The student:

• Can analyse and translate texts from koine Greek (ET 1);
• Can use advanced reference works of Greek grammar and syntax (ET 1).

The student studies a selection of koine Greek texts (selected in consultation with the students) such as the works of Josephus and Philo, the Septuagint, Apostolic Fathers, OT/NT apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, etc. The student makes her/his own translation of the text and studies additional literature on Greek grammar, syntax and pragmatics. In three seminars, problems in translating the texts can be discussed, and important reference works are introduced.

Seminars and individual study

Contact hours: 6h (3x2)

Translating Greek: 160h (70 words or ½ LOEB page per hour)

Exam: 2h

Total: 168

Written exam, with questions on selected passages from the studied pensum and on the literature. Use of a dictionary is permitted (supplied by the supervisor).

Recommended Literature and Reference Works

Geoffrey Horrocks, Greek: A History of the Language and Its Speakers, 2nd edition (Chichester: Wiley, 2010/2014), ch. 4-6 (Greek in the Hellenistic World, Greek in the Roman Empire, Spoken Koine in the Roman Period) (available on archive.org).

T. Muraoka, A Syntax of Septuagint Greek (Leuven: Peeters, 2016).

E. van Emde Boas e.a., The Cambridge Grammar of Classical Greek (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 2019).

F. Blass, A. Debrunner, F. Rehkopf, Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch, (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1976). (available on archive.org)

Heinrich von Siebenthal, Ancient Greek Grammar for the Study of the New Testament, (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2019) = Heinrich von Siebenthal, Griechische Grammatik zum Neuen Testament (Giessen: Brunnen, 20222)

Steve Mason (ed.), Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, 9 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2000-2017) (ebooks available via library)

The NETS translation of the Septuagint: