First-Year Koine Greek the language of the New Testament
A complete first-year course in New Testament Greek, organized in the traditional pedagogical sequence: alphabet → noun system → verb system → participles → reading. Designed to be worked through over an academic year at a steady pace.
The New Testament was written in Koine Greek — the common Greek of the Eastern Mediterranean during the Roman Empire. It was the language of merchants, soldiers, and ordinary households across thousands of miles. By choosing this everyday language rather than literary Attic, the apostles wrote scripture that anyone could read.
Learning Koine is not impossibly hard. The grammar is more systematic than English, and a few hundred high-frequency words cover most of the New Testament. With steady daily work, by the end of one year you can read passages of John or 1 John in the original — and begin to see the text rather than just translate it.
This course follows the standard pedagogical order used by Mounce, Black, Croy, and most major first-year Greek textbooks. Each lesson includes the grammar to learn, the vocabulary to memorize, paradigms to drill, and exercises drawn from the Greek New Testament itself.
Daily, short sessions beat weekly marathons. Greek is mostly memorization at first — paradigms, vocabulary, endings. Twenty minutes a day for six days will plant material in long-term memory better than three hours on Saturday. Use the vocabulary trainer every day, even after the lesson it appears in.
Don't skip the alphabet. If you can't read Greek aloud fluently, every later lesson is harder. Spend a full week on Lessons 1–2 if needed. The alphabet trainer is built for repeated short drills.
Pair this with a real textbook. This site is designed to reinforce structured study, not replace it. The recommended companion is Bill Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar (4th edition, Zondervan) with its accompanying workbook. Mounce's video lectures (free on his YouTube channel) are excellent.