Ben Gutiérrez - Learn to Read New Testament Greek, Workbook: Supplemental Exercises for Greek Grammar Students

T his workbook is dedicated to our Greek mentors & colleagues Dr. Wayne Brindle, Dr. James A. Freerksen, and Dr. James D. Stevens whose training equipped us to pursue this project and whose teaching caused our hearts to burn as they opened up to us the scriptures. We cannot thank you enough for investing your knowledge, time, and lives into us.

From Ben Gutierrez:

To my wife, Tammy:
Your commitment to your Lord,
family, and ministry
and your pattern of righteousness
is my eternal reminder of how fortunate
I am to have you in my life.

From Cara Murphy:

To my wonderful husband:
Even when great sacrifice was required,
you have always encouraged my passion
to pursue the original Word.
Psalm 78:72

An Encouragement to the Student

Choosing to study New Testament Greek is an exciting and life-changing journey! As you begin studying New Testament Greek, your understanding of the New Testament will grow in vividness and your passion to study His Word will grow exponentially! New Testament Greek will unfold the finer nuances of the Bible that will cause your mind to ponder its intricacies with a sense of awe and reverence. It is a worthy goal to become a wise exegete of God's holy Word. As you pursue your studies of New Testament Greek and work through this workbook, keep the following two encouragements in mind and allow them to energize and motivate you during this exciting journey!

Study New Testament Greek for the purpose of communing more intelligently and intimately with your Creator! Upon the outset, purpose in your heart that you will not allow self-glorifying reasons to be your motivation for studying New Testament Greek. Consider the ability to dissect and discern the finer nuances of God's holy Word through the careful utilization of New Testament Greek a privileged opportunity. Allow your training to translate into praise for the One who has given you the mind and the opportunity to study His precious Word. As you study, regularly ask yourself, How can this grammatical, syntactical, or exegetical point translate not only on paper but into my daily walk as a servant of Jesus Christ? Consciously look for ways that the study of New Testament Greek can positively affect the administration of your church, ministry, and home life. Allow what you learn in your study of New Testament Greek also to infuse your prayer life. Allow the truths of God that you extract in your study to cultivate an accuracy of doctrine and a sincerity of heart in your prayer life. With this perspective, you will grow in intimacy with your Creator and Savior!

Study New Testament Greek with this proven principle in mind: No one is lazy and profound! This mindset has motivated many studentsincluding the authors of this workbookto study diligently in order to receive rich blessings from God's Word. Studying New Testament Greek can be challenging at times. Undoubtedly, there will be seasons in your study that will cause you to contemplate giving up. You will have days when you will allow words of discouragement from others to resound more profoundly than they should. You will be tempted to rehearse the all-too-familiar words: Well, I didn't study Greek, and I'm an OK preacher! All you have to do is use certain resources and you can know just as much as studying Greek! When you preach, you shouldn't use Greek anyway! Admittedly, you do not need to know Greek in order to understand the essential truths of the Word of God, but Greek allows you to understand the finer, more vivid nuances present in His Word. It is this vividness that causes the hearers to be captivated with the teachings of the Word of God. It is this ability with Greek that will allow your listeners to experience the text and that will produce a contagious passion to study God's Word. Such ability takes time, energy, and endurance. Commit today to remain diligent in your studyeven when the journey seems laborious. There is no doubt that God will honor your diligence in your study of New Testament Greek.

Helpful Tips for the Instructor

This workbook includes over 1,150 sentences (Greek to English/English to Greek), including about 225 participial sentences, and every form of every word in the sentences can be found within Greek writings in the New Testament era, from the Septuagint through the end of Revelation. Great care has been taken in forming each sentence. We attempted to capture as many grammatical constructions and considerations as a beginning Greek student may face in their study of New Testament Greek. In doing so, we have included more sentences than what may be possible to cover in class. We purposely provided an exorbitant amount of sentences so that the student could use this workbook for review outside of class as well as inside the classroom. There are enough sentences for the student to have a fresh review during various holiday breaks without having to rehearse previously translated sentences. Regarding sentences containing participles: most of the participial constructions are second attributive, substantival, or adverbial (temporal) constructions for easy and introductory learning of participles.

This workbook includes over 700 drilling exercises in order to reinforce the foundational principles of Greek verbs, nouns, adjectives, prepositions, definite articles, demonstrative pronouns, adverbs, conjunctions, and participles. The drilling exercises in this workbook include matching, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, transliterations, and exercises relevant to the study of New Testament Greek. The purpose of these drilling exercises is not to present every possible objective question that could possibly be asked of a beginning Greek student. The purpose of these drilling exercises is to reinforce the foundational principles explained in Learn to Read New Testament Greek (3rd edition; 2009) by David Alan Black. After these drilling exercises, most chapters then focus the attention of the student solely on sentence translation. The wording of these exercises parallels Black's book.

Each chapter includes the grammatical elements of previous chapters while emphasizing the specific grammatical element(s) identified in the specific chapter title. The sentences are unique to the authors but are categorized in concert with Black. The chapter titles of this workbook are taken from Black's textbook. The chapter numbers of this workbook parallel Black's textbook. Regardless of the Greek grammar textbook that a beginning Greek student consults, every beginning Greek student can benefit from the utilization of this workbook.

These sentences are unpredictable. They were constructed in a thoughtful manner so that the student could not produce the final translation based on their familiarity with a certain Bible verse or even a predictable pattern of speech. Every sentence meets proper grammatical rules, but these sentences will cause Greek students to have to fly by their instruments! Just as a pilot has to trust his/her instruments upon losing visual clarity, the student will likewise be forced to follow rules of grammar when the sentences may not make too much common sense. In addition, these sentences are simply for grammatical exercise. The sentences are not meant to make any particular theological statements or support any specific theological position.