Ancient Languages

[Peter Kirby]

Hebrew for the Hardcore

For those who are more serious about studying the Bible than Peter Kirby.

JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0827606567/internetinfidels)

Yes, having the Hebrew text helps.

Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0310237602/internetinfidels) by Miles V. Van Pelt, Gary Davis Pratico

I have no idea if this is any good.

Go to the Hebrew Conversion (http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/hebrewconversion.html) page if you'd like to use Hebrew letters in your posts.

Greek for Geeks

OK, so I'm a geek, how can I learn about Greek?

Greek New Testament (With Dictionary) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/3438051133/TheSecularWeb) by Kurt Aland et. al.

You'll find it useful to have a hard copy of the text.

Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0310232112/TheSecularWeb) by William D. Mounce

Recommended by Cowboy X.

The Text of the New Testament (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0195072979/TheSecularWeb) by Bruce Manning Metzger

A respected introduction to text criticism.

The Text of the New Testament an Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0802840981/TheSecularWeb) by Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland

Another good introduction.

How to Type Greek on BC&H

Since the subject comes up often, here is a how-to on typing Greek on this bulletin board. There are two methods: the first method uses the symbol transliteration and results in unaccented Greek, while the second method uses the beta code transliteration and results in polytonic Greek. Choose the method according to which transliteration you are more familiar with and whether you need diacritical marks.

For the symbol font transliteration, use this converter:

http://www.snible.org/greek/symb2uni.html

You enter the text in symbol font, like this: anqrwpoV.

You get back HTML 4.x character codes: ανθρωπος

You cut and paste this into your post, and the result is this: ανθρωπος

For the Beta Code transliteration with accents, use this converter:

http://www.jiffycomp.com/smr/unicode/

You enter the text in Beta Code, like this: kalo\n h(suxi/a=

You get back the Unicode text: καλὸν ἡσυχίᾶ

You view the source of the web page and find the escape sequences: καλὸν ἡσυχίᾶ

You cut and paste this into your reply, placing this code around it: [SIZE=3][FONT=Arial Unicode MS,Palatino Linotype,Code2000,TITUS Cyberbit Basic,Athena]καλὸν ἡσυχίᾶ[/FONT][/SIZE]

Now you know how to use Greek in your posts!

[Toto]

Update:

There is a thread for testing Greek fonts here (http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=121621).

It is no longer necessary to copy to escape sequences. You can cut and paste the Greek unicode characters into the text box. But it is still necessary to provide a font for most users to see the Greek characters, especially those with accents.

The standard font designation is

[ SIZE=3 ][ FONT=Arial Unicode MS,Palatino Linotype,Code2000,TITUS Cyberbit Basic,Athena ] insert unicode here [ /FONT ][ /SIZE ]

(without the spaces)

Tahoma may create problems, since an earlier version of that font does not support "polytonic" Greek, but later versions do (Win XP and 2002).

You can download a polytonic version of Tahoma here:

http://support.vnn.vn/tiengviet/ from the link that says "Bộ font Unicode dưới dạng ZIP file"

more downloads here:

http://www.travelphrases.info/gallery/Fonts_GreekPoly2.html

[Chris Weimer]

I've had success with TY series for Hebrew and New Testament Greek. You find them at Amazon (if a mod wants to link them through the IIDB-Amazon transaction for me...I'm not so sure how to).

edited to add:

Teach Yourself Biblical Hebrew (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0844237930/internetinfidels)

Teach Yourself New Testament Greek (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0844237892/internetinfidels)