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This web page was last updated on January 9, 2012.
Any questions about the course itself, contact the instructor, Susan Jeffers, susan.jeffers@utoronto.ca
Questions about registration, fees, deadlines, etc, contact the Knox College registrar, Ruth McCarten, at knox.registrar@utoronto.ca. Students must register either for credit or audit by the first day of class (September 12 for Greek I). 2011-12 tuition was $540 per course for Canadian students, $1,460 for Visa/International students, $200 to audit. Check with the Registrar for tuition and fees for 2012-13.
PREREQUISITE: None
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Taken in sequence, Greek I and II provide an introduction to the basic elements
of New Testament Greek. Students will master essential aspects of Greek morphology
and syntax and acquire a substantial reading vocabulary. The courses employ
both deductive and inductive methods, with increasing emphasis on the latter
as students progress through the year. By the end of the first semester, students
will have mastered first and second declension nouns, pronouns, adjectives,
and indicative verbs, and have experience analyzing Greek sentences and simple
literary structure. Students will be expected to use audio recordings and practice
listening to and reading Greek aloud, as well as writing Greek both by hand
and using a word processor with Greek fonts. These courses will be conducted
online. Evaluation: Weekly written assignments, four closed-book quizzes, mid-term translation project,
proctored final exam.
STUDENT LEARNING GOALS:
Upon successfully completing these two courses, the student will have demonstrated:
1. Ability to analyze (parse) Greek nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs.
2. Facility sight-reading Greek sentences, and writing Greek script both by hand and using Greek fonts in a word processor.
4. Ability to analyze and translate New Testament Greek passages with the some helps provided.
5. Acquisition of a basic New Testament Greek vocabulary.
REQUIRED BOOKS:
You can order these books through Crux Bookstore, either locally in Toronto or to be shipped anywhere in the world. If you use a different online or local bookselle, be sure to get the correct edition, particularly for the Lexicon. Older editions of Croy differ only in not having the CD - the textbook itself is the same. For the GNT, you need the Fourth Revised Edition so the "textual apparatus" will match what we'll discuss in class, as well as the Dictionary, to which we will refer frequently.
1. A Primer of Biblical Greek, by N. Clayton Croy (Eerdmans). Second Edition, 2007 (includes a CD). ISBN 9780802860002.
2. The Greek New Testament, Fourth Revised Edition with Dictionary (Deutsche Biblegesellschaft/United Bible Societies/American Bible Society) ISBN 3438051133 or 978-3438051133.
3. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd edition, by Walter Bauer, William Arndt and Frederick W. Danker (University of Chicago Press, 2000) ISBN 0226039331.
OPTIONAL BOOK:
A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament. Fourth Revised Edition. By Bruce M. Metzger. (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft / United Bible Societies). ISBN 3438060108 or 978-3438060105.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND POLICIES:
Our work will proceed on a weekly cycle, with each week covering particular textbook lessons(s) and/or reviews. Each week runs from Monday through Friday, with a firm deadline of 6 a.m. Eastern time Monday morning for posts or other assignments in the preceding week. It's fine to work ahead, but do NOT get behind!
It is the usual policy of Knox College to assess a penalty for late assignments, with four percentage points to be deducted per week that an assignment is late and partial deductions for partial weeks. However, due to the nature of this on line course and the critical importance of keeping abreast with learning a language, all assignments must be submitted on time and cannot be revisited after their due date.
All work other than the four quizzes and final exam will be open book and open notes; students are encouraged to help one another, ask questions online or whatever else you want to do to help your understanding. You are welcome to use answer keys, and for the LXX and NT exercises, to consult an English translation. However, if you use such helps as a short-cut, be sure to also figure out why and how the sentence works in Greek!
The final exam will consist of translating a passage from the Greek New Testament, with some words underlined to be parsed. Some helps will be provided for the more difficult words or grammatical structures. Students who live within 200 km of Knox College will write the final exam at the college; all others must arrange for a local proctor. No books or other resources will be allowed during the final exam.
