[B-Greek] An Intermediate Learner tries a Reader’s Edition and a Diglot

John Owlett owl at postmaster.co.uk
Mon Nov 30 19:23:18 EST 2009


I have a confession to make: I own an interlinear.  It’s never helped me much, 
and recently a Reader’s Edition and a Diglot have been significantly more useful.  
Perhaps my experiences will be of use to other intermediate learners.

When I went to university to study Mathematics, I had two solid years of high 
school Attic Greek inside me.  I bought a Greek NT and found it very heavy going.  
The only assisted version (alias dumbed-down version) available in the 1960s was 
the interlinear.  I bought the KJV-based “Englishman’s Greek New Testament” … 
and found that I could not avoid reading the English line as well as the Greek.  
I was learning the background to the KJV’s translation decisions, but I was not 
exercising my Greek—at all.

Returning to Greek after retirement, there are now two more levels of assisted version …

… the lower level (one step up from an interlinear) is the “Reader’s Edition”, 
with a running Greek-English dictionary—I have the one based on the UBS Greek 
New Testament, fourth edition, published by the German Bible Society (and also, 
I believe, by the American Bible Society);

… the upper level (one step down from a pure text) is the Diglot, a parallel 
Greek-English edition—I have the one with the Nestle-Aland text, 27th edition, 
and the New English Translation on facing pages, published by the NET Bible Press.

A major factor in my choice of editions has been the clarity of the Greek text.  
Greek letters are no problem, nor—with these editions—are accents and breathings.  
The ultimate test, a breathing and an accent on the same vowel, is better on the 
Reader’s Edition than on the Diglot.

The Reader’s Edition has a suggested translation at the foot of the page for 
every word which occurs 30 times or less in the New Testament; words occurring 
more than 30 times are in a glossary at the back.  With the grammar and 
vocabulary left over from school, I can make sense of the text with only rare 
references to the glossary.  And I am making real contact with the Greek.

Whoopee!

But …

The translations at the foot of the page are just a little too slick.  (The 
glosses are too glossy?)  Often, I have thought, “Well it can be translated 
like that, but it can be translated by other words too.”  Occasionally, I have 
thought, “I think he has chosen that translation because it matches his 
interpretation of the text.”  And I have sometimes wondered whether a word 
really has a complete equivalent in English at all.

So, I like the Reader’s Edition for someone in my state of learning, but I am 
equivocal about it.

The Diglot is probably better for me … provided I use it properly.  I have a 
plain white 5”x8” card in the book, which nicely covers the English text while 
I am going through a passage in Greek.  Only in great need, or at the end of 
the passage, may I look at the English translation.  Without the white card, 
it is too easy to slip my eyes across to the English … and I’m not exercising 
my Greek any more than I did with the interlinear.

I think I may not be ready for the Diglot yet.

Later,

Dr Owl

----------------------------
John Owlett, Southampton, UK



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