Around two and a half years ago, KoineGreek.com in partnership with the LUMO Project and Faith Comes by Hearing helped release the first ever Gospel film in the original language (Koine Greek or Biblical Greek) in a historical Koine pronunciation: LUMO Project Film: The Gospel of Mark in Koine Greek.
After a long wait, KoineGreek.com is now excited to release the next Gospel film in this series, which also constitutes a "first ever" of its kind ...
This second film, the Gospel of Matthew, is based entirely on Codex Vaticanus, one of the oldest manuscript witnesses of the New Testament.
The film (viewable on YouTube) is made with the option of selecting two different types of captions, one that resembles the ancient uncial letters (admittedly based on the "Coptic" unicode block) and one in more typical Greek script of modern print. In this way, you can use this film not only to practice hearing and understanding Greek, but also to practice reading along in ancient letters. Captions are also accompanied by verse numbers so that you can easily reference the relevant text in print versions of the Greek New Testament.
I have so many people to thank for making this possible. I would like to thank both the LUMO Project and Faith Comes by Hearing for their partnership. They have been outstanding in all my work with them and I cannot thank them enough. I would also like to thank Jason Weaver and Ben Grist for their work in helping proof the audio and Ben Grist (once again) for his work in helping edit the audio. This is not to mention all those who helped in the original publication of The Vaticanus Bible: Gospels (see preface there), which serves as the base text for this film. I am deeply indebted to my partners and to all those who helped along the way in this project.
In the spirit of Christmas time, KoineGreek.com is releasing Matthew Chapter 1 right now, so that students and scholars of Greek everywhere can appreciate the story of the nativity in the original language of the New Testament. Later this week—by Christmas Eve—KoineGreek.com plans to release Matthew Chapter 2.
After this, the plan is to release one or two chapters per week until the week of Palm Sunday, Passover, and Resurrection Sunday (or Easter), during which the plan is to release more or less one chapter per day, beginning with Matthew 21 on Palm Sunday and concluding with Matthew 28 on Resurrection Sunday.
I hope many lovers of Greek, the New Testament, and the life of Jesus enjoy this next Gospel film in Koine Greek!