STUDENT EVALUATION
The instructor will make every effort to give students timely feedback as we go through the course, and students are encouraged to help one another whenever possible. Our primary goal is to learn as much New Testament Greek as possible, and to learn how to learn NT Greek; anyone who applies him or herself to that task should have no trouble passing the course.
You need 700 points or more in order to earn credit in each of the two courses in the sequence.
Points for Greek I are assigned as follows:
300 Assignments for each lesson, 20 points per lesson starting with Lesson
2 (Greek II: 320 points total, for lessons 17-32)
150 Online class participation for each lesson, 10 points per lesson starting
with Lesson 2 (Greek II: (160 points total, for lessons 17-32)
100 Four closed book quizzes, 25 points each
200 Mid-term exam/assignment (Greek II: 170 points total)
250 Final exam (proctored)
-----
1000 total possible points
In order to receive the full 10 points for each lesson's online class participation, you must post at least one substantive question, comment, or substantive response to others in the Discussion forum for that lesson. To receive credit, your post must be timestamped no later than 6 a.m. Eastern, of the Monday after the lesson ended.
At the end of the course, students will receive both their numerical average (%) and a letter grade:
| Letter Grade | Numerical Equivalent |
| A+ | 90%-100% |
| A | 85%-89% |
| A- | 80%-84% |
| B+ | 77%-79% |
| B | 73%-76% |
| B- | 70%-72% |
| FZ | 0%-69% |
A note on Greek pronunciation: This course will present both modern Greek and the "Erasmian" pronunciation taught in many seminaries and universities in North America. Each student is welcome to use both sets of audio recordings; however it is important that each student choose one or the other pronunciation system to master and use. Students planning to continue their studies at Knox College MUST use modern Greek pronunciation in this course. Others may choose either system.
For those choosing modern Greek pronunciation:
* Skip chapter 1 in the required Croy textbook (see above).
* Use this Modern
Greek Pronunciation document and accompanying
audio to learn the basics.
* Then use this audo recording and pdf to practice listening and reading along
with John 1:1-8:
John 1:1-8 - audio - excerpted from Spiros Zodhiates' modern Greek New Testament
CD set; I've added a 2-second pause between verses, to help you keep your place.
The full CD set is available at
www.christanbook.com.
John 1:1-8 - text
from the UBS/NA text we will be using in the class
For those choosing Erasmian pronunciation:
Use chapter 1 in the required Croy textbook (see above), along with these audio
recordings:
http://www.earlham.edu/~jeffesu/NTGreek1/longer.htm
You will need to install the "bwgrkl" font (see below) in order to
see the Greek characters on your computer screen.
Displaying Greek characters and typing in Greek: In order to learn Greek over the Internet in this course, you will need to install the "bwgrkl" Greek font on the computer you will be using. Fonts are the computer's way of handling Greek letters, so you see the Greek alphabet on your computer screen rather than English. If you're not particularly computer savvy, get someone to help you, or just try following the instructions at the link. If you get stuck, you can email or call the instructor, but try it on your own first.
Bwgrkl is a font that comes with the computer program BibleWorks. It will be the primary font I'll use when I post examples, exercises and quiz questions. You will use it to type your assignments. You can also use it for incorporating Greek script into your academic or other writing, for example if you want to discuss a particular Greek word or phrase. Download Bwgrkl at http://www.bibleworks.com/fonts.html. When you have it properly installed, you should see the following displayed in Greek characters:
evlqe,tw h` basilei,a sou\ genhqh,tw to. qe,lhma, sou( w`j evn ouvranw/| kai. evpi. gh/j\ (Matthew 6:10)
If you have questions about the course itself, contact the instructor, Susan Jeffers, susan.jeffers@utoronto.ca
Questions about registration, fees, deadlines, etc, contact Knox College, University of Toronto.
Questions about Blackboard or other computer issues, contact St. George Campus Information Commons, First Floor, Robarts Library; phone: 416.978.HELP (4357), email help.desk@utoronto.ca.