A reader writes:
A local language academy is offering an Ancient Greek class in another week and I signed up for it, excited at the idea of being able to read the NT and Septuagint in their original language. But then I got the textbook that will be used and it’s called "Introduction to Attic Greek". I know that there are different dialects in different languages. If I learn Attic Greek rather than Koine, will it essentially be the same thing, or am I going to have troubles?
As noted, the class starts in another week, so I’m hoping you can get back to me soon. Thank you so much for your help.
I haven’t studied Attic Greek in any depth (at least not yet), so others on the blog may be able to be of more help to you than I.
I can tell you that Koine is an outgrowth of Attic, so the two have much in common. Also, Koine is a generally simplified form, so if you can hack it in Attic, that gives you a big leg up on Koine.
From what exposure I’ve had to Attic texts (e.g., Plato’s dialogues), I found that my knowledge of Koine was a big help, and I’m sure that the reverse would be true as well.
The differences between Attic and Koine are much smaller than the differences between either of them and Modern Greek, for example.
Learning Attic would give you a big leg up on reading the New Testament and the Septuagint (which are not identical in language, themselves), though not as much as if you took a course specifically in Koine.
On the other hand, if this is the best Greek instruction available in your area, you might be better advised to take it while your motivation is up rather than wait for an ideal course that you may never find or get around to.
Learning something that’s not quite what you want beats not learning what you want at all.
For what it’s worth, I know that some students of Attic do readings in Koine. A number of years ago I was invited to give a couple of lectures on Paul and Colossians to a (secular) college class in Attic that had been translating Colossians as one of their exercises. They were a couple of years into the program and the professor (who was Jewish) thought they would benefit from trying their hand at a short Koine text. From what I could tell, they didn’t seem to have trouble with it.
Perhaps those who have had a chance to study both dialects can offer comment.
Moving from Attic to Koine is a snap. Koine grammar is more simplified, and the New Testament writers are generally more simple in style than classical authors.
I took an intensive summer course in classical(Attic) Greek at Notre Dame, and for our final exam we were required to translate on sight a chapter from the Acts of the Apostles. The classical preparation, which included Plato and Homer, was more than adequate for the task, and I can still read the New Testament with ease.
I would advise getting a good New Testament lexicon, though. Some of the words did shift in meaning, and this will occasionally crop up in religious controversies. Some Protestants insist that Peter’s new name meant “pebble” or a small rock, which “petras” did mean in classical times, but by New Testament times it had come to mean the foundational kind of rock upon which one could build a church.
Suppose you want to ride donkeys.
But they only offer horse riding classes in your neighborhood.
What to do?
Take the class.
Having studied Classical (i.e. Attic) Greek in school, it is very easy to study Koine, or read the New Testament. Actually, over time the language simplified (as many languages do), the the later Koine is “simpler” than earlier Attic.
If Attic Greek is the horse, and Koine Greek is the donkey, well, Septuagint Greek is something of a mule.
And, modern Greek is more like a water buffalo–much farther from all the three older forms than they are from each other.
But take whatever riding lessons you can get!
Talking with people who’ve done both (I’ve taken 1.5 years of Attic), the universal response I get is that it’s easy to move from Attic to Koine, but much more difficult to move from Koine to Attic. So, Attic will give you a leg up if you ever want to also read Plato, etc.
As already stated, it is not too difficult to make the switch. Koine is basically just Attic, with the distinctively Attic-dialect features replaced with more “standard” ones from the East Ionic dialects (e.g., the verbs which end in -ttw in Attic will end in -ssw in koine, the form used in most of the other Greek dialects). And the syntax is simplified somewhat.
Agreed with all of the above commenters.
I would say it’s better, initially, to study Attic rather than Koine. I don’t remember having ANY difficulties moving from Attic to reading the New Testament. On the other hand, I understand that it can be somewhat difficult to move to Attic if one starts with Koine.
– Ron