Month: <span>January 2021</span>

INTRO:  the ancient Greeks had a system for language aquisition that might help students improve their knoledge of Greek. This system, more or less, was taken up by the young Ben Franklin. He was concerned not with learning a foreogn language, but how to employ his native English with greater perpescuity. The general practice of imitation, copying a text exactly, triggers language paradigms and vocabulary as they would occur in actual use and does so in a manner where the mind is more relaxed than the normal process of word-for-word translation.

Imitation

Ben Franklin: copy and re-write the same kernel ideas in different words. At times Franklin would express a poem in prose a vice-versa, forcing his mind to identify new or fresh words and arrangements of words from which he could choose to best express said idea.

How to’s with the Biblical languages: a favorite passage…class translation exercises (if any students in my Greek classes are reading this today, you have a preview of the methodology we will employ next week)…a non-Biblical text (1 Clement or Thucydides)…have a grammar and lexicon handy…students will likely find that they are less intimidated the next time they are forced to translate a text word-for-word…could also re-write a prose passage using different words or in a different genre…appreciation of the interplay of verbal tense-form and word choices of the Biblical authors.

Luke 2

Luke 23

Acts 18

But Luke was concerned primarily for the history of Israel as it related to the ministry of Jesus Christ. The infancy narratives (Luke 1-2) can hardly be understood apart from an appreciation of Israel’s plight and Luke’s concluding account in Acts 28 notes Paul’s broken-hearted citation of Isa 6:9-10. Between the infancy narratives and Paul’s bitter sermon in Rome Luke

My Advent sermon series this year is in 1 John. Having just finished the Gospel of Luke, completed in two years, I did not want to return to the infancy narratives of the Gospels. So on to John’s longest letter for the hopes of offering the church some of John’s reflections on what we celebrate at Christmas. I think 1 John is one of the final New Testament books to be written. The aged apostle writes to set out Christianity as it is—and always will be.

What kind of grammatical forms might an author use to connote the structural stability of their subject matter? In 1 John 2-3, John writes twenty-six substantival participles, all articular. John writes a total of fifty-eight participles in 1 John, forty-nine of them substantival (Köstenberger, Merkle, and Plummer, 326 n. 13). Participles are supplementary and at times ambiguous forms of communication (Buth, 289). But when an author substanizes a participle, it becomes a concretizes an idea, emphasizing the structural stability of its referent. Stanley E. Porter writes, “The (substantival) participle adds the semantic features of its respective verb tense-form, which must be considered in appreciating the full force of the phrase or clause” (Porter, 183). In other words, a normal participle is like a compact sedan, supplementing family travel by carrying one, two, three people comfortably on errands. The articular substantival participle is like a Chevy Suburban, people and gear for a specific trip.

Below, the twenty-six articular substantival participles in 1 John 2-3 are marked with bold font. The English phrases in the NASB (1995) that translate these participles are also marked with bold font.

1John 2:4 ὁ λέγωνὅτι ἔγνωκα αὐτὸν καὶ τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ μὴ τηρῶν ψεύστης ἐστίν, καὶ ἐν τούτῳἡ ἀλήθεια οὐκ ἔστιν·1John2:4 The one who says, “aI havecome to bknowHim,” and does not keep Hiscommandments, is a cliar, and dthe truth is not in him;

1John 2:6 ὁ λέγων ἐν αὐτῷ μένειν ὀφείλει, καθὼς ἐκεῖνος περιεπάτησεν, καὶ αὐτὸς οὕτως περιπατεῖν.

1John 2:6 the one who says he aabides in Him bought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

1John 2:9 Ὁ λέγων ἐν τῷ φωτὶ εἶναι καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ μισῶν ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ ἐστὶν ἕως ἄρτι. 10 ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ φωτὶ μένει, καὶ σκάνδαλον ἐν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἔστιν· 11 ὁ δὲ μισῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ ἐστὶν καὶ ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ περιπατεῖ καὶ οὐκ οἶδεν ποῦ ὑπάγει, ὅτι ἡ σκοτία ἐτύφλωσεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ.

1John 2:9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet ahates his bbrother is in the darkness until now. 10 aThe one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But the one who ahates his brother is in the darkness and bwalks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has cblinded his eyes.

1John 2:17 καὶ ὁ κόσμος παράγεται καὶ ἡ ἐπιθυμία αὐτοῦ, ὁ δὲ ποιῶν τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα.

 1John 2:17 aThe world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who bdoes the will of God lives forever.

1John 2:22     Τίς ἐστιν ὁ ψεύστης εἰ μὴ ὁ ἀρνούμενος ὅτι Ἰησοῦς οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ Χριστός; οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἀντίχριστος, ὁ ἀρνούμενος τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὸν υἱόν. 23 πᾶς ὁ ἀρνούμενος τὸν υἱὸν οὐδὲ τὸν πατέρα ἔχει, ὁ ὁμολογῶν τὸν υἱὸν καὶ τὸν πατέρα ἔχει.

