Ancient Greek Study Tools

Everybody should learn to read ancient Greek! The following links will help the beginner to start their journey and especially for those wanting to expand their knowledge of New Testament Greek. Tools and tips for upgrading your skills into classical and ecclesiastical works.
The main focus is on open access or free internet tools and resources. A little bit of attention is paid to third party apps and software. For those using third party apps or paid software, your feedback on their usefulness would greatly be appreciated.

For the beginner

The B-Greek Forum

A very helpful website and active community that covers everything from beginner to advanced.

Bill Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek

It is very popular and highly recommended.

Elpenor

A website devoted to almost anything Greek, from beginner to advanced, modern Greek, current politics, New Testament and Septuagint texts and more.

Daily Dose of Greek

A website devoted to those who want to learn the Greek of the New Testament from scratch.

Greek numbers in English

Many Greek texts are structured with a Greek numbering system. This webpage helps you understand the Greek numbering system.

Greek Resources

Online Dictionaries

Conjugation/declension tool

Perseus’s online dictionary can break down a word from any form to its root. An alternative that often finds words that Perseus does not have in its database is Lexigram.org

Thesaurus Linguae Graecae

This excellent software produced by the University of California, Irvine, contains a large array of Greek texts. Better yet, its search engine creates a very powerful and quick user experience. It has an abridged version for free but it is very limited. The paid version is the one you want. Most people access it through a university portal.

Roger Pearse

Roger was one of the first persons to post a site on the internet about the Church Fathers. He started with Tertullian and his energy has never ceased. There is an abounding amount of source material with added explanations on his site. Plus, he is a nice person and thoughtful with his answers.

Affordable iOS options

Brian Davidson, a Greek enthusiast, language nerd, and teacher, posted helpful tips on using your iOS based phone or tablet for studying or resourcing Greek texts.

Greek Bibles

Online Search for Septuagint/New Testament

biblicalgreek.org

The Unbound Bible

Hosted by Biola University, this is a Bible search site that not only does searches in Greek, but in many other languages as well. The interface allows four different languages to be retrieved on any given text. This is great for comparative studies. It also gives the option of searching different Greek manuscripts. The only drawback is that the Greek text does not have any diacritics.

Greek Bible

This site is fast and has some quick definitions by pointing over the text. However, I am not sure which Greek edition it draws from. Great for quick reference, maybe not so good for critical studies.

Elpenor’s Greek-English New Testament and Septuagint

It is unclear which manuscripts the Septuagint are based on. The New Testament follows the the text prepared by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (1904/12). The interface is dated and needs some refinement. Regardless, this is a very helpful site.

Migne Patrologia Graeca

This large 167 volume set spans a collection of almost 16 centuries of church writings. Not all of them are collected from the best manuscripts and the whole series is full of controversy surrounding its founder and editor, J.P. Migne. However, this collection is the best attempt to bring all of the writings together in one central place. It is a good place to start any critical historical studies. However, this massive volume is yet to be digitized. It is only available as pdf images. You have to leaf through page by page.
Here is a list of where you can find various pdf versions throughout the internet: Patristica.net. An alternative is Roger Pearse’s website, Patrologia Graeca (PG) PDF’s.
Wikipedia has a list of authors and the era for each volume of MPG. This is very helpful for finding a specific author like Cosmas Indicopleustes, Nicephorus Gregoras, or other names that are relatively unknown to the English speaking world.

Helpful Greek articles

Translation Tips on the Greek Church Fathers

Information on where to start, resources and strategies.

A Sample Process of Translating Alexandrian Greek

An outline of how to approach and translate Alexandrian Greek.

Diacritics in Ancient Greek

How to recognize and respect the diacritic markings in Ancient Greek.

Ancient Digitized Greek Dictionaries for download

A special download site for those who want a quick and easy way to download important dictionaries. This is a very popular article that caused DropBox to temporarily suspend my account for the amount of megabytes being used for downloads.

Greek Lexicon Searches using Google Books

How to utilize Google Books to do ancient Greek word searches. Not always reliable, but when it does, it is a real time-saver.

The Various uses of the infinitive in ancient Greek

Examples and solutions to the wide range use of the infinitive in ancient Greek.

Patrology and Greek Philosophy

Why understanding classical Greek philosophy is a critical requirement in translating Greek Patristic writings.

How to Read a Greek Minuscule Text

If you come across a medieval Greek text that looks more like handwriting or chicken-scratch, you are likely seeing a Greek minuscule text. This is a primer for learning to read this cursory style of writing.

Re-conceiving the Middle Voice for Greek and Latin Students

A handy article by the Patrologist on the use and uniqueness of some Greek and Latin verbs using the middle voice.

Readers and Supplementary

1-3 John: A General Reader

Edited by J. Klay Harrison and Chad M. Foster, aims to target those finished with the basics of New Testament Greek and want to advance their skills — an area that is greatly lacking in resources and may be the source of why so many abandon Greek studies.