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Dr. Huffman, thank you … thank you … thank you! I write a lot of reviews for books that are general, Christian living type books. Seldom in my reviewing do I get to dig into a book that covers Biblical languages. For my readers, I am certainly no expert in the ancient biblical languages — not by any means — but I did go through Wheaton Graduate School’s Biblical Exegesis program and came out on the other side with a Master’s degree in Old and New Testament Exegesis (ancient languages being prerequisites to the degree). All that said, I know that the languages are difficult. I know that there is much more to a Greek word than when a pastor comfortably says something along the lines of, “Now in the Greek … this word really means …”
Huffman’s Handy Guide to New Testament Greek is not a level one, introductory text. The author seems to expect that you have sat through a few lessons in the ancient language already. That being said, Huffman is very easy to understand. He doesn’t spice the small textbook up with a lot of pictures or anything to make it easy on the eyes, but he does keep his explanations to the point and a lot of the times he lets charts do the talking for him.
For someone who has shaken hands with the language of the New Testament, this book is a wonderful reacquaintance to oh so allusive language of Biblical Greek. For someone who hasn’t yet spent much time in Greek, I would say to hold off on this for a little bit and study the jargon of the field before you study the minute rules of the language.
Back cover endorsements:
Scot McKnight
Rodney J. Deck
Thomas Schreiner
Robert Plummer
Clinton Arnold
Mark Strauss
Kregel’s introduction to the text:
“Whether you’re learning biblical Greek or using it, this is the reference tool to keep on hand. In a quick visual layout, it supplements textbooks to gives you immediate access to first-year Greek grammar, second-year Greek syntax, and step-by-step phrase diagramming. Easy to carry and easy to use, The Handy Guide to New Testament Greek crystalizes the information you need to know for classes or enables you to develop a sermon or lesson outline from the Greek New Testament faster than you could from an English translation.”
Purchase directly from Kregel Academic or from Amazon.com.
**This book was free from Kregel Academic with my promise to post an unbiased review.
