A couple of months ago, John Miles asked himself, "Do I, or do I not, like Dr. Black's It's Still Greek to Me?" (His answer may surprise you.)
In his video, John wondered out loud about how I happened to write my odd little book, which seems so different from my Learn to Read New Testament Greek. Well, it's all very simple.
After B & H had published my beginning grammar, Baker Academic asked me if I would write a second-year grammar for them. I didn't even have to think about the answer. It was a polite but definite "No thank you." You see, I knew that my friend Dan Wallace (we had attended Biola together) was in the process of writing an intermediate grammar for Zondervan. Knowing Dan as I did, I was certain that his grammar would quickly become the standard work in the field. "Dan's currently writing the definitive second year grammar," I told my friends at Baker. "So there's no need at all for me to write one."
Later, after Dan's work had appeared in print, Baker called me back and asked, "What do you think of Dan Wallace's new grammar?" "It's the greatest advanced Greek grammar ever published," I replied. After all, Dan's book was over 800 pages long. "Well, would you consider writing a more rudimentary intermediate grammar for us?" asked Baker. "Sure," I said, "but on two conditions: (1) that I could make it a true second-year grammar, and (2) that I could use a style that would appeal to students and pastors outside of a purely academic setting." The rest, as they say, is history.
By the way, I still think Dan's grammar is one of the best (if not the best) grammar beyond beginning Greek in print today. In my chapters in It's Still Greek to Me, I referenced by page numbers the parallel sections in Dan's Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics and pleaded with my readers not to stop with my book but to go on to deepen their studies through an encounter with Dan's magnum opus.
That's still my advice today.
Thanks for reading!