Congratulations! When you began studying Greek with this textbook, you were not sure you could really learn to read Greek. But now you have. The question now is, Can I continue to develop my Greek skills into a workable tool for understanding Scripture? The answer is, yes, of course you can—but you will not if you let your hard-won skills sit idle.
Before I make a few simple suggestions for doing that, let me warn you that you now know, as the proverbial saying goes, just enough Greek to be dangerous. Do use your Greek, but do so cautiously. If you suddenly discover something brand new in your Greek NT that no one else has ever seen before, be assured that it is almost certainly wrong! Do not abuse or overuse your knowledge. Do plan to continue your study of Greek. If you do not have an option for a formal, academic course that builds on an introductory Greek course, then plan your own course of study.[1] For most students, the language begins to come together in a second year of study. Keep at it!
If you have several months before you can continue formal study, then at a minimum review the entire textbook and read more of the example sentences and all the reading passages at the end of each chapter. Keep your vocabulary fresh; it makes for faster reading and less time with your lexicon. Or perhaps you would find it helpful to read all the way through one of the easier books of the NT, perhaps the Gospels of John or Mark. For a short book, 1 John is a good choice. One of the readers’ editions of the NT could be helpful for this, since they give you the less-common vocabulary at the bottom of the page. Or use two English translations as you read: one more formal (maybe ESV or NRSV) and one a bit more functional (maybe NIV, NET, or HCSB). Read your Greek NT first, and then compare it with the English versions to see how close your understanding was.
You will need to add a large lexicon in the near future. Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (BDAG) is the standard, and there is no other comparable work. You can purchase either a digital copy in Accordance, BibleWorks, or Logos format or the print edition. If you are buying the printed version, be sure to get the newest edition, not a used copy of an older edition; the differences are significant. BDAG is not inexpensive, but it is worth every penny. If you want more detail regarding BDAG and how to use it, see my webpage devoted to this tool: http://ntresources.com/blog/?page_id=2526. There is also an appendix in my Koine Greek Reader that discusses the background and use of this lexicon.
You may also want to pick up an analytical lexicon. Ideally you should not use one, but the real world says you ought to have one for those times when you are totally perplexed by an odd form. Do not use an analytical lexicon except for those really tough words. If you do purchase one, I recommend William Mounce, The Analytical Lexicon to the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993). There are a few others, but this is the best, most complete, and most accurate. It also uses terminology similar (though not identical) to what you have learned in this textbook. A grammatically tagged Greek text in one of the major Bible study programs can serve the same function as an analytical lexicon. If you do not have such a tool yet, I recommend Accordance for language study. This is a Mac program of long standing and has recently come to the Windows platform. (See http://www.accordancebible.com for details.)
Although software programs are invaluable for language study, do not become dependent on them for reading Greek. If you can read a Greek text only by identifying most of the Greek words through use of the program tools, then you do not know Greek. Likewise, some people recommend that you use an interlinear Greek Testament, but I strongly advise against that! You will never learn Greek, and it will never be a useful tool, if you use an interlinear. Period. Don’t do it!
For those who are interested in working in the LXX, here are the equivalent tools: For a lexicon, see Takamitsu Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Louvain: Peeters, 2009). A smaller work that is also usable is Johan Lust, Erik Eynikel, and Katrin Hauspie, Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2003). The best analytical lexicon for the LXX is Bernard Taylor, Analytical Lexicon to the Septuagint, 2nd ed. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2009).
If you want to read some very helpful discussion about the purpose of learning Greek and (most important) how to use it correctly, you will want to master God, Language and Scripture by Moisés Silva (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990). This is easily the most significant book on a philosophy of using Greek that you will find. It contains a wealth of good, sane advice to help you avoid misusing Greek. Another equally important book is D. A. Carson’s Exegetical Fallacies, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996).
Whatever you do, do not stop now. Figure out some way to maintain and develop your budding language skills so that you can continue to read Scripture (and other Koine texts) in Greek. Why settle for secondhand translations when you could read the original for yourself?
Happy reading!