Martin Hengel and Theology Students

Along with Jason Maston, I am editing a collection of essays that came out of the 2010 Tyndale Conference held in honour of Prof. Martin Hengel (Earliest Christianity: History, Literature, and Theology) to be published - hopefully mid year - by Mohr/Siebeck. We have a preface by Jörg Frey who colourfully records his first encounter with Prof. Hengel as an undergraduate student in Tübingen. Here's the opening paragraph:

"This scene was unforgettable. During the orientation days for new students of Protestant Theology– beginning winter semester 1983/84 – representatives of the famous Tübingen Faculty in the Evangelischen Stift had to introduce the various theological disciplines. Every one of them tried to feature the importance of their subject for theology as a whole, but they all missed to create that real tingle that could have fascinated the novice. Only one went beyond limits. He did not keep talking about his scholarly field for very long, but instead he put great emphasis on its object, the New Testament. Whilst pulling a little, heavily worn blue booklet – his old “Nestle-Aland” – out of his pocket, swinging it through the air, he urged his audience with great vigour: “Read this book! In Greek! It’s a good book.”

I think I shall make this my new teaching slogan:"Lesen Sie dieses Buch! Auf Griechischen! Es ist ein gutes Buch".

New Greek Grammar: Fundamentals of NT Greek

S.E. Porter, J.T. Reed, M.B. O'Donnell

Fundamentals of New Testament Greek (plus Work Book)

Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010.

Available at Amazon.com (with look inside feature)

"The great strengths of these books are their coherence, comprehensiveness, knowledge of contemporary linguistics, the wide-ranging use of Greek drawn from texts instead of artificially created snippets, and the fine integration of the workbook with the textbook. Highly recommended."

— D. A. Carson, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

When I learned Greek in seminary we used a mixture of William Mounce and John Wenham. It was okay, Mounce was certainly easier than some grammars to use, I learned NT Greek as I was supposed to, and the job got done. Both grammars had some problems. You have to wait an awful long time before you get to verbs in Mounce and Wenham's exercise were rather annoying when he tests you on the exceptions.

Amidst the variety of Greek Grammars out there, one I have to highlight is that written by Stan Porter and friends that came out late last year. It has some good features:

• Uses a verbal aspect approach (perfective, imperfective, stative).
• Very detailed and includes good discussions on things like accents.
• Good mix of noun and verb chapters as the grammar progresses.
• No reference to the definite article since Greek has no indefinite article.
• Liked the description of the middle voice as either reflexive, reciprocal, or proper.
• Good little summary on why you shouldn't believe in deponency.
• A short description of numerals signified in Greek (wish I had this when I was working on my 1 Esdras commentary).
• Work book is written in nice big letters and the exercises aren't too long or onerous.

The only draw back I can think of is that you really need to learn the parsing abbreviations by rote in order to get the parsing. Sometimes you have to think twice in remembering stuff. For instance, Imperfect tense-form is "Im" and the Imperative mood is "Imp" (pp. xviii). Yet in the general abbreviations they are simplified as "Impf." and Imperative "Impv.". This could create confusion as to when and where and which Im(f/v) is being cited. But that's admittedly a minor criticism in a fine grammar.

New Edition of the Greek New Testament

Logos Bible Software and the Society of Biblical Literature have teamed up to create new critically edited Greek text called SBLGNT. The official website is here and you can find the news at the ETC Blog. Well done to Prof. Michael Holmes for doing this! It should be available for SBL Atlanta in print and electronic editions.

Why Learn the Biblical Languages

See these clips by Elizabeth Groves on why you should learn the biblical languages.

Accordance and Me, Part 4: Accordance and Learning Greek

I tell my Greek students that Bible software is an indispensible crutch for pastoral ministry and academic research and teaching. The time one saves using Accordance significant and it will perhaps ensure that the exegetical skills gained in seminary will not be lost due to the pressures of ministry.

Yet, I do not espouse the method of teaching Greek, which some schools now offer, that simply teach students to the use software without an adequate foundation in Greek grammar and syntax. I do not advocate learning to use Accordance or any other program in place of the basic study of Greek grammar. This goes for online courses as well. While they can be useful especially for folks who do not have access to a seminary or college that teaches biblical languages, it is very difficult, although not impossible, to gain a sufficient proficiency outside of a classroom experience. Everyone, I realize, will not share this view; but even this semester I have a student auditing my class because they were unprepared for the exegesis course after successfully completing the Greek grammar course online. No matter what Rosetta Stone may say, learning languages is not easy no matter what bells and whistles may come with the product. At the end of the day, it comes down to just grinding it out in study.

