How I came to study New Testament Greek

I learned some Greek in Sydney. Sometimes I used it to explain the meanings of ‘ethnomusicology’ to my students. But the story of how I came to claim ‘I spent two years with the Greek of the New Testament’ is just one of those things that happens to me from time to time. 

I’d been to the dentist and chose to return by a different route.  (Yes - that had to be the road less travelled.) I turned south onto St Giles and as I passed the House of the Blackfriars in Oxford I spied a notice board. Now, noticeboards have long held a fascination for me. There is always a chance there will be a message waiting for me. This time there was. 

Every week in term time one of the friars taught a class in New Testament Greek. There was an open invitation to attend. There was no charge. I joined the club.  And so for a full six terms I practised with the koiné picked up in Sydney while the rest of the class played in the Erasmian mode.  All very easy-going and friendly.

As I worked with the Greek of the Gospels I became more and more aware of the many different layers - the interpolations and emendations - contributed to these very composite texts by so many different minds at so many different times. Differences which were ironed out and smoothed over in all of the various English versions I had previously studied. 

It was a great experience. Of inestimable value. And I am so grateful.

francis cameron, oxford, 2015 september 10