1John 2:22 Who is the liar but athe one who denies that Jesus is the 1Christ? This is bthe antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 aWhoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

1John 2:26     Ταῦτα ἔγραψα ὑμῖν περὶ τῶν πλανώντων ὑμᾶς.

1John 2:26   These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to adeceive you.

1John 2:29 ἐὰν εἰδῆτε ὅτι δίκαιός ἐστιν, γινώσκετε ὅτι καὶ πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν τὴν δικαιοσύνην ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγέννηται.

1John 2:29 If you know that aHe is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness bis 1born of Him.

1John 3:3 καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἔχων τὴν ἐλπίδα ταύτην ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ ἁγνίζει ἑαυτόν, καθὼς ἐκεῖνος ἁγνός ἐστιν.

1John 3:3 And everyone who has this ahope fixed on Him bpurifies himself, just as He is pure.

1John 3:4       Πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν καὶ τὴν ἀνομίαν ποιεῖ, καὶ ἡ ἁμαρτία ἐστὶν ἡ ἀνομία.

1John 3:4   Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and asin is lawlessness.

1John 3:6 πᾶς ὁ ἐν αὐτῷ μένων οὐχ ἁμαρτάνει· πᾶς ὁ ἁμαρτάνων οὐχ ἑώρακεν αὐτὸν οὐδὲ ἔγνωκεν αὐτόν.

1John 3:7       Παιδία, μηδεὶς πλανάτω ὑμᾶς· ὁ ποιῶν τὴν δικαιοσύνην δίκαιός ἐστιν, καθὼς ἐκεῖνος δίκαιός ἐστιν· 8 ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου ἐστίν, ὅτι ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς ὁ διάβολος ἁμαρτάνει. εἰς τοῦτο ἐφανερώθη ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα λύσῃ τὰ ἔργα τοῦ διαβόλου. 9 Πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἁμαρτίαν οὐ ποιεῖ, ὅτι σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ μένει, καὶ οὐ δύναται ἁμαρτάνειν, ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται. 10 ἐν τούτῳ φανερά ἐστιν τὰ τέκνα τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὰ τέκνα τοῦ διαβόλου· πᾶς ὁ μὴ ποιῶν δικαιοσύνην οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ὁ μὴ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ.

1John 3:6 No one who abides in Him asins; no one who sins has seen Him or 1bknows Him. 7 aLittle children, make sure no one bdeceives you; cthe one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is aof the devil; for the devil 1has sinned from the beginning. bThe Son of God cappeared for this purpose, dto destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who is 1aborn of God bpractices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is 1born of God. 10 By this the achildren of God and the bchildren of the devil are obvious: 1anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who cdoes not love his dbrother.

1John 3:14 ἡμεῖς οἴδαμεν ὅτι μεταβεβήκαμεν ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν ζωήν, ὅτι ἀγαπῶμεν τοὺς ἀδελφούς· ὁ μὴ ἀγαπῶν μένει ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ. 15 πᾶς ὁ μισῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ἀνθρωποκτόνος ἐστίν, καὶ οἴδατε ὅτι πᾶς ἀνθρωποκτόνος οὐκ ἔχει ζωὴν αἰώνιον ἐν αὐτῷ μένουσαν.

1John 3:14 We know that we have apassed out of death into life, bbecause we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who ahates his brother is a murderer; and you know that bno murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

1John 3:24 καὶ ὁ τηρῶν τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ μένει καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν αὐτῷ· καὶ ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκομεν ὅτι μένει ἐν ἡμῖν, ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος οὗ ἡμῖν ἔδωκεν.

1John 3:24 The one who akeeps His commandments babides in Him, and He in him. cWe know by this that dHe abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

As you can see, in 1 John 2-3 John substantizes verbs of speech and action. Verbs like ἀρνέομαι (2:22[2], 23), λέγω (2:4, 6, 9), and ὁμολογέω (2:23) note the importance of the Christian confession and speaking forth a committement to walk in the steps of Christ. With these verbs, John coordinates substantival participles connoting actions. Words like ἀγαπάω (2:10: 3:10, 14), ἁμαρτάνω (3:6), μένω (3:6 ), μισέω (2:9, 11; 3:15), ποιέω (2:17, 29; 3:4, 7, 8, 10), and τηρέω (2:4; 3:24) are substanized with the article to emphasize the concrete, structural nature of the verbal idea.