Returning to my “crutch” analogy, I also tell them “one must break their leg, before a crutch is useful or necessary. This course will break your leg! After you complete it you’ll be ready to use a crutch".

Simply put, the long term effectiveness of Bible software for teaching and preaching is related to the extent of one’s basic grammatical knowledge.

Tormenting Gk Texts Students

In my Greek Texts III class today, we finished off the semester (and their undergraduate Greek) by getting them to translate one final Greek text, not from a UBS4 or NA27, but from an actual manuscript! Here's what they had to translate from Codex Vaticanus:

What is the book, chapter, and verse for this passage?

What word is missing here compared to the UBS4 version?

My Greek Memory Verses

I'm aspiring to memorize more biblical Greek this year and here is my intended list:

LXX
Deut. 10.12-13
Pss. 110.1
Isa. 53.11-12
Dan. 7.13-14

Greek NT
Matt. 6.9-13
Mk. 10.45
Lk. 9.23-24
Jn. 3.16
Rom. 3.21-26*
Phil. 2.5-11*
Col. 1.15-20
Heb. 12.1-3
Jas. 1.27
Rev. 21.6-7

AF
Ignatius, Rom. 3.2
Diog. 9.3-5

The asterix signifies what I've done so far! Still a long way to go!! But feel free to join me in the quest.

Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek

There are two exciting young guys among the Sydney Anglicans, they are John P. Dickson from the Centre for Public Christianity and Constantine Campbell from Moore College. They are both accomplished musicians, gifted evangelists, and NT scholars! Campbell has a new book out called, Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek.

Synopsis: In this book, Constantine Campbell investigates the function of verbal aspect within the New Testament Greek narrative. The book includes exercises, an answer key, glossary of key concepts, an appendix covering space and time, and an index to Scripture cited.

Description: Verbal aspect in the Greek language has been a topic of significant debate in recent scholarship. The majority of scholars now believe that an understanding of verbal aspect is even more important than verb tense (past, present, etc.). Until now, however, there have been no accessible textbooks, both in terms of level and price (most titles on the topic retail for more than $100). In this book, Constantine Campbell investigates the function of verbal aspect within the New Testament Greek narrative. He has done a marvelous job in this book of simplifying the concept without getting caught up using terms of linguistics that no one except those schooled in that field can understand. The book includes exercises, an answer key, glossary of key concepts, an appendix covering space and time, and an index to Scripture cited. Professors and students, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, will use this is as a supplemental text in both beginning and advanced Greek courses. Pastors that study the Greek text will also appreciate this resource as a supplement to their preaching and teaching.

Text Linguistics and Statistics

As Mark Twain said: There are lies, there are damnable lies, and then there statistics! Thanks to Rick Brannan, I found this quote from Matthew Brook O'Donnell:

"It seems unlikely that by simply counting words it is possible to differentiate between authors. While a particular author may have a core or base vocabulary, as well as an affinity for certain words (or combination/collocation of words), there are many factors, for instance, age, further education, social setting, rhetorical purpose and so on, that restrict or expand this core set of lexical items. In spite of this, New Testament attribution studies and many commentaries (sadly, some rather recent ones at that) have placed considerable weight on counting the number of words found in one letter but not found in a group of letters assumed to be authentic" (Corpus Linguistics and the Greek of the New Testament, 388).

Book Review: Greek NT: Reader's Editions

Barclay M. Newman
The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft/Hendrickson, 2007.
Available in the US from Amazon.com
Available in the UK from Alban Books

Most nights I do a 10-15 minute reading from the Greek New Testament. Since I haven't mastered all of the Greek quite yet, I sit in bed with three books: Kubo's lexicon, an NIV Bible, and my trusty UBS4. With my little library in bed with me (next to the wife) it gets pretty crowded. Well I'm glad to say that I only take the one book to bed with me now which is the new UBS reader's edition of the Gk NT. This is a gem of book which includes the UBS4 Greek text, a running Greek-English dictionary of words that occur 30 times or less, a Greek dictionary and maps at the end of the volume.

