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Sunday, January 3, 2010

New Years' Resolution -- Audio Greek New Testament

Greek with Dr. Jakob Heckert at Concordia College, Ann Arbor, was an honor,
privilege and life changing. We did not start with the Koine Greek but rather Attic Greek. The book series we used was Reading Greek published by the Joint Association of Classical Teachings at Cambridge University. The texts were adapted from ancient Greek texts rather than being made up texts. The first day of class was learning the Greek alphabet (alpha-beta). By the second or third day of class we were "reading" Greek. The grammar and vocabulary were learned as you went through the text and the forms were encountered, a rather inductive process. Of course, the focus, as the text book title indicates, was "reading Greek" not writing it, not speaking it, not comprehending it spoken. (More on this later and how it relates to the post.)

 The other day I was remember a line or two that we always repeated in the dorms. In the first year of Greek, we read account of two men who were partners in the corn-shipping business who were sailing from Byzantium to Athens. The story is set at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. Here is a memorable section from the first year Greek class:


Cap: (And the captain looks toward the island)
O Zeus. You don't see a torch but the fire-signal.
Sailor: What did you say? You say, 'the fire-signal'? O Zeus. Come then, O Captain, hurry, hurry and keep us safe in the harbor.
Cap: Do not be afraid: For I am hurrying and the boat already turned around to the harbor.


For some reason, the phrase ὧ κυβερνήτης (O kubernetes) -- "O Captain" -- was what we called out in the dorms. The other phrase well-known and spoken often in the dorms was βάλλε εἰς κόρακας (balle eis korakas), which literally meant "go to the crows". If you know where crows live in Greek mythology, you'll understand what was intended. Besides these phrases and the class' halting reading in class, we didn't really learn how to speak or read Greek. We were a far cry from the humanists of the 16th century.

Ever since then, I wanted to be able to understand Greek read. I had heard of pastors reading passages from the Greek New Testament into a tape recorder (what are those?) and playing it back in the car while commuting. To do this without causing pain to the ear, one has to pronounce Greek fairly well. To pronounce Greek one has to decide what pronunciation system to use. There are three basic choices: some sort of reconstructed system, the Erasmian Greek Pronunciation, or Modern Greek Pronunciation. The Erasmian system and other reconstructed systems have an advantage over Modern Greek
Pronunciation in that it articulates the rough breathing marks. Of course, the Modern Greek Pronunciation has the advantage of actually existing in the real world. Entire books have been written on the subject how to properly pronounce Greek, such as W. Sidney Allen's Vox Graeca: The Pronunciation of Classical Greek (a distant part of my Greek education). Entire books have been written on how to properly pronounce the proper names in Greek, Latin, and the Scripture. (Check out at Google Books: A Key to the Classical Pronunciation of Greek, Latin, and Scripture Proper Names) Considering how some people pronounce the names mentioned in the Scripture Readings on Sunday morning, perhaps this classic from the 19th century should be resurrected. Basically, a person should pick a pronunciation of Greek and stick with it.

For quite a while, I have wanted to have the Greek New Testament in an audio format. I figured there were a few advantages to this: 1) help keep Greek fresh, 2) Might memorize parts of the Greek New Testament, 3) Might learn how to understand spoken Greek (at least portions of the Greek New Testament), 4) A Distraction from the every day annoyances of life. Over the past couple of years, a number of audio versions of the Greek New Testament have become available. Considering that there is not a common consensus on how to pronounce New Testament Greek, the available recordings all use different methods to varying degrees of success -- aesthetics, consistency, correctness, etc. Some of the recordings are free and available over the Internet, others cost money. The free recordings of the Greek New Testament do not use the standard  Nestle-aland: Greek New Testament W/concise Dictionary text due to copyright issues. Unless you are going to make your own recordings of the Greek New Testament, you are stuck with the pronunciation system and the text used by the narrator.

So as a New Years' Resolution, I decided to listen to the Greek New Testament read. In light of the foregoing, I opted to use a free audio recording using Modern Greek Pronunciation based on the Westcott-hort Greek New Testament: with Dictionary (English and Greek Edition). The recording I used is from the GreekLatinAudio.Com project.

