About Biblical Mastery Academy
How we serve you
Biblical Mastery Academy exists to see people transformed by the word of God.
Our mission is to revolutionize and revive biblical education for the church, so that everyone can learn to read and study the Bible like a scholar. This starts with knowing the scriptures in their original languages.
Learning Biblical Greek and Hebrew will give you clarity, confidence and efficiency with God’s word, deepening your walk with Him.
We’re convinced that our approach to learning Greek and Hebrew will take you deeper, faster than any other comparable course or product.
That’s why we offer a low cost, high value education for Christians who love scripture and want to be more like Christ. If you want to get started reading the Bible like a scholar, get started today!
Our Staff
Dr. Darryl Burling
Darryl spent 15 years in the IT industry working in a variety of roles before beginning his education. He completed a Bachelor of the Arts in Biblical Counseling at the Master's University in less than two years, and then graduated with a Master of Divinity degree from the Master's Seminary. He then went on to doctoral studies, earning a Master of Theology and a Doctor of Philosophy in Biblical Counseling with a minor in Biblical Spirituality from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He wrote his dissertation on "The place of union with Christ in the theology and practice of marriage."
Darryl manages the day to day running of Biblical Mastery Academy and also serves as the product manager for the Greek Mastery Membership and the Growth Membership, in which he leads several calls each week, leads classes on advanced Greek and hermeneutics, and looks after much of the marketing.
He has been happily married for 30 years and has three grown daughters. He serves as an elder and occasional preacher in his local church.
Frank Hartmann
Frank completed his graduate studies at Liberty University’s Rawlings School of Divinity, earning both a Master of Divinity in Biblical Languages and a Master of Arts in Biblical Languages and Linguistics. He is now in the final stage of researching and writing his doctoral dissertation for his Ph.D. in Hebrew and Old Testament Biblical Studies at Columbia Biblical Seminary of Columbia International University.
His dissertation concerns the literariness of Lamentations, through which he will show why and how, from a cognitive linguistic point of view, the poetry of Lamentations has had the impact that it does both in Jewish and Christian traditions.
Frank manages the Hebrew offerings of Biblical Mastery Academy, and teaches students from beginning Hebrew through to mastery.
Neil Ellson
Neil’s Greek journey began in 1990 when he started self study using John Dobson’s grammar. Twenty years later he finished the book, switched to Mounce, joined Biblical Mastery Academy in 2019, and hasn’t looked back since. He refreshed his Greek by joining every cohort possible and started reading the New Testament in Greek far more often than he had in English. Neil achieved certification in BMA’s first accreditation cohort and is living proof that lay people can learn Greek without going to seminary,
Neil has been happily married for 36 years, has two adult children and too many pets, lives near the coast in North Norfolk UK and currently works with adults with learning disabilities in the community.
Daniel Pye
Daniel was studying toward a degree in forestry, and moved into the practical end of the industry, working on a chainsaw. When he was suddenly without work for a few weeks he volunteered to help out at Biblical Mastery Academy. His can-do attitude and willingness to learn anything quickly made him indispensable.
Now he serves as Technical and Media Assistant, managing our YouTube channel, our websites, editing the many videos we produce for members, and picking up almost anything else that comes his way.
Daniel is married to Ruby Pye. He loves that he gets paid to learn.
Stephen Hackett
Stephen's real passion is helping people appreciate the beauty and richness of Scripture. He serves his local church in various ways including preaching occasionally. He also runs a small YouTube channel called Biblical Studies & Reviews where he discusses the Bible, theology, and Greek.
Stephen loves Biblical Greek and has found great joy in deepening his knowledge of the language through Biblical Mastery Academy. And he feels incredibly blessed to be able to instruct BMA beginning Greek courses. Stephen is married to a supportive wife and has four very active children.
Ruby Pye
Ruby started with Biblical Mastery in 2021 as a Marketing Assistant and part of her job description was to learn Greek. Once she finished Beginning Greek in 2022, her desire was to combine her passion for teaching children with her newfound love for Greek.
After coming back from maternity leave in late 2023, she has worked hard to create Greek for Kids (our newest Beginning Greek course for our youngest learners). Her vision is to see the next generation of believers equipped with a rich understanding of the word of God.
Please Note: Instructors teaching beginning Greek are required to have at least Level 1 Certification, and tend to be close to Level 2. More information about our certification framework and requirements is available here.
How We Got Started
Before Darryl went to seminary, he wanted to read to Greek New Testament and get away from depending on translations and debates over which translation was best. So he tried to learn Greek using a textbook only to find he quickly got out of his depth. Not long after he decided to go to seminary, and elected to complete an undergraduate degree first, where he completed beginning Greek. This required some learning innovation on his part, resulting in what we now refer to as the four step process for learning Greek grammar.
The video to the right explains these 4 steps which we incorporate into our beginning Greek program.
In Seminary, Darryl took an additional 5 classes in New Testament Greek, developed solid hermeneutic knowledge and exegetical skills. However, he found that seminary does not teach students to read the New Testament in the original language.
This necessitated more thinking about how to achieve this, and here he leaned on what he learned preparing for his Greek entrance exam. So as he prepared for classes exegeting certain books, he learned the vocabulary for those books so that he could read them.
This proved effective for establishing a basic reading approach, and as he progressed through later stages of his MDiv, and PhD he developed an approach to working book by book through the entire New Testament starting from the easiest books, taking into account both lexical and syntactical difficulty.
During his time as a doctoral student, Darryl completed the development of a complete vocabulary set of the Greek New Testament ordered from easiest to most difficult, and packaged it into a product, the Greek Vocab Pack.
Not long after, this vocabulary acquisition approach became the foundation of a new membership offering called Master New Testament Greek (now the Greek Mastery Membership). Initially designed for graduated seminary students, it sought to help members learn to read book-by-book through the Greek New Testament, and develop the ability to read with fluency.
The membership began to attract people who needed to refresh their Greek, and many who hadn’t learned Greek at all, so a beginning Greek course was added. Soon after, a Greek Syntax course was added, which proved to be a bit challenging coming immediately after beginning Greek, so he created a Reading Greek course to bridge the gap and get students reading with confidence.
In 2021, Master New Testament Greek added its first employee, and in July 2022, Master New Testament Greek became Biblical Mastery Academy with the addition of a Hebrew curriculum. New courses and learning opportunities continue to be added to the membership based on member feedback and our desire to provide incredible value for our members, including our own tailor made Beginning Greek in Small Steps.
Since its foundation, Biblical Mastery Academy has helped thousands of students start from nothing and learn to read and study the New Testament like a scholar. And we’re just getting started.
