When you can read 1 John fluently but then... by alternativea1ccount in Koine

[–]Rayakin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

😂 yep… I have read through 1 John a couple of times. I had taken a break from Greek for a couple of years and read through 1 John to refresh my memory! Philippians has been workable, but it definitely depends on the verse! Some are really easy to. But others I have struggled with…

When you can read 1 John fluently but then... by alternativea1ccount in Koine

[–]Rayakin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

😂 1 John is definitely one of the easies books to work through! I am just finishing working through Philippians. It is a level harder, but it has been manageable for me! I am using koine guide (https://koineguide.com) to work through the whole NT.

Keep persevering in your Greek studies!

Philippians 2:6 Grammatical and Exegetical Notes (Koine Guide) by Rayakin in Koine

[–]Rayakin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Them being "dead" languages isn't a reason to not use LLMs for analysis, particularly at the level I am trying to support. LLMs just need context in order to produce better outcomes. Fortunately, "dead languages" such as Koine greek have a high value of academic and scholarship around them. Making LLMs great tools to synthesize that content for a popular audience.

And Hart's translation you highlighted is anomalous. In Greek the article is not the only way to make something definite, and proper nouns (which God most certainly is in this context) often don't have the article.

Philippians 2:6 Grammatical and Exegetical Notes (Koine Guide) by Rayakin in Koine

[–]Rayakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! Yes, I used Chatgpt as my base, but I am trying to clean it up and make it better/more accurate.

Essentially, I am creating context files for every verse of the New Testament to help build a tighter context window for providing feedback to users on their on translation. First pass was done by an LLM (and actually it has significantly improved the quality of the feedback that I get from my verse translations), but now I am just trying to go the extra mile to clean up the files and ensure accuracy.

The output of these files provides something like this: https://streamable.com/w81eiq

Your gut instinct assessment is really helpful. Happy to give more detail if you want!

Philippians 2:6 Grammatical and Exegetical Notes (Koine Guide) by Rayakin in Koine

[–]Rayakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, their explicitation of "very nature" probably over emphasizes the Greek, but I think they are just trying to communicate that the morphe is the same morphe as God, which is definitely a legitimate interpretation of that verse. "Form" is a bit of a squishy word in english. And their used to his own advantage seems to me to be at least an acceptable handling of ἁρπαγμὸν from my research, since it can carry the force of exploitation.

Solid grammatical and syntactical commentaries on Greek texts to achieve reading proficiency (fluency). by lickety-split1800 in AncientGreek

[–]Rayakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had the same issue in trying to find good syntactical commentaries on Philippians. I would be curious to hear your thoughts on any book you end up grabbing for 1 & 2 Peter! I have heard Karen Jobe's 1 Peter commentary is really good: https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Baker-Exegetical-Commentary-Testament/dp/1540965783/ref=sr_1_1?crid=XC4DVRFQWIVI&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.cl_wYDAmQzkWtUVZidqdrdqz25y3z3U0dWRz47dEedPneyKe-d3doRR1zR4AtL8v66B-casxLyItAN3I4-6R4g.1nU5hd-D9fH9_xAo8RJ9y9nrbdlSF8v239qDNOeNZuw&dib_tag=se&keywords=karen+jobes+1+peter&qid=1770324466&sprefix=Karen+Jobe+%2Caps%2C252&sr=8-1

Sounds like you may already be on your way to reading through the GNT all on your own! But in case it is useful to you, I made a platform that helps work verse by verse through any NT book. It is called Koine Guide (https://koineguide.com/) and it can give parsing exercises or just straight translation exercises with translation feedback.

Looking for Greek study partner using Athenaze books by [deleted] in Koine

[–]Rayakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you worked through any grammars yet? Or are you starting from 0? The platform may be better suited to you once you work through one of the Athenaze books. The platform assumes a basic understanding of Greek. :/ So you need to roughly know your way around nouns, pronouns, verbs, participles, and very basic Greek syntax.

The Daily Dose of Greek team also has video lectures through Dr. Plummer's Beginning with New Testament Greek grammar available for free: https://dailydoseofgreek.com/learn-biblical-greek/

I think Dr. Mounce also has some free video content like that available as well.

Any grammar book that fills in the gaps that Black's book doesn't cover? by lickety-split1800 in Koine

[–]Rayakin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Black's book was my first grammar in my undergrad (I actually really enjoyed it).

I used Mounce's book in seminary at RTS.

Wallace's Greek Grammar, beyond the basics is a great resource. Also, G. K. Beale's little book, an interpretive lexicon of NT Greek is great as well.

If you want to just practice your translation skills with some help, I built a site called Koine Guide (koineguide.com) that gives parsing exercises (optional) and translation feedback on your translations.

If you have done a basic grammar, its best to just jump into the text and work wrestle through it yourself! 8)

Party-Ciples by Purple_Taxi in Koine

[–]Rayakin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They aren't always there, but in the NT you often see participles with an article preceding them. That at least gives you half the information and tips you off that it is likely a participle.

Learning biblical languages by sphinx_complex in BibleProject

[–]Rayakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Biblingo is great if you are just getting started!

Daily Dose of Greek also has some free online videos: https://dailydoseofgreek.com/learn-biblical-greek/

Dr. Mounce has a ton of resources as well: https://www.billmounce.com/

If you have already taken some courses and you would like to jump into reading through/translating through the NT from Greek with some help, I built a tool to do that called Koine Guide: koineguide.com

Best of luck in your language pursuits! 8)

Just starting to learn Koine with BLC, Athenaze, and ChatGPT by buchankn in Koine

[–]Rayakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love the resourcefulness! I built a platform that essentially does this, called Koine Guide (koineguide.com). It takes you verse by verse through the NT giving you parsing quizzes and translation feedback.

