P1040927On January 3rd, a review of BLC’s “Living Koine Greek Introduction Part One” was posted on the blog “Priceless Eternity.” (Or, see their Facebook page.)

While the reviewer is anonymous, the blog “is run by a college student… currently aiming for a major in Pre-Seminary Bible and also Mathematics,” and I am assuming that the same college student wrote the review.  (UPDATE: since posting this page, the BLC got a nice email from the no-longer anonymous reviewer: Kevin Madden.  Thanks Kevin, and all the best in your Greek studies.)  In it, the author Kevin states that (s)he has studied Greek with a couple other textbooks, and  that “[b]efore starting Buth’s book, I also was able to give English glosses of all the words in the Greek New Testament that occur twenty-four times or more.”  So the review is not by someone approaching the language for the very first time, but by someone who has what could be called “considerable beginner’s background” in New Testament Greek.  Even so, the author claims:

There is no doubt that I have gained more from going through Buth’s first book than I have from any other resource.

I am not surprised by this evaluation.  I have helped organize two fluency workshops for professors of New Testament Greek that were run by the Biblical Language Center (and am planning another this coming summer).  Not uncommon on the evaluation forms is that participants lament that we did not emphasize enough that they needed to work through Living Koine Greek Introduction Part One and other audio materials the BLC puts out.   Note that these are professors of New Testament Greek who are making such comments.  So if professors find it useful, how much more would a beginning student?

Obviously then, I have no problem agreeing with the reviewer’s conclusion:

If you’re looking for the best way to learn Greek, “Living Koine Greek” is a good place to start. (Emphasis mine)