The best way to learn Biblical Greek is to read a lot of Koine you can follow, keep a textbook beside you for the grammar, and let your reason for learning pick the texts. Greek you can follow is called comprehensible input, and the Biblical Greek comprehensible input guide lists the readers and tools that supply it.
In Bubblegum, Poppy, your AI tutor, writes each lesson in Koine Greek around your goal, with audio. Speaking Koine takes a class or a tutor.
Reading gets most of the week, and the rest of the table covers what reading leaves out. Jeon and Day (2016) reviewed 49 studies and found that reading many easy texts made people better readers of English as a second or foreign language. Those studies tested English, so they say nothing certain about Greek. To check a text's level, read a few sentences. If most have about one new word, keep reading. If you can't tell what's happening, pick something easier.
| Method | What It Builds | Use It For |
|---|---|---|
| Reading Koine with audio | Words, endings and the shape of a sentence | Most of your week |
| A first-year textbook | The grammar, one chapter at a time | A steady path, in class or alone |
| Glossed New Testament | Reading real verses with the rare words handled | Once you know the common words |
| Word studies | Seeing how one word works across a book | A passage you preach or teach |
| Immersion classes | Using Greek out loud | When you want to speak Koine |
| Saved words in new sentences | Recalling a word in a new context | A few minutes after each reading |
Pick the sounds your teacher or class uses, and keep them for a stretch of study. Many Bible Greek classes teach Erasmian sounds, and Bubblegum's Biblical lessons use them. Bill Mounce's free class gives each chapter's vocabulary in both a standard and a modern pronunciation, and KoineGreek.com plays New Testament books in a historical Koine pronunciation.
Bubblegum offers goals like these for Biblical Greek, and each calls for different texts.
- Read the New TestamentStart with a Gospel scene in a Bubblegum lesson, then read Mark or John in a glossed edition. Crossway's Reader's Edition glosses every word that occurs fewer than 25 times.
- Seminary and ExamsFollow your class textbook chapter by chapter. Mounce's free class has the chapters, vocabulary audio, quizzes with keys and workbook answers.
- Read the SeptuagintRead the New Testament first, then the Septuagint's narrative, which uses phrases like καὶ ἐγένετο (and it happened). Mounce's Graded Reader includes Septuagint texts.
- Read Early Church WritersStart with the shortest sayings and a gloss. Mounce's Graded Reader includes the Didache.
- Study Biblical WordsTrace one word through a passage. Ask Poppy how a word is used in the verse in front of you, then read the verse in a glossed edition.
- Prepare Sermons and Bible StudiesWork one passage a week with the Greek text beside your English Bible, and write down the words you looked up.
The fastest way to learn Biblical Greek turns this into a plan for each level.
| Part | Other Option | App or Service |
|---|---|---|
| Your first texts | The textbook Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar and its free online class | Bubblegum, for lessons about your goals |
| Reading with audio | Free listening on KoineGreek.com | Bubblegum lessons with audio, or Biblingo readers |
| Endings and grammar | The workbook for your textbook | Biblingo's paradigm drills |
| The New Testament | Reader's Edition | The free SBL Greek New Testament text |
| Review | Cards copied by hand | Regenerative Review™, where Bubblegum works your saved words into new lessons |
| Speaking | The Polis Institute's immersion courses | A tutor on Preply |
- Memorizing Lists AloneA list says that λόγος means word and leaves out the sentences it sits in. Meet each new word in a verse you can hear.
- Starting With RomansPaul builds long arguments from forms you haven't met. Read stories and short sayings first, then the letters.
- Changing Sounds OftenEach switch of pronunciation makes known words sound new. Choose the sound your class uses and stay with it.
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Ancient Greek. You learn from Ancient Greek you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
- Pick Ancient Greek, then Biblical, and lessons have audio in that form's sound.
- Pick a goal like reading the New Testament or getting ready for seminary Greek, and the lessons are written to match.
- Ask Poppy what a line means while you read.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons, and you can export them to Anki.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- Learn every letter and its sound in the free Classical Greek Alphabet course.
- You can't turn your own Greek New Testament into lessons. However, you can paste a verse in the chat, and Poppy will explain it.
- Custom lessons cost us money to make, so you need Bubblegum Pro for unlimited custom lessons. Lessons Poppy wrote for other learners are free for everyone to read.
- Regenerative Review™
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Can I Teach Myself Biblical Greek?
Yes. Bill Mounce's class is free and covers every chapter of his textbook, with workbook answers. A tutor or a class helps when you want someone to check your translations.
Do I Need to Learn Hebrew Too?
Not for the New Testament. The Septuagint is the Old Testament in Greek, so you can read it in Greek without Hebrew.
Which Biblical Greek App Should a Beginner Choose?
If you are serious about learning Ancient Greek, start with Bubblegum. Poppy, your AI tutor, writes lessons at your level about things you like. The Biblical Greek app comparison lists the others.
Is Bubblegum Free?
Yes. Lessons Poppy wrote for other learners are free for everyone to read. Custom lessons cost us money to make, so you need Bubblegum Pro for unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Jeon and Day (2016): The effectiveness of extensive reading, a meta-analysis (Reading in a Foreign Language)
- Bubblegum: Ancient Greek
- Bill Mounce: Read the Greek Testament (free class, books, Graded Reader)
- Biblical Language Center: Living Koine Greek
- Pontifical University of the Holy Cross: Which kind of Greek is taught at Polis?
- Biblingo on the App Store (Koine Greek, Biblical Hebrew and Latin)
- Crossway: The Greek New Testament, Tyndale House, Reader's Edition
- SBL Greek New Testament (free text under Creative Commons)
- KoineGreek.com: free audio of New Testament texts
- Preply: online Ancient Greek tutors
- Wikipedia: Koine Greek
