2013 Annual SBL Plans

Not the SBL I will be attending.

I’m looking forward to this year’s annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. This year the Society meets in Baltimore from Nov 23-26.

I will be presenting a paper in the Early Jewish Christian Relations section, chaired by Judy Yates Siker and

Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana for Bibleworks

Thanks to Michael Hanel of the Bibleworks blog, Bibleworks users now have access to the Greek text and an English translation of Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana, a 3rd century CE work that is

An Interview About Greek Pedagogy

You might be interested in checking out a fairly substantial written interview I did with Thomas Hudgins about communicative Greek pedagogy. He has just posted it over at his blog. Thomas is an Ed.D. student at Southeastern Seminary in North Carolina.

To whet your appetite, here’s a list of the questions Thomas asked:

Classical Language Academy Living Greek Courses

I recently alerted readers to Sebastian Carnazzo’s online Greek courses. Sebastian informs me that he now has his course site up and running. It can be found here: Classical Language Academy. Sebastian teaches online courses using Randall Buth’s Living Koine Greek textbook and interactive lessons employing modern language acquisition techniques like TPRS. Be sure to check it out!

A Koine Greek Immersion Event in Lexington, KY

Michael Halcomb of Pisteuomen is hosting a conversational Koine weekend in Lexington, KY. This would be a great way for anyone within driving distance to get their feet wet speaking Greek or to get further practice and network with others who are interested. Be sure to check it out and act fast, as Michael tells me that over half the spots are already taken!

A Review of Randall Buth’s Living Koine Greek Material

Whenever anyone asks me how they can work toward Greek fluency on their own, I always point them to Randall Buth’s materials, produced and sold by the Biblical Language Center. They use pictures and audio to help the student internalize the language rapidly. My students have used them outside of class and benefited from them very much. So, if you’re thinking about trying out a living language approach to Greek, you might be interested to read this recent review of Living Koine Greek Pt 1. (HT: Paul Nitz @ the Ancient Greek Best Practices group).

Conversational Greek Online Course

Readers may be interested in checking out Michael Halcomb’s online Greek course. I believe he will be using a reconstructed (“Buthian”) pronunciation. One thing’s for sure: you certainly can’t beat the price! It’s obvious that this is a labor of love for Michael, not a profit-making venture. Let’s hope we see a lot more of these types of courses springing up in the years to come.

 

Demand Change!

You say you want a revolution in Greek teaching? I do too! But what is needed to bring about such a pedagogical reformation? I think the history of foreign language teaching in the United States can give us some idea.

The Failure of Grammar-Translation
The grammar-translation method 

Christmas Songs in Koine Greek

For your lyrical pleasure this χ-mas, I point you to several Christmas songs in ancient Greek:

• O Come O Come Emmanuel, which I translated and posted last November.
• O Holy Night, from Louis Sorenson, who catalogs audio resources at Let’s Read Greek!
• Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells, both from Michael Gilleland’s blog.
• Let me know if you have found any others. What we especially need are some recordings of these!

Merry Christmas to all my readers!

Online Living Greek Course Opportunity

My readers may be interested in the Greek course offered by the Catholic Education Center. They will be using Randall Buth’s materials for their textbook and living language methods for their instruction. It looks like they hope eventually to offer a four-course