That is why 1 John reads like molasses. It is slow, dense. John writes so that his readers have lots of time to think as they hear or listen to his letter. He wants no member of his audience to be confused about the nature of the Christian message. Despite those who have gone out (2:18-19), the Christian message and the lifestyle of its adherants will never change.

On a broader discourse level, John’s substantizing of these verbs serves to fill in the ideational framework he establishes in 1 John 1. The series of “if/then” conditional statements in 1 John 1:6-10 initiates categories of thought regarding the Christian confession and the need for Christian behavior. By means of articular substantival participles, in 1 John 2-3, John elaborates on these categories, reinforcing the need for Christian integrity in his audience.

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Köstenberger, Andreas J., Benjamin L. Merkle, and Robert L. Plummer. Going Deeper with New Testament Greek: An Intermediate Study of the Grammar and Syntax of the New Testament. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2016.

Porter, Stanley E. Idioms of the Greek New Testament. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1994.

Runge, Steven E. and Christopher J. Fresch, eds. The Greek Verb Revisited: A Fresh Approach for Biblical Exegesis. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016.

Even in the early stages of Ph.D. studies, students should consider areas of research for their dissertation. Many avenues are open to students who wish to invest years of their life researching and writing about the Scriptures. Stephen Neill’s summary of the commentary methodology of the Cambridge three, J.B. Lightfoot, B.F. Westcott, and F.J.A. Hort provides an enduring rubric for how students of the Scriptures should go about their work. Lightfoot, Westcott, and Hort served together at the University of Cambridge from 1860-1900 and countered German higher criticism as it marched westward to the British Isles. The Cambridge three chart a course that Evangelicals yet walk.

Neill notes that Lightfoot, Westcott, and Hort employed a five-fold process for their New Testament commentary work. For them, a New Testament commentary must be (1) critical: based upon the most accurate Greek text possible, (2) linguistic: based upon philology and analysis of sentences, (3) historical: grounded in the situation in which it appears to have been written, (4) exegetical: presenting the message as the first readers would have heard it, and (5) theological: guided by the rule of faith that has guided Christians from the early church to the present day (Neill and Wright: 93-94). Students would do well to see these five as points of entry for the dissertation in Biblical studies. The final product of the dissertation will advance one area while explaining how it contributes to the other four.

Corpus linguistics and discourse analysis contribute to (2). Lightfoot, Westcott, and Hort read the New Testament and the literature of its world to produce their commentaries. Modern students have the advantage of computer software that can gather linguistic data in seconds. But, as Matthew Brooke O’Donnell notes, “Large corpora and powerful retrieval programs are not a substitute for an intelligent linguist and a close reading of the text” (O’Donnell: 209). When the linguistically-minded interpreter identifies lexical and grammatical patterns in a text, Bible software provides a means of confirming or denying those patterns.

In what follows, I list twenty-five linguistic seedlings for dissertations in Biblical studies. In reading Scripture, I have noticed patterns in the following areas and confirmed them using Bible software. Linguistically-minded students, yet sensitive to the broader five-fold commentary process advocated by Lightfoot, Westcott, and Hort above, could grow these seedlings into a dissertation and contribute to the field of Biblical studies.

The Imperfect tense form in LXX Exodus 1-6

Imperatives, Future Indicatives, and Aorist Subjunctives in LXX Deuteronomy 20-26

Aorist Middle Indicatives in the Psalms

Datives in LXX Isaiah 40-66

Shepherd Imagery in LXX Zech 9-14 and Jer 25-32

ἐμοί (as a pronoun) in the New Testament

Imperatives in Matthew 5-10

ἀναγι(γ)νώσκω in the Gospels and Acts

The Imperfect in the Gospel of Mark      

Female Figures in Luke/Acts with reference to Verbs of Speech

ἔργον in Johannine Literature

ἐκ in John and Revelation

Subjunctives in the John 11-12, 15, 17, 19; 1 John 1; Revelation 18

Verbal Aspect of the Indicative Mood in the Upper Room Discourse (John 13-16)

μνεία and Verbal Combinations in the New Testament

Infinitives in Acts 23-27 and Hebrews 5-7              

Use of the Imperfect in Paul  

The Genitive Case in Romans 1-8

Terms of Cognition (Louw & Nida 28-30) in Romans 5-8

Analysis of Adverbs in Select Sections of Pauline Epistles (Rom 5-7; Phil 3-4; 1 Cor 15; 2 Cor 11-12; 1 Thes 2)

Conditional Statements in Galatians and James

Imperatives in 1-2 Timothy

Imperatives 1 Peter and James

Participles in 1 John

The Genitive Case in Revelation 1-5

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Neill, Stephen, and N. T. Wright. The Interpretation of the New Testament, 1861-1986. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

O’Donnell, Matthew Brook. Corpus Linguistics & the Greek of the New Testament. New Testament Monographs 6. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2005.