Want to read a book to sharpen your Biblical (Koine) Greek in light of the latest research of the studies of the Greek language and also linguistics? Or do you wonder if the scholarship of the Greek language and linguistics can help you better interpret the New Testament? This book would be for you; and the author Constantine R. Campbell did write a great book for those who are expository preachers and pastors who do the work of exegesis but are also busy with ministry to be reading academic journal articles and scholarly monograph to be caught up with the latest development. Part of that is because such pastors and Bible expositors are busy with the New Testament itself and the latest theory with language isn’t going to seem always practical. The author as a professor the New Testament did a good job of bringing up to the readers those things that do matter and have been more solid and tested. As someone who desire to be a life long student of the Bible in the original language this book was such a gold mine!
After a forward from the famous New Testament scholar D.A. Carson and a preface and introduction the main part of the book is the ten chapters. The first chapter is a short history of Greek studies from the nineteenth century to the present, and this chapter helps gives readers the big picture. Chapter two ten looks at linguistic theories and then the next chapter looks at lexicography and lexical semantics. I really thought the discussion about lexical studies and meaning to be very insightful. Chapter four looks at the discussion about the Greek middle voice for verbs and whether there is such a thing as deponency. I thought the chapter did a good job summarizing while today the idea of Greek middle voice functioning as a deponent is no longer held by scholars. Chapter five also is very good with the discussion about verbal aspect and Aktionart. Chapter six was totally new to me with the discussion about “Indiolect, Genre and Register.” Then this is followed by two chapters on discourse analysis which is something I wanted to learn about before. I also thought it was interesting to read chapter nine on discussion of Greek pronunciation and the author’s discussion about methods scholars uses to try to find the pronunciation is very fascinating. I like how the last chapter is on teaching and learning Greek and the author here is practical and I found that helpful for myself since next year I will be teaching a Greek exegesis class overseas.
I took so much notes reading this book. There was so many things I learned. I actually got this book back in 2016 but for some reason I never got around to reading this until 2023. I wished I read this earlier. It sure wet my appetite to learn more about the Greek language. This book is also helpful in pointing out further readings resources (I already ordered the author’s book on Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek as a result of reading the chapter on verbal aspect. I realize more and more lately that teaching the Word of God is a spiritual endeavor though that doesn’t mean hard work as a responsibility of the preacher no longer matter; so I want to ask readers to pray for this book would help me be a better life long expository preacher while also learning more I also depend on the Spirit.
NOTE: This book was provided to me free by Zondervan Academic and Net Galley without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.