Book Review – Greek for the Rest of Us by William D. Mounce

Having read other works by Mounce and enjoyed his methodical and well-paced walkthrough of biblical languages with an audience who understood the need to care about the subject, I had some good confidence that this book would match his previous books. This is the case here. If you’ve read or gone through Mounce’s probably more well-known book on the subject Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar this is going to be familiar and is in the same vein. Where that one is a focus on the grammar, Greek For the Rest of Us is a focus on the grammar as well as the syntax. Just as a note, I did read this in conjunction with a weekly church study that was using this book along with class activity and the use of Logos software to give an understanding of Greek in a more than surface-level undertaking and utilizing the Bible software to do a good amount of work for you as well. So individual results may vary.

Mounce starts off with the basics such as letters and Greek words to memorize are at the end of most chapters. Then the push to understand English grammar that will help the reader of non-native Greek understand the concepts of what will be talked about throughout the book. So, this study suddenly becomes a chest-clenching double study as you curse the government schools that failed to impress upon you your own language. Where Mounce’s previous book had a chapter dedicated to that, this book has almost introduction chapters of English language to set the stage for the Greek of that same type. Mounce also sprinkles in Concordance software (as he has a controlling interest in that software) but the use of some type of Bible software capable of assisting with the learning is very helpful.

The layout in the chapters are methodical and well-laid out. The use of a sub-numbering system to make going back through easier for reference. This section does a good job of showing biblical examples and here’s where I would say is a negative of the book. While an example is given, it is usually a simple one and a few more examples showing different appearances of the syntax in question would have been really helpful to almost triangulate you into what you may be missing or helping find a relationship between the examples and your understanding of the section. Also, there are times where a concept is defined and the example is given, it may have been helpful to add a line or two going over the example and really driving home the point to help the reader understand the concept. Here are there, there are grammar and syntax concepts that need to be looked up if you don’t understand it, and some circling back to previous points or definitions would have been helpful.

This isn’t a book you’ll be able to read passively and be good overall. Going through examples and making this a study will be the most beneficial use of this resource and your time. Having the benefit of struggling with a group and being dedicated was a huge benefit to me. I also had the benefit of a teacher who was far enough along in seminary and knew Greek well enough to develop the curriculum around the use of this book. So the recommendation and grade should be understood in light of that interaction with the book.