Classical and Koine Equivalency

[Mathētēs]

Greetings! I have two years of Koine Greek and am interested in gaining experience with Classical. My purpose includes eventually applying for a Ph.D. program in New Testament and Early Christianity. Are Koine and Classical so different that I should begin with an introductory course? Would a post-bacc admissions committee view my two years of Koine as being the equivalent of two years of Classical? Thanks for your help!

[Soul Invictus]

Tricky question! I would think that most people would not find them equivalent, but it should still count for something. The big differences (im sure there are more) are that the passive periphrastic is employed way more in Koine (IMO) and Koine doesnt use the optative mood. The latter of these is really important. The optative comes up all the time. If I were you, however, I think I would just learn the optative forms and read some nice textbook-y Attic (like Apology) and learn the optative forms. The thing to do after that would be to take a class in an attic author and get a nice grade, so you can have something that testifies to your knowledge of Classical Greek.

Good Luck!

[spozik]

Hmm... I think that this is a question that you can only answer for yourself once you're properly informed of the differences. People are going to have pretty differing opinions on this, I would suspect. The best thing would be to find someone in your same situation, but I don't know anyone who has learned Koine and then gone to Classical, although I know plenty who have done the other way around. Two years of any ancient language isn't that much, but it would be helpful to know what you've read beyond a beginner text book (and what beginner text book you use). Also, I'm not familiar with PhD programs in NT or Early Christianity--do they require knowledge of Classical Greek, or just Koine?

Post-bacc programs are generally tailored to you and they are for your benefit. I'd imagine they would not view your two years of Koine as the equivalent of two years of Classical, but if Koine is what you need that wouldn't matter so much. Many places have separate courses in later authors where you can cover that material.

Now, if you need Classical Greek, you can use the Koine as a foundation and fill in the gaps on your own or you can start over. Personally, especially since you've only had two years, I think that an intensive summer course in Classical Greek would be your best bet. Koine lost the optative and many irregular verb forms in what you would expect is a natural progression to make the language simpler. Also, due to the typical subject matter of typical Koine authors v. Classical authors, the vocabulary is largely different--this is a modern perspective issue, since the vocabulary probably wasn't as different as it seems, but it nonetheless creates a problem for someone looking to move from one to the other.

An intermediate course in Classical Greek might work for you (covering e.g. an author like Plato or Herodotus) and you probably would do alright with that. You should have no illusions, though, that your foundation is in many ways different than many other students in the class and the way that they talk about language will probably be somewhat different from what you are familiar with.

In short, if you really want to develop proficiency in Classical, I'd recommend starting over, preferably with a sped-up summer course so you don't get bored on rehashing some of the basics. If you're just interested in being able to mine the occasional author for information in relation to your NT and Early Christian interests, you're probably OK filling in the gaps on your own. Some of this may be dictated as a requirement by your program, but again, I'm just not sure with your track what you'd need.

[JonathanEdwards]

I encourage everyone I can to start in Attic. I went from Koine to Classical (in at the deep end with readings classes in Plato & Homer) and found it extremely humbling. That was partly because the elementary & intermediate texts I used weren't the best in my opinion, and partly because Koine doesn't involve enough vocabulary to make the transition that direction very easy. It can be done, but the suggestion to do a summer intro course as a refresher is a good one.