If you need a refresher on New Testament Greek grammar, check out Dr. Jim Voelz's Fundamental Greek Grammar or watch him on iTunes University.

In honor of Epiphany here is Luke 2 read with the Modern Greek pronunciation and the Westcott Hort Text below to follow along. Enjoy!


Greek Text from The Online Greek Bible.

Luke 2

1Ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις ἐξῆλθεν δόγμα παρὰ Καίσαρος Αὐγούστου ἀπογράφεσθαιπᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην. 2αὕτη ἀπογραφὴ πρώτη ἐγένετο ἡγεμονεύοντος τῆς Συρίας Κυρηνίου. 3καὶἐπορεύοντο πάντες ἀπογράφεσθαι, ἕκαστος εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ πόλιν. 4Ἀνέβη δὲ καὶ Ἰωσὴφ ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίαςἐκ πόλεως Ναζαρὲθ εἰς τὴν Ἰουδαίαν εἰς πόλιν Δαυὶδ ἥτις καλεῖται Βηθλέεμ, διὰ τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν ἐξ οἴκου καὶπατριᾶς Δαυίδ, 5ἀπογράψασθαι σὺν Μαριὰμ τῇ ἐμνηστευμένῃ αὐτῷ, οὔσῃ ἐγκύῳ. 6ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν τῷ εἶναιαὐτοὺς ἐκεῖ ἐπλήσθησαν αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ τεκεῖν αὐτήν, 7καὶ ἔτεκεν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς τὸν πρωτότοκον: καὶἐσπαργάνωσεν αὐτὸν καὶ ἀνέκλινεν αὐτὸν ἐν φάτνῃ, διότι οὐκ ἦν αὐτοῖς τόπος ἐν τῷ καταλύματι. 8Καὶποιμένες ἦσαν ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ τῇ αὐτῇ ἀγραυλοῦντες καὶ φυλάσσοντες φυλακὰς τῆς νυκτὸς ἐπὶ τὴν ποίμνηναὐτῶν. 9καὶ ἄγγελος κυρίου ἐπέστη αὐτοῖς καὶ δόξα κυρίου περιέλαμψεν αὐτούς, καὶ ἐφοβήθησαν φόβονμέγαν. 10καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς  ἄγγελος, Μὴ φοβεῖσθε, ἰδοὺ γὰρ εὐαγγελίζομαι ὑμῖν χαρὰν μεγάλην ἥτις ἔσταιπαντὶ τῷ λαῷ, 11ὅτι ἐτέχθη ὑμῖν σήμερον σωτὴρ ὅς ἐστιν Χριστὸς κύριος ἐν πόλει Δαυίδ: 12καὶ τοῦτο ὑμῖν τὸσημεῖον, εὑρήσετε βρέφος ἐσπαργανωμένον καὶ κείμενον ἐν φάτνῃ. 13καὶ ἐξαίφνης ἐγένετο σὺν τῷ ἀγγέλῳπλῆθος στρατιᾶς οὐρανίου αἰνούντων τὸν θεὸν καὶ λεγόντων, 14Δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις θεῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς εἰρήνη ἐνἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας. 15Καὶ ἐγένετο ὡς ἀπῆλθον ἀπ' αὐτῶν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν οἱ ἄγγελοι, οἱ ποιμένες ἐλάλουνπρὸς ἀλλήλους, Διέλθωμεν δὴ ἕως Βηθλέεμ καὶ ἴδωμεν τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦτο τὸ γεγονὸς   κύριος ἐγνώρισενἡμῖν. 16καὶ ἦλθαν σπεύσαντες καὶ ἀνεῦραν τήν τε Μαριὰμ καὶ τὸν Ἰωσὴφ καὶ τὸ βρέφος κείμενον ἐν τῇφάτνῃ: 17ἰδόντες δὲ ἐγνώρισαν περὶ τοῦ ῥήματος τοῦ λαληθέντος αὐτοῖς περὶ τοῦ παιδίου τούτου. 