New Testament and Practical Greek
Greek has been important in the intellectual life of western civilization, but not to the extent of Latin, except for ecclesiastical matters where it is obviously of major importance for determining the meaning of New Testament texts. In years past, Latin was introduced in the first year of High School, followed by Greek in the third year. The prominence of Greek for intellectual matters is evident in designations of subjects central to university study, such as philosophy 'love of wisdom', philology 'love of words or more generally study', theology 'study related to God', psychology 'study related to the soul or psyche', and so on.
The Greek in the New Testament is the so-called koine 'common language'. Based originally on the Greek of Athens, it was circulated throughout Alexander the Great's empire. Languages acquired by many non-native speakers are generally simplified, as was the koine. Morphological categories were lost, such as the dual and the optative, though forms of them may occur in written texts. Sentences were greatly simplified, as noted below. Yet many forms remain, especially for verbs.
A difficulty with Greek that may put off learners is the maintenance of an older form of the alphabet than that used for Latin, English, and many other languages. Moreover, accentuation varies in Greek words, and in early Greek was musical. While today accented syllables are pronounced with stress rather than tones, the older accents are still written [with η added for illustration]: ή for the οκσεῖα 'acute' accent or high pitch, ῆ for the περισπώμενον accent or high-low pitch, and ὴ for the βαρεῖα 'grave' or falling pitch.
Furthermore, the sentence structure and number of forms require a great deal of attention. The words of sentences are often placed for their emphasis, rather than in accordance with a pattern like that of the English Subject-Verb-Object order. But we may note that the sentences of New Testament Greek texts are simpler to analyze than are those of Classical Greek. The writers were strongly influenced by Hebrew and Aramaic, in which the verb is placed first in the sentence and is often accompanied by particles, in Greek δέ and καί, which may also stand before the verb. This sentence structure has had an effect on the translations into more modern languages, as in the King James version: the first four verses of our first text, Luke 2, begin with And, as do verses 6 through 10.
Even with the simpler syntax, knowledge of the inflections is highly important. Interpretation is also assisted by the use of articles which, like nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs, are inflected. It is essential, then, to learn the basic inflections of these parts of speech.