(This story appeared in 2018 in the WestSider publication in Wichita, KS.)

Got Greek?

It all started 27 years ago when WestSider Chuck King purchased an Interlinear Bible (ISBN 0-8423-4564-7) at a bookstore in Newton, KS. Although he didn't know any ancient Greek words, as he read that Interlinear Bible he became familiar with the Greek letters and words, and the English translation below. He also recognized some English words that came from Greek, like "kardia" for "heart."

In 1997 he purchased the self-study book "Basic Greek In 30 Minutes a Day" by Jim Found at Mardel's bookstore in Tulsa, OK. It took King a year to work through that book. He could then recognize many more Greek words in the Interlinear.

In 2001 he began writing a program so he could search the United Bible Societies (UBS) Greek text. That later became GreekToMe, a Java-based program for Mac OS X, Ubuntu, and Windows. As his knowledge of New Testament Greek increased by completing textbooks such as "Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar" by William D. Mounce and "The Basics of New Testament Syntax" by Daniel B. Wallace, many more features were added to GreekToMe.

GreekToMe allows both the layperson and Greek student to easily navigate the New Testament. One can readily access information about the Greek words used to form Bible translations such as the NASB. A number assigned to each Greek word may be used to look up the Greek word in reference books such as "The Complete Word Study Dictionary" by Spiros Zodhiates.

It isn't necessary to know any Greek to use GreekToMe.

In 2013 a friend suggested that he adapt GreekToMe for Android&tm;. King focused on the features that would be most practical for a mobile tablet/phone. Though still powerful, the GreekToMeLite app is easy to use. It has a Help menu that explains the 4 buttons and the 3 text areas of the main window. GreekToMeLite also works on Kindle Fire.

GreekToMe and GreekToMeLite are available at tinyurl.com/BibleSoftware. GreekToMeLite is also available at Google Play, Amazon App store, and apkfiles.com. All downloads are free, contain no ads, and the apps do not require an Internet connection.