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AUSTRALIAN BIBLICAL REVIEW
ISSN 0045-0308 |
BOOK REVIEW Published in Volume 66, 2018
BENJAMIN L. MERKLE and ROBERT L. PLUMMER, Greek for Life: Strategies for Learning, Retaining, and Reviving New Testament Greek (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017. Pp. xiv + 152. Paperback. $19.99.
As one teaching New Testament Greek for the first time, I was looking for books that could assist and picked up this small book promising so much. There were chapters offering practical advice, and directions to other valuable books and tools for language learning, and specifically, Greek grammar. Overall though, I found the personal testimonies and high evan-gelical approach unhelpful. I did not need two chapters to convince me of the value of learning New Testament Greek. I was looking for teaching tools, whereas this book seems more directed to the individual setting out to learn Greek. Once past these introductory chapters, then the authors do offer learning strategies. Drawing on the experience of psychologists and memory experts, there is stress on daily patters of learning and revision in short time slots, on the necessity to involve as many senses as possible, writing, saying aloud, visualising, imagination, connecting Greek words to familiar English words from the same root. This book is probably more helpful for a student than a teacher.
Review by
Mary L. Coloe
University of Divinity, Melbourne
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