This book is intended to be a stepping stone for those with one year of Biblical Greek onto advanced Greek grammars. Porter does a remarkable job here. Having used several other intermediate grammars in the past, I can tell you that Porter does not lose sight of the forest for the trees. Other intermediate grammars can in many ways be daunting exploding 1st year grammatical concepts into unmanageable and intimidating categories. Porter's minimalistic approach allows for the first year student to ease themselves into the many functions different morphological features can exhibit. One may quip that Porter is not comprehensive enough, and this is true in many places (I've read more remarkable sections, for example, on 'the article' in other grammars). But Porter's advantage is that one learns how the language works on the discourse level, which in many cases is an important factor (if not the deciding factor) for determining the semantics of a particular phrase or clause. This is a must read for students studying New Testament Greek. Also, even if one has already completed an intermediate Greek course, there is still much one can learn from Porter (most notoriously known for his particular theory regarding verbal aspect). ( )

Idioms in any language are the hardest thing to grasp, because they entail slight variations in meaning that are often culture driven. Idioms in one language often sound silly or meaningless in another. This work seeks to overcome that gap in understanding, from the 1st Century to now. ( )

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