There are many reasons to study Ancient Greek. Learning it gives you access to the New Testament and the writings of the Greek Church Fathers in the original language. It gives us the same kind of access to the Ancient Greek authors whose works are the cornerstone of Western literature and philosophy. However, learning a language is generally a challenge, especially if you are studying by yourself and do not have the assistance of an experienced teacher.

In this interview, Prof. Michael Boler selects five books for learning Ancient Greek and offers some advice on how to study it.

Dr. Michael Boler is Associate Professor of Classics, Director of the Honors Program and Program Director of Classics at the University of St. Thomas, Huston. He teaches Latin, Classical Greek, Latin and Greek literature, and ancient history. His area of research is classical reception. He is the author of Introduction to Classical and New Testament Greek: A Unified Approach and the accompanying Answer Key and Commentary to Introduction to Classical and New Testament Greek.

Introduction to Classical and New Testament Greek: A Unified Approach
by Michael Boler
A Reader's Greek New Testament: Third Edition
by Richard J. Goodrich and Albert L. Lukaszewski
A Patristic Greek Reader
by Rodney A. Whitacre
A Student Handbook of Greek and English Grammar
by Robert Mondi and Peter L. Corrigan
A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd Edition
by Walter Bauer and Frederick William Danker

Five Books for Catholics may receive a commission from qualifyng purchases made using the affliate links in this post.

Should someone seeking a well-rounded education in the liberal arts study Ancient Greek?
Yes. However, I would preface that by saying something that I always tell my students. Learning Ancient Greek, or Latin for that matter, will not make you holier. You can lead a full Catholic life without learning ancient Greek. You do not gain any esoteric knowledge or secrets by learning it.

However, it is an incredibly rich field of study, particularly for reading the Gospels in Greek. Are you going to lose crucial information if you do not know Greek? No. However, there are some really wonderful things that you get from studying it, things which are really hard to get from the translation.

One of the reasons why I wrote Introduction to Classical and New Testament Greek was to give students the experience of reading passages in Greek from the outset. This really sparks their interest.

Besides the Scriptures, there is classical poetry, history, and philosophy. There is an incredible richness there. Nevertheless, no one should feel that their life is incomplete if they do not know Greek.

Until recently, study of the classical Greek authors was part of a Christian education. The goal was to draw not on the wisdom of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome. That was true of the Church Fathers, medieval scholastics, the Christian humanists of the Renaissance, and even the classically trained theologians of Vatican II. However, now we have good translations. Moving forward, do we need to recover the study of Ancient Greek as an essential part of a Christian education?
It would certainly help. In the United States, there is a growing classical education movement. My children are enrolled in such schools. There, they start Greek quite early: in fourth grade, with eight- and nine-year-olds. This can be very beneficial.

Logistically, it is very difficult. Any movement to recover the study of Ancient Greek needs to be organic and from the ground up, rather than top-down. Classical education mandated from on high would not be very successful. It is more successful whenever it grows from the bottom up, as with parents who homeschool their children or freely send their kids to classical schools.

Does the study of Ancient Greek inculcate any valuable soft skills?
It does. Above all, it allows the student to see that there is not always a one-to-one correspondence between words in one language and another. Learning other languages does this as well. This is not a relativistic way of thinking about language. Rather, various English words can translate a Greek word. There is no right answer.

My students pick up quite quickly on one of my pet peeves. Whenever they ask what the translation for a sentence is, I always reply that there is no such thing. There is only a translation.

Sometimes, this comes across as relativistic. It is the reverse. It is the intellectual humility to know that one's native language is not 100 % sufficient for communicating certain things. Any language struggles to communicate the objective reality that lies beyond it. It is a matter of triangulation. The more languages you study, the more attuned you become to the reality that each one is trying to express.

Another benefit, especially for children, is that learning a language trains the brain in memorization. Many classical schools are reintroducing the memorization of large pieces of poetry. Study after study shows that—whether due to a lack of reading in school or technology—the current generation of children and young people has the lowest ever capacity to retain and memorize information, since these were measured.

