Problems or questions?
If this page isn't enough, drop me a mail: tony.larsson@cling.gu.se.

What am I supposed to do?

How can I recognize the Greek words?

The program won't start at all!

I see only squares, no Greek letters!

I made it - now what?

I want to run Paidagogos at home, off-line!
 

What am I supposed to do?
First, carefully study the information screen and its overview of the Greek letters. When you think you know them, press the green button and ten Greek words, constructed from these letters, will appear. You should NOT translate the words, but translitterate them: echo every Greek letter with its English equivalent. <TAB> jumps between the text fields.

If you get them all right, you will ascend to the next level where you learn two new letters, for he that is faithful in little will be entrusted with more. If not, you must do the words all over again until you have done your homework properly.
 

How can I recognize the Greek words?
The words in Paidagogos are specially selected to be recognizeable to a Bible student. Many of them are

All these are capitalized. Other paths to recognizing words are through The Greek word stems are embedded here and there in our words (like 'klepto' and 'mania' in 'kleptomania', 'stealing madness'). The endings generally disappear when imported into English ('Paulos' -> 'Paul'), and the spelling might change a little - for instance, 'oi' and 'ai' become 'e' in English ('paidagogos' -> 'pedagogue').
 

The program won't start at all!
Sorry. You're probably using a Mac, and for some strange reason I don't understand Paidagogos will not run on a Macintosh. The only advice I can give is to try another computer, another operative system, another browser. Paidgogos should work well in Windows 95 and NT, and in Windows 98 with Netscape 4.5 and Internet Explorer 5.

I see only squares, no Greek letters!
Your browser (which probably is Internet Explorer) doesn't understand the character codes. Try another browser (Netscape, if you have it), or another computer. See the previous question.
 

I made it - now what?
So you got through Paidagogos? KongratulationV! :-)

Now you know enough to use Greek lexicons and interlinears, and in many places you will be able to see the different options the Bible translators had when translating. An excellent tool for Bible study is the Online Bible, a freeware program from Holland which offers bibles in Greek and English (both modern and ancient versions, like King James), as well as in many other languages. Also included is Strong's Greek-Hebrew-English lexicon. Simply click an English word and you see what Greek word lies behind it. Download the Online Bible from från www.onlinebible.org - I have profited from it for several years myself.

But if you are enthusiastic and really want to learn the Greek language, so that you will not be dependent on lexicons and other helps, I would really like to encourage you: it's not that hard. The New Testament contains only 5000 different words, and many of these occur only once or twice. The core vocabulary (of words occurring 10 times or more) is only 1000 words. The Greek grammar is similar to German or Russian, with three genders and definite articles, four cases with prepositions, and verbs conjugated after the subject.

Here is an example of the deeper insight into the New Testament that you get when you master the grammar: in Greek, every verb exists in two aspects - present (a continuing action) and aorist (a completed action). The venerable King James Version reads in 1 John "We know the whosoever is born of God sinneth not" (1Jo 5:18), and "My little children, these things i write unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1Jo 2:1). These verses were used by an atheist to ridicule the Word as contradictory, but insight into Greek grammar will clarify the issue. Those who are born of God are not sinning (`amartanei, present tense, a continuing action, a sinful life), while they may occasionally sin (`amarth, aorist tense, a completed action). The Christian's conscience, sharpened by the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within him, will not permit him to go on in open rebellion against his Father. Such things, and much more, will be more fully understood by studying the original inspired Greek text of the New Testament.

But few are so self-disciplined that they can learn a language completely on their own. You can take a look at my link page, where you can find much more resources - for instance, articles and advice and free tutoring and on-line courses in Greek. The advantage of studying together with others is that you have to do your homework even when you don't feel like it...

And after just one semester of study, two nights a week, I was able to start read the original Greek text of the New Testament, just as it was written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit 2000 years ago through the hands of the apostles - the men who saw, heard and touched Jesus, the Light that shines in the darkness. As Peter writes (2Pe 1:16): "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty."
 

I want to run Paidagogos at home, off-line!
Here you can download Paidagogos so that you can run it at home, without being connected to Internet. When you got it home properly, just double-click the file and it will install itself.

Get PedEng.exe
 

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