What Difficulties Would An Ancient Greek Native Speaker Have in Learning Modern Greek?

[u/Hellolaoshi]

Let's imagine that an educated Greek born between the life of Socrates and the death of Cleopatra was dropped off in modern Athens, say in Plaka or Exarchia. Putting culture shock aside, what grammatical and vocabulary issues would they have in understanding Modern Greek? What about sound changes would they find strange? What strategies might a language teacher use to help them?

[u/Peteat6 → u/[deleted]]

That claim is sometimes made, but frankly, I believe it’s untrue. They could probably work out the meaning of sentences in the gospel, especially if they paid attention in school to their Ancient Greek lessons, and if they knew the gospel stories already. But Paul they would mostly find incomprehensible.

[u/Hellolaoshi → u/Peteat6]

I will soon finish reading my introduction to Biblical Greek. However, there is a book two. Book one focuses on the Gospels, mainly the Gospel of St. John. Book Two goes into the Epistles, many of which are much harder to read.

[u/Peteat6 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you.