Linguistics and New Testament Greek , livre ebook

© 2020 by David Alan Black and Benjamin L. Merkle
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—­for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—­without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-2692-8
Unless otherwise indicated, Greek text is from UBS 5 .
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture translations are the author’s own.
Scripture quotations labeled CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible ® , copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible ® and CSB ® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ® , NIV ® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations labeled NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
To the students at S OUTHEASTERN B APTIST T HEOLOGICAL S EMINARY
Contents
Cover
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Abbreviations
Preface: Where Did We Come From?
David Alan Black
1. Linguistic Schools
Stanley E. Porter
2. Aspect and Tense in New Testament Greek
Constantine R. Campbell
3. The Greek Perfect Tense-­Form: Understanding Its Usage and Meaning
Michael G. Aubrey
4. The Greek Middle Voice: An Important Rediscovery and Implications for Teaching and Exegesis
Jonathan T. Pennington
5. Discourse Analysis: Galatians as a Case Study
Stephen H. Levinsohn
6. Interpreting Constituent Order in Koine Greek
Steven E. Runge
7. Living Language Approaches
T. Michael W. Halcomb
8. The Role of Pronunciation in New Testament Greek Studies
Randall Buth
9. Electronic Tools and New Testament Greek
Thomas W. Hudgins
10. An Ideal Beginning Greek Grammar?
Robert L. Plummer
11. Biblical Exegesis and Linguistics: A Prodigal History
Nicholas J. Ellis
Postscript: Where Do We Go from Here?
Benjamin L. Merkle
Glossary
Contributors
Scripture and Ancient Writings Index
Author Index
Subject Index
Back Cover
Abbreviations
General
//
parallel
acc.
accusative
adj.
adjective
ca.
circa , about
cf.
confer , compare
chap(s).
chapter(s)
d.
dative
ed(s).
editor(s), edited by, edition
e.g.
exempli gratia , for example
ESOL
English to Speakers of Other Languages
f.
feminine
fig.
figure
gen.
genitive
ind.
indicative
IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet
LXX
Septuagint (Greek version of the Jewish Scriptures)
n
note
nom.
nominative
NIF
Natural Information Flow
no(s).
number(s)
NT
New Testament
OT
Old Testament
pl.
plural
p(p).
page(s)
repr.
reprinted
SBL
Society of Biblical Literature
SFL
Systemic Functional Linguistics
SIL
Summer Institute of Linguistics
subj.
subjunctive
v(v).
verse(s)
Scripture Editions and Translations
ASV
American Standard Version
AT
author’s translation
CSB
Christian Standard Bible
ESV
English Standard Version
KJV
King James Version
NA 28
Novum Testamentum Graece , Nestle-Aland, 28th ed.
NASB
New American Standard Bible
NEB
New English Bible
NIV
New International Version (2011)
NKJV
New King James Version
NRSV
New Revised Standard Version (1989)
RSV
Revised Standard Version
SBLGNT
Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
TEV
Today’s English Version (= Good News Bible)
UBS 5
The Greek New Testament , United Bible Societies, 5th ed.
Old Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
Jdt.
Judith
1–2 Macc.
1–2 Maccabees
Apostolic Fathers
Barn.
Epistle of Barnabas
FPap 3.14
Papias, Fragments 3.14, in “Papias and Quadratus,” Loeb Classical Library 25, The Apostolic Fathers , vol. 2, ed. and trans. Bart D. Ehrman (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003)
Herm. Mand.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandates
Herm. Sim.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitudes
Ign. Rom .
Ignatius, To the Romans
Secondary Sources and Collections
BDAG
W. Bauer, F. W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature , 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000)
BDF
Friedrich Blass, Albert Debrunner, and Robert W. Funk, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961)
CILT
Current Issues in Linguistic Theory
ICC
International Critical Commentary
INTF
Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung
JETS
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
JSNTSup
Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series
Louw-Nida
Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, eds., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains , 2nd ed. (New York: United Bible Societies, 1989)
MJTM
McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry
NCBC
New Century Bible Commentary
NICNT
New International Commentary on the New Testament
NIGTC
New International Greek Testament Commentary
NMLB
Newson’s Modern Language Books
OAL
Oxford Applied Linguistics
OPTAT
Occasional Papers in Translation and Textlinguistics
SDR
Strumenti per la didattica e la ricerca
TSL
Typological Studies in Language
WBC
Word Biblical Commentary
Preface
Where Did We Come From?
DAVID ALAN BLACK
R ecently I ordered a book edited by Stanley Porter and Don Carson called Discourse Analysis and Other Topics in Biblical Greek . 1 Though reprinted by Bloomsbury in 2015, it was first published by Sheffield Academic Press way back when the ark landed on Ararat (1995). Most of my students weren’t even alive back then. I originally read this book when it first came out, but I have a big reading problem: I can never read a good book only once. This disorder started when I was in seminary and reading books by F. F. Bruce and Bruce Manning Metzger. I’ve long been a fan of books about linguistics, so when I ordered this one, I knew I was in for some pleasant surprises. I will give you one example. The irrepressible Moisés Silva, in his chapter titled “Discourse Analysis and Philippians,” writes the following (keep in mind that Silva is discussing his growing confusion about the character of Greek discourse analysis):
Every researcher seems to be following his or her own agenda—usually quite an expansive agenda. Certain that the problem was not the early onset of senility, I picked up the recent and fine collection of papers edited by David Black, with the hopes of clarifying matters once and for all. My anxiety, however, was only aggravated to realize in a fresh way that discourse analysis is about . . . everything ! It is grammar and syntax, pragmatics and lexicology, exegesis and literary criticism. In short, fertile ground for undisciplined minds. 2
Silva’s was a tough chapter to get through because it is so blatantly honest and on target. As he puts it, “The more I read the more lost I feel.” 3 There’s no need to fool ourselves into thinking that our discipline (New Testament Greek) has gotten any less confusing since Silva wrote that chapter twenty-four years ago. What to do? Hold a conference, of course!
Two years ago, having previously organized three major New Testament conferences on our campus, I asked my colleague Benjamin Merkle if he would be interested in helping me organize yet another one, this time a summit dealing with the intersection of linguistics and New Testament Greek. 4 To this request he graciously agreed, and the book you now hold in your hands is the result of our joint effort to try to help our Greek students become more familiar with the significant contributions that linguistics can make to their study of New Testament Greek. In this preface I will endeavor to briefly explain the reasons we felt such a conference was necessary. In the postscript, my co-editor, who is currently writing (with Robert Plummer) a new beginning grammar of New Testament Greek, will summarize his impressions of the conference and make some suggestions as to where he thinks the discipline of New Testament Greek studies is likely to go in the future.
One of the most notable features of New Testament Greek scholarship during the past ten to twenty years has been the recovery of our temporarily mislaid interest in the science of linguistics. In the mid- to late twentieth century, teachers of New Testament Greek were generally preoccupied with more or less traditional approaches to Greek grammar that often involved little more than lists of paradigms and principal parts. But now many of us who teach Greek are convinced that God has given us insights from the science of linguistics that can and should inform our traditional approaches to exegesis. At the same time we realize that our discipline is far behind in this area, and we have a long way to go to catch up. This book is one attempt to bring New Testament Greek studies up to speed. It contains eleven papers delivered at a conference called Linguistics and New Testament Greek: Key Issues in