About the Author

Jon C. Laansma is associate professor of ancient languages and New Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. His previous books include 2 Timothy & Titus and Christology, Hermeneutics, and Hebrews. Randall X. Gauthier is an independent researcher living in San Antonio, Texas. His writings include “Examining the `Pluses’ in the Greek Psalter: A Study of the Septuagint Translation Qua Communication” in Septuagint and Reception.

Reviews

"The Handy Guide to Difficult and Irregular Greek Verbs by Laansma and Gauthier is the next logical step in time saving tools for students who have come to see that mastery is within their grasp. As is the case with all such guides, including Kubo's Reader's Greek-English Lexicon of the NT and Metzger's Lexical Aids for Students of NT Greek on whose shoulders it stands, this little volume is a resource one hopes to outgrow. Those two earlier works are by functional necessity linked to the first principle part (almost exclusively) even though that form is rarely the most commonly encountered element of the word. The rationale in the opening pages of the Handy Guide (which all teachers and second year students could benefit from reading) clearly lays out the nature of this disconnect. Students need a simple, efficient means for connecting attested forms with the nearly theoretical lexical ones they have labored to learn. Teachers have long recognized the conundrum this creates even for a diligent learner (to say nothing of the more haphazard student). Too often, the learners are left to their own devices after being saddled with the responsibility for connecting the various dissimilar forms of a single verb. While in isolated cases, thoughtful pedagogy may tailor instruction and perhaps exercises to address the gap created by the structure of our tools, this parvum opus meets the need by hitting the target at which it aims, making it unnecessary to reinvent the wheel. I expect this work will become a welcome element of the Greek learner's tool kit. I anticipate requiring my students to use this booklet to complete assignments aimed at demonstrating to both the teacher and student a growing familiarity with its contents through retention. The student's expanding facility with recognition, a quicker and easier comprehension, and consequent gains in reading speed will all serve as tangible encouragement and evidence of progress in their quest for facility with Greek verbal forms. Through the use of this guide, ultimately, reading will become more enjoyable."--Douglas Penney, Associate Professor of Classical Languages, Wheaton College (6/16/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"Irregular verbs regularly afflict students of New Testament Greek. They are a source of intense frustration and the dread that initiates bouts of procrastination. Tools abound that help to some degree, but even the standard lexicon by Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich only lists the inflected forms of these irregular verbs that occur in early Christian literature. What has long been needed is a frequency list that shows the irregular principal parts and patterns of these verb stems. Brilliant ideas are often marked by the instant recognition that they meet a felt need. Laansma and Gauthier have provided this in a format that is elegant in its very simplicity."--Daniel B. Wallace, Senior Research Professor, Dallas Theological Seminary (6/16/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"Jon Laansma and Randall Gauthier seem to have read the embarrassed minds of all of us who studied Koine Greek formally a long time ago, but still find ourselves needing to treat it with sensitivity and precision--as of course we must do in order to render any reliable account of ancient sacred literature in Greek. The Handy Guide's organization by frequency of verb forms and by groups of compound verbs is ingenious, cutting through the necessarily daunting layouts of lexicons and grammars and providing many shortcuts to the great question in every case: What is this verb, in its context, actually doing? The Handy Guide to Difficult and Irregular Greek Verbs will live on top of my pile of reference books as I make the first pass in my new translation of the Gospels."--Sarah Ruden, Translator, Poet, Scholar (6/16/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"Laansma and Gauthier are correct that irregular verbs are the bane of Greek students. Their approach facilitates the student's understanding and acquisition of such verbs. The Handy Guide to Difficult and Irregular Greek Verbs could be used as a basis for assignments over which students would be quizzed or as a reference resource for students to use when they encounter difficult forms. I would seriously consider using this book as a required text in several courses. We spend the last three weeks of the semester reading from the New Testament, and our students would be helped by using this resource when they encounter irregular verbs."--David Turner, Professor of New Testament, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary (6/16/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"Laansma and Gauthier's work does three important things: (1) draws attention to a critical but overlooked and underappreciated area: learning and knowing the irregular verb stems that occur commonly in the New Testament, (2) prioritizes the most relevant stems to be learned, and (3) suggests that the Greek New Testament "must be read." So thanks to Laansma and Gauthier, students of Greek don't just have a list of randomly-selected principal parts to learn. They have a smart list--a list that has been carefully selected based on frequency of occurrence. But more important, they are encouraged and empowered to read, and to read the Greek New Testament! So perhaps Laansma and Gauthier will help banish a "paint by numbers" approach to Greek New Testament, put to flight the notion that the Greek text is merely one of many tools at the minister's disposal, and in general ignite a renaissance in the study of God's word in the original language. There is only one thing left to say: buy it and reduce it to tatters through constant use."--Jay E. Smith, Professor of New Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary (6/16/2017 12:00:00 AM)