must warn potential buyers and readers that Wallace is not an objective grammarian and linguist at all. Unlike a real scientist, he does not put aside his own religious and philosophical convictions aside and look at the NT dispassionately. What he does almost sistematically is to advance his own Protestant views of Christ and atonement and other crucial points with the help of Greek grammar. Fortunately, he does state the opinion of scholars who disagree with him but he gives them minimal space. Most of the time he does not even quote them!

A perfect example of Wallace's bias is the discussion on the use of the prepositions "uper" and "anti" in relation to the question of atonement. He mentions the fact that W.Bauer translates these prepositions by "on behalf of" rather than by "instead of" but he does not illustrate or expatiate on Bauer's point of view. Instead the reader is presented with several pages of arguments in favor of his own opinion, so that the naive reader may end up thinking that the translation favored by respected scholars like Bauer has no solid ground under it. And that is only one example among many, many others.

Of course, one could argue that many dubious points of Greek grammar simply cannot be cleared without a previous choice and that all exegesis must involve a certain amount of eisegesis. This may be true but Wallace really goes too far. Does he write for only for his small chapel? Aren't there Catholics and eastern Orthodox and Jews out there too?

Strangely enough this is a BCE(before common era)/CE(common era)book. Does Wallace not realize that these acronyms are basically anti-Christian and contribute to the secularization of our culture?

I say to all Christian authors: FOR GOD'S SAKE USE BC AND AD !!!

So my advice to you is: buy this grammar. But be sure to buy another one to know the two sides of the Biblical coin.

This book may come as a shock to the student who turns to it fresh from first-year Greek. It is thick. It is dense. It is complicated. It is also cautious and tentative in places, pointing out that in some areas Greek grammar is either not fully understood or is undergoing re-examination. That last lesson may be worth the price of the book alone, if it brings about a proper attitude of humility in the exegete.

Although self-described as a textbook, it is difficult to read straight through. I prefer to graze short sections at a time to get acquainted with the layout and topics. Mainly I use it in conjunction with Scripture study by consulting the (very useful) index of keyed passages. The other indices, however, are cumbersome to use since the entries are not sufficiently subdivided -- you may have to turn to seven or eight pages before you find the information you need.

You haven't attained basic proficiency in NT Greek until you are broadly conversant with the subject matter of this book. Keep it next to your Greek Testament.