The advantages you have just mentioned can be acquired through learning any foreign language. However, Greek seems to be in a class of its own when it comes to its cultural legacy. Our theatre, literature, and philosophy all go back to Ancient Greece. Does not learning Ancient Greek offer something more than other languages, no matter how valuable their cultural traditions?
I agree completely. On the first day of a Greek course, I make two lists of things that the study of Greek will give you. One is of the ways it forms the brain and teaches you to think about the world. The other is of the works to which it gives you access. These works are the foundations for how we think today politically, artistically, and philosophically.

One of the main reasons why I wrote the Introduction to Classical and New Testament Greek was that some students wanted to read Scripture but others wanted to read Aeschylus, Plato, or Aristotle. There was no textbook that covered both. Most textbooks did not want to have anything to do with Scripture and excluded it completely. Similarly, the textbooks for New Testament Greek were aimed exclusively at teaching people how to read Scripture. They never covered Plato, Aristotle, or Aeschylus. Each class of textbook did a great disservice. All these works are written in the same language. It is a great benefit to have access to the original text of all of them.

Are the books you have recommended for high-school and university students or are any suitable for middle school students?
They would be difficult for middle-school students. There are different approaches to teaching Greek. I only teach college students and so I do not know what is best for middle-school students.

Most of the classical schools adopt a more inductive method for middle-school. The students do not learn grammar from day one but receive a general familiarization with Greek. Taking this approach early on can be very beneficial.

In general, the inductive method works better for young children.

For high-school students, there is a great benefit to explaining the grammar behind what they grasp intuitively: to teaching all the forms of the noun and so forth. Another great benefit is that you do not have to teach much about English grammar to those who have studied Latin and Greek.

Today, many in the United States are not taught grammar, unless they attend a private or a classical school. Hence, there is an educational crisis among those entering university. They do not know what a subject or a predicate is. Learning Greek or Latin is very beneficial for them.

You mentioned the inductive method. As you pointed out, there are various methods for learning ancient languages. One teaches students the grammar, the vocabulary through the exercise of speaking and writing Ancient Greek. Others focus on reading classical texts. You have already noted that inductive method is maybe better for younger students. Which approach do you recommend for adults?
It really depends on how much time you can devote. Typically, I have a student for two semesters, for three fifty-minute periods a week. In that incredibly short time, I need to teach them the complete grammar and cover twenty chapters a semester.

In a year, you can work through a book on the basic grammar. You cannot do that with the inductive method, even though speaking and composing in Greek is fantastic and very helpful. The only way to teach Greek during two semesters in a traditional university setting is by teaching grammar.

If you are studying on your own, you can follow the inductive method. There are many great online resources for composing and speaking in Greek. We practiced them in grad-school and they are incredibly beneficial. Though the inductive method is not for everyone, it can be great if you have the time and financial resources. For most people, however, it will be a challenge both financially and timewise.

You have just talked about the challenges of learning a foreign language. Learning a language can be difficult and boring, especially in the early stages. What advice do you have for discouraged students of Ancient Greek?
Again, this may seem self-serving, but I always tell my students that life is too short to read made-up Greek sentences in the early stages of learning. One of the main reasons I wrote the book is I wanted all the example sentences to be real, from cool sources, very interesting and attention-grabbing.

Pedagogically, it would be better to start with made-up sentences. However, they are very boring. The very first sentence in my Greek book is John 3:16. The key is to get students to read early on interesting passages early on from works that were actually written in Greek.

I love languages, memorizing forms, and comparing them to other forms. That is not for everybody. The sooner students have some real payoff from reading texts in the original language, the more interested they will be. So, I am a big believer in reading original, fun texts.

I also enjoy explaining the Greek etymology of words. The more you grab the interest of the students and show that there is some real payoff, the better.