18καὶπάντες οἱ ἀκούσαντες ἐθαύμασαν περὶ τῶν λαληθέντων ὑπὸ τῶν ποιμένων πρὸς αὐτούς: 19 δὲ Μαριὰμπάντα συνετήρει τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα συμβάλλουσα ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτῆς. 20καὶ ὑπέστρεψαν οἱ ποιμένεςδοξάζοντες καὶ αἰνοῦντες τὸν θεὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσιν οἷς ἤκουσαν καὶ εἶδον καθὼς ἐλαλήθη πρὸς αὐτούς. 21Καὶ ὅτεἐπλήσθησαν ἡμέραι ὀκτὼ τοῦ περιτεμεῖν αὐτόν, καὶ ἐκλήθη τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦς, τὸ κληθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦἀγγέλου πρὸ τοῦ συλλημφθῆναι αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ. 22Καὶ ὅτε ἐπλήσθησαν αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ καθαρισμοῦαὐτῶν κατὰ τὸν νόμον Μωϋσέως, ἀνήγαγον αὐτὸν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα παραστῆσαι τῷ κυρίῳ, 23καθὼςγέγραπται ἐν νόμῳ κυρίου ὅτι Πᾶν ἄρσεν διανοῖγον μήτραν ἅγιον τῷ κυρίῳ κληθήσεται, 24καὶ τοῦ δοῦναιθυσίαν κατὰ τὸ εἰρημένον ἐν τῷ νόμῳ κυρίου, ζεῦγος τρυγόνων  δύο νοσσοὺς περιστερῶν. 25Καὶ ἰδοὺἄνθρωπος ἦν ἐν Ἰερουσαλὴμ  ὄνομα Συμεών, καὶ  ἄνθρωπος οὗτος δίκαιος καὶ εὐλαβής, προσδεχόμενοςπαράκλησιν τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, καὶ πνεῦμα ἦν ἅγιον ἐπ' αὐτόν: 26καὶ ἦν αὐτῷ κεχρηματισμένον ὑπὸ τοῦπνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου μὴ ἰδεῖν θάνατον πρὶν [ἢ] ἂν ἴδῃ τὸν Χριστὸν κυρίου. 27καὶ ἦλθεν ἐν τῷ πνεύματι εἰς τὸἱερόν: καὶ ἐν τῷ εἰσαγαγεῖν τοὺς γονεῖς τὸ παιδίον Ἰησοῦν τοῦ ποιῆσαι αὐτοὺς κατὰ τὸ εἰθισμένον τοῦνόμου περὶ αὐτοῦ 28καὶ αὐτὸς ἐδέξατο αὐτὸ εἰς τὰς ἀγκάλας καὶ εὐλόγησεν τὸν θεὸν καὶ εἶπεν, 29Νῦνἀπολύεις τὸν δοῦλόν σου, δέσποτα, κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμά σου ἐν εἰρήνῃ: 30ὅτι εἶδον οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου τὸ σωτήριόνσου 31 ἡτοίμασας κατὰ πρόσωπον πάντων τῶν λαῶν, 32φῶς εἰς ἀποκάλυψιν ἐθνῶν καὶ δόξαν λαοῦ σουἸσραήλ. 33καὶ ἦν  πατὴρ αὐτοῦ καὶ  μήτηρ θαυμάζοντες ἐπὶ τοῖς λαλουμένοις περὶ αὐτοῦ. 34καὶεὐλόγησεν αὐτοὺς Συμεὼν καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς Μαριὰμ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ, Ἰδοὺ οὗτος κεῖται εἰς πτῶσιν καὶἀνάστασιν πολλῶν ἐν τῷ Ἰσραὴλ καὶ εἰς σημεῖον ἀντιλεγόμενον 35{καὶ σοῦ [δὲ] αὐτῆς τὴν ψυχὴνδιελεύσεται ῥομφαία}, ὅπως ἂν ἀποκαλυφθῶσιν ἐκ πολλῶν καρδιῶν διαλογισμοί. 