I found the "Reader's Edition" very helpful in reading through Hebrews completely in Greek, which I've never done before, as Hebrews has a large number of hapax. It made reading easier and quicker. There is also a very good review of the edition over at RBL. I would strongly recommend this book to those who want to upgrade from seminary Greek to fully reading Greek unaided. Unlike an interlinear, as a reading aid, this book won't make you lazy and your Greek will improve as will your vocab. Too many students take 2-3 years of Greek and then just forget about it when they go into ministry. This book is a good tool not just to help you maintain your Greek, but to actually excel in your reading of Greek.

Review of Editio Critica Maior

What follows is a review of the Novum Testamentum Graecum Editio Critica Maior, Part IV - the Catholic Letters, Installments 1-4. See a web introduction here.

1. Editio Critica Maior

According to the Institute for New Testament Textual Research (INTF), the Editio Critica Maior documents the Greek textual history of the first millennium based on Greek manuscripts of special relevance for the textual tradition, on older translations, and on quotations of the New Testament in ancient Christian literature. It utilizes the coherence based genealogical method for collating the material prepared for the first time with such completeness. The selection of manuscripts rests on an analysis of the entire primary tradition. Every selected manuscript is entered into a database with all its readings and registered in the critical apparatus. The edition thus offers information to answer continuative questions: How does the text change in the course of history and why? How was a text received in early Christianity?

The ECM is scheduled to be published in five volumes:

I. Gospels
II. Acts
III. Pauline Letters
IV. Catholic Letters
V. Revelation

2. For discussion of the ECM see:

Bart D. Ehrman, "Novum Testamentum Graece Editio Critica Maior: An Evaluation"

D. C. Parker, "A Critique of the Novum Testamentum Graecum Editio Critica Maior"

Peter H. Davids, "Novum Testamentum Graecum Editio Critica Maior: A Non-Specialist's Perspective"

William L. Petersen, "Some Remarks on the First Volume (The Epistle of James) of the Novum Testamentum Graecum Editio Critica Maior"

Klaus Wachtel, Co-Editor of the ECM, "Response to Four Reviews of the James Volume of the Editio Critica Maior"

3. ECM, Part IV - The Catholic Letters

Each installment includes two parts: text and supplement. Part 1 (text) of all installments includes a foreword, notes on the reconstruction of the text, and the actual text itself. The text includes three parts: (1) the primary line of text, (2) the overview of variant readings, and (3) the critical apparatus. Part 2 (supplement) of the installment includes (1) abbreviations and symbols, (2) Greek manuscripts, (3) Patristic quotations, (4) versions, (5) additional apparatus, and (6) supplementary material and studies.

ECM IV/1 - The Epistle of James

The ECM differs from NA27 and UBS4 in two instances on James:

a. 1.22 - akroatai monon
b. 2.3 - ē kathou ekei

Included is also evidence from P100 (= POxy 4449) from the Oxyrynchus collection which contains Jas 3.13-4.4 and 4.9-5.1 (III/IV century).

ECM IV/2 - The Letters of Peter

There are differences with UBS4 and NA27 in sixteen places, e.g. 2 Pet. 3.10 - ouk eurethēsetai

The analysis showed the remarkable agreement of P72, P81, and 623 with the A text (= Ausgangstext or hypothetical initial text).

ECM IV/3 - The First Letter of John

The editors note that due to the simple style of 1 John, there are very few passages where difficulties lead to major variants, although the repetitive style encourages a range of variants for some expressions.

ECM differences with NA27/UBS4 include:
1.7 - omits de
5.10 - en autō
5.18 - heaton

ECM IV/4 - The Second and Third Letter of John, the Letter of Jude

What I found interesting here was the ECM preference for 'Jesus' over 'Lord' in Jude 5. Otherwise, one should consult on Jude, Tommy Wasserman: The epistle of Jude: its text and transmission

4. An Evaluation

- In terms of advancing a new methodology for textual criticism (i.e. the coherence-based-genealogical method or CBGM), the ECM is highly commendable. Alas, the days of "text types" is well and truly over. However, the CBGM does not always prove as useful for 1-3 John, Jude as it does for James and 1-2 Peter.
- There is a completeness and thoroughness to the presentation of the data that is otherwise unmatched by any apparatus, and for that reason alone the ECM is necessary for commentary writing, studies in wirkungsgeschichte, and for any serious textual study.
- If teaching a course on textual criticism or advanced Greek, a lecturer should strive to get the ECM into the hands of students and have sessions where they practice using it to discover variants and learn how to read the text.
- Another useful aspect is that the bilingual nature of the volumes (i.e. German and English) which allows one to practice reading Theological German.

These volumes are available in the UK from Alban Books.