Online Greek I

Online Greek I

Course Syllabus

IS-211, Greek I
Four Credits

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Professor of Record:
Dr. Gerald Bilkes is the professor of record for these courses. Dr. Bilkes is Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He completed a Ph.D. (2002) from Princeton Theological Seminary. He was recipient of the United States Information Agency Fellowship at the Albright Institute (ASOR) in Jerusalem during the 1997-1998 year. He has written several articles on biblical-theological themes and given addresses at several conferences. His areas of special interest include hermeneutics, the history of interpretation, and conversion in the Bible.
Instructor:
Chris Engelsma is the instructor responsible for the content of the course. He also does the bulk of the teaching and grading. He received his M.T.S. from Calvin Seminary in (2002) and has been involved in teaching languages since 2003.
Course Description:

Greek I is a four credit course that immerses the student in the grammar, vocabulary, and syntax of the New Testament. This course lays the foundation for the student to continue reading and analyzing the Greek New Testament.  Students have 25 lessons to complete. Each lesson has an assignment, a vocabulary quiz , and a grammar quiz. There are no exams.  The class is based on the inductive method of William Rainey Harper and Robert Dick Wilson.
Course Objectives:
Students who complete Greek I will have been exposed to almost all of the grammar and a large part of the syntax of the New Testament. More specifically:

  • A Greek vocabulary of 319 words;
  • The declensions of nouns;
  • Conjugations of verbs;
  • The morphology and syntax of participles and infinitives;
  • Using contextual clues to parse/translate;
  • Using TheWord Bible software and Morphology of Biblical Greek to assist;
Required Texts:
Distance Learning Policies and Tuition Costs:
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Summary of Requirements:
Completion of all grammar and vocabulary quizzes; completion of all assignments. The student’s final grade is based exclusively on the quizzes. All quizzes are closed book.

Assignments: As each assignment is completed, the student uploads it to PRTS’s online course management system. The instructor is notified of this upload and corrects the assignment. The student makes the corrections that the instructor points out. When this process is finished, the assignment is marked “passed”. Each assignment has four sections:

    1. The first is the translation of the verses from John. Each lesson has two or more such verses, and lesson notes (e.g. lesson 8) have been prepared to assist the student with this translation. These lesson notes are all available online from the PRTS Language Wiki.
    2. The second is a translation of Greek text (not from the NT) into English.
    3. The third is a translation of English text into Greek.
    4. The fourth is a section of sentence diagramming.

Grammar Quizzes: The grammar quizzes are based on section A above. They are graded as is with no retakes allowed.

Vocabulary Quizzes: The vocab quizzes are online quizzes. The words are taken directly from Basics of Biblical Greek.

Support:
The instructor is accessible six days a week from 8am to 4:30pm EDT by phone, instant message, or email. It is also possible to do screen-shares via Skype. He welcomes your contact and values these interactions. Please don’t hesitate to ask for help whenever you need it.

Chris Engelsma
2965 Leonard NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49525
Office: (616) 977-0599 x137
Cell: (616) 350-5160
chris.engelsma@puritanseminary.org
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Skype: christopher.engelsma