36Καὶ ἦν Αννα προφῆτις,θυγάτηρ Φανουήλ, ἐκ φυλῆς Ἀσήρ: αὕτη προβεβηκυῖα ἐν ἡμέραις πολλαῖς, ζήσασα μετὰ ἀνδρὸς ἔτη ἑπτὰἀπὸ τῆς παρθενίας αὐτῆς, 37καὶ αὐτὴ χήρα ἕως ἐτῶν ὀγδοήκοντα τεσσάρων,  οὐκ ἀφίστατο τοῦ ἱεροῦνηστείαις καὶ δεήσεσιν λατρεύουσα νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν. 38καὶ αὐτῇ τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐπιστᾶσα ἀνθωμολογεῖτο τῷ θεῷκαὶ ἐλάλει περὶ αὐτοῦ πᾶσιν τοῖς προσδεχομένοις λύτρωσιν Ἰερουσαλήμ. 39Καὶ ὡς ἐτέλεσαν πάντα τὰ κατὰτὸν νόμον κυρίου, ἐπέστρεψαν εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν εἰς πόλιν ἑαυτῶν Ναζαρέθ. 40Τὸ δὲ παιδίον ηὔξανεν καὶἐκραταιοῦτο πληρούμενον σοφίᾳ, καὶ χάρις θεοῦ ἦν ἐπ' αὐτό. 41Καὶ ἐπορεύοντο οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ κατ' ἔτοςεἰς Ἰερουσαλὴμ τῇ ἑορτῇ τοῦ πάσχα. 42καὶ ὅτε ἐγένετο ἐτῶν δώδεκα, ἀναβαινόντων αὐτῶν κατὰ τὸ ἔθοςτῆς ἑορτῆς 43καὶ τελειωσάντων τὰς ἡμέρας, ἐν τῷ ὑποστρέφειν αὐτοὺς ὑπέμεινεν Ἰησοῦς  παῖς ἐνἸερουσαλήμ, καὶ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ. 44νομίσαντες δὲ αὐτὸν εἶναι ἐν τῇ συνοδίᾳ ἦλθον ἡμέραςὁδὸν καὶ ἀνεζήτουν αὐτὸν ἐν τοῖς συγγενεῦσιν καὶ τοῖς γνωστοῖς, 45καὶ μὴ εὑρόντες ὑπέστρεψαν εἰςἸερουσαλὴμ ἀναζητοῦντες αὐτόν. 46καὶ ἐγένετο μετὰ ἡμέρας τρεῖς εὗρον αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ καθεζόμενον ἐνμέσῳ τῶν διδασκάλων καὶ ἀκούοντα αὐτῶν καὶ ἐπερωτῶντα αὐτούς: 47ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες οἱ ἀκούοντεςαὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τῇ συνέσει καὶ ταῖς ἀποκρίσεσιν αὐτοῦ. 48καὶ ἰδόντες αὐτὸν ἐξεπλάγησαν, καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτὸν μήτηρ αὐτοῦ, Τέκνον, τί ἐποίησας ἡμῖν οὕτως; ἰδοὺ  πατήρ σου κἀγὼ ὀδυνώμενοι ἐζητοῦμέν σε. 49καὶεἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς, Τί ὅτι ἐζητεῖτέ με; οὐκ ᾔδειτε ὅτι ἐν τοῖς τοῦ πατρός μου δεῖ εἶναί με; 50καὶ αὐτοὶ οὐσυνῆκαν τὸ ῥῆμα  ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς. 51καὶ κατέβη μετ' αὐτῶν καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς Ναζαρέθ, καὶ ἦνὑποτασσόμενος αὐτοῖς. καὶ  μήτηρ αὐτοῦ διετήρει πάντα τὰ ῥήματα ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτῆς. 52Καὶ Ἰησοῦςπροέκοπτεν [ἐν τῇ] σοφίᾳ καὶ ἡλικίᾳ καὶ χάριτι παρὰ θεῷ καὶ ἀνθρώποις. 

2 comments:

  1. Wow, that's what it sounds like when people are fluid in their reading. I got lost after about the 10th verse. Can't keep up. A very cool exercise though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. To avoid slaughtering the pronuciation of such things as Biblical place names, people's names, and a few "bigger" English words, there's this website: http://netministries.org/bbasics/bbwords.htm

    No Greek though.

    ReplyDelete