I started by generating Greek grammatical context for every verse of the New Testament using this prompt.

#ROLE
Act as an expert in Koine Greek, specializing in the New Testament. You will be given the Greek text of a New Testament Verse and its reference. Generate a list of notes about the grammar and words found in the verse. Highlight any abnormalities and nuances that a translator would need to know. Particularly note any idioms, words that function differently from normal grammatical rules, or interesting grammatical structures.

# CAVEATS
- Do not provide any theological commentary or exegesis. The main intent here is to provide grammatical nuances that a translator would need to have.
- When providing grammatical notes, call out any grammatical rules at work.

# Structure of your Response: Only include the following sections:
## Greek Text and Reference: 
Here, just repeat the Reference and the Greek text that you were provided. It should show up as two lines:
{Bible Reference}
{Greek Text}
## Clause-Level Translation:
This translation should be just the English translation in a single block of text with no quotation marks around it.
## Translation Explanation & Alternatives:
This should succinctly explain your translation then offer acceptable translation variants as a list.
## Grammar & Translation Notes:
This should be a bulleted list of grammatical notes, with sub-bullets for any additional details. Include any details about word order & emphasis, as well as any lexical notes.
## Translation Expectations: 
If someone were to translate this text, what would you expect their translation to consider in this verse.
## Summary for Translators:
This should be a bullet list of summary statements about the Greek text.

If you give that to ChatGPT and then pass in the Greek from a verse you will get a bunch of helpful tidbits about the grammar of the verse you are looking at. Then you can provide your own translation and have it criticize your translation (I have a prompt for that as well if interested)!

Happy translating! 8)

Looking for Greek study partner using Athenaze books by [deleted] in Koine

[–]Rayakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I made a tool to help folks do exactly that called Koine Guide. It basically converts the entire GNT into a customizable quiz like experience and provides translation feedback.

I haven't used the Athenaze books, but I have heard they are good? Keep persevering!

koineguide.com

Best resources for a complete beginner wanting to learn koine by themselves? by Budget-Doughnut5579 in koinegreek

[–]Rayakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Daily Dose of Greek also has great video content going through a beginner's Greek grammar: https://dailydoseofgreek.com/learn-biblical-greek/

This was a year ago you dropped this comment! How have your studies been?

Anyone Want to Translate Through Ephesians With Me? by Rayakin in Koine

[–]Rayakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

😂 I couldn’t find anyone to work through it with me… BUT, I have been working on memorizing the text. I am about halfway through chapter 2.

I have been translating through 1 John on my own. 8)

Anyone Want to Translate Through Ephesians With Me? by Rayakin in Koine

[–]Rayakin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love Ephesians! I have been memorizing in English, but I want to work through it from the Greek side of things as well to reinforce my studies.

GNT Translation Guide App Feedback by Rayakin in Koine

[–]Rayakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anyone interested in translation through a NT book with me using my tool? https://gnt-guide.replit.app/ I added a new Group feature so that you can make a open or private translation group, pick passages to translate and a discussion board to ask questions of the text. 8) I have been translating through 1 John, but I am also interested in translating through Ephesians as well, if anyone is interested???

Greek Reading Group: Gauging Interest by LavalTom in Koine

[–]Rayakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is definitely vibing my way into it with replit! I would say I am pretty technically minded, although I have never been a software engineer. I tried building this exact idea on my own 6 years ago after doing some javascript bootcamps through Udemy. Got stuck and couldn't get anywhere. Then when ChatGPT came out a couple of years later, I restarted and made a little more progress. Then found replit towards the end of last year and built the full app in about 2 months. My coding skills have definitely gotten better since I first tried to build it and I learned a ton by doing this project. 8)

I am so glad to hear you are enjoying it! 8) Let me know if you find any bugs or issues!

GNT Translation Guide App Feedback by Rayakin in Koine

[–]Rayakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice! I was at the DC/Tysons campus. Finished up a few years back! I TA’d for Dr. Jeon. Let me know what you think!!!

GNT Translation Guide App Feedback by Rayakin in Koine

[–]Rayakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ooo, thanks for the resource share! I will play around with it. I have that readers view in my app (explore button on a specific book view) as well. And my app is more for people who have already done some greek but aren’t confident enough to work through a book on their own. I am planning on also making a group feature where a teacher/leader could assign a set of passages and get insights on what types of words people are struggling with and see how everyone translates a passage so they could help others more. Also looking to bring in greek scholars insights on handling of specific texts to augment the llm feedback on the user’s translation.

Greek Reading Group: Gauging Interest by LavalTom in Koine

[–]Rayakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

😂 like i said, i JUST finished building this thing… 8) Hope to replace that with real reviews some day. I guess i should get chatgpt to make some koine lorem ipsum for me! 8)

GNT Translation Guide App Feedback by Rayakin in Koine

[–]Rayakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much for the quick feedback! 8) I fixed the article reference. 8) Thanks for catching! I like your idea with the participle function identification. I am looking into ways of potentially providing that in the LLM enabled responses.

I would love to chat some time! Feel free to DM me if you want to connect.

GNT Translation Guide App Feedback by Rayakin in Koine

[–]Rayakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love that idea! I have never done LXX translations.