The Tale of Peter Rabbit in Koine Greek

When Beatrix Potter wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit at the turn of the twentieth century, a Koine Greek translation of her work would never have crossed her mind. Almost no one writes anything, especially works of fiction, in the language of the New Testament anymore. Almost no one has for centuries. This is why students of Koine Greek are largely limited in their selection of reading material to the New Testament, Septuagint, and Apostolic Fathers. But wouldn’t it be nice if Greek students could immerse themselves more fully in the language? If students had access to a wide variety of reading materials, ancient and modern, they would have even more opportunities to read and learn how the language works. They might even read for pleasure. Beatrix Potter would surely have supported such an enterprise. Because of our purpose and intended audience, this translation is written in Koine style and only uses vocabulary found in the Greek New Testament and Septuagint (including the Apocrypha). Because students of biblical Greek typically learn all the words that appear in the New Testament fifty times and more, translational glosses for all words appearing fifty times and fewer are included at the bottom of each page. English equivalents for proper names are only given at their first occurrence in the book. We have also included an English translation of the Greek text in the back of the book.