Greek Archives - Page 7 of 8 - exegetical.tools

Winners of the $500 Greek Resource Giveaway

July 18, 2015

Five lucky Greek nerds have won themselves $100 in free Greek resources, including David Black’s Learn to Read New Testament Greek and three of the Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament books. All four of these books, which all five winners will receive, are published by B&H Academic and they sponsored the giveaway by offering them for free. Thanks to B&H for their generosity and desire to foster learning of the biblical languages….

Greek Matters: Colossians 1:9-12 and Pleasing God

July 16, 2015

Todd Scacewater

How can we please God? Colossians 1:9-12 is a complex passage with lots of participles and prepositional phrases. One could translate each clause and read it well enough, but analyzing the paragraph as a whole enables us to see what the major idea of the passage is and how Paul develops that idea. After Paul tells his readers that he always thanks God for their faith, hope, and love, he continues on that basis (Διὰ τοῦτο, “because of this”) to say that he never ceases praying and asking “that you might be filled” (ἵνα πληρωθῆτε) with the knowledge of God’s will….

Greek Matters: Colossians 1:3-5 and Christian Hope

July 9, 2015

Todd Scacewater

Εὐχαριστοῦμεν τῷ θεῷ πατρὶ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ πάντοτε περὶ ὑμῶν προσευχόμενοι, ἀκούσαντες τὴν πίστιν ὑμῶν ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ καὶ τὴν ἀγάπην ἣν ἔχετε εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους 5 διὰ τὴν ἐλπίδα τὴν ἀποκειμένην ὑμῖν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, ἣν προηκούσατε ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας τοῦ εὐαγγελίου
(Colossians 1:3-5)

In Colossians 1:3-5 we see Paul’s triad of faith, hope, and love. By sorting out what a particular prepositional phrase modifies, we discover something unique about Christian hope. The main idea of this section is the first verb, “We give thanks.” Paul then explains the reason why he and his co-workers give thanks: ἀκούσαντες (because we have heard) of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints….

1 Peter (EGGNT), by Greg Forbes

June 17, 2015

Todd Scacewater

Forbes follows up Murray Harris’ Colossians and Philemon volume in this same series with the same approach, format, and clarity of expression as the inaugurating volume. The purpose of this series is to offer analysis of the grammatical, syntactical, and lexical features of every word, clause, and sentence in the NT book it analyzes. Those who would benefit most from these volumes would be intermediate Greek students or those who have been away from their Greek for a while and want to regain their language skills….

Galatians: A Handbook on the Greek Text (BHGNT), by David A. deSilva

June 15, 2015

Todd Scacewater

I’m not sure why a series such as this one wasn’t published sooner. The Baylor Handbooks on the Greek New Testament are a beautiful addition to the library of any student, pastor, or scholar. The purpose of these volumes is to give a grammatical and syntactical analysis of the Greek text of each book of the Bible. This is the “prequel” to commentary proper (ix). However, as we will see, deSilva’s volume does more than label Greek words or phrases with their corresponding syntactical category.

Greek Reading: Colossians 1:1-4

May 21, 2015

Todd Scacewater

The first video in a series walking through the Greek text of Colossians to focus on translation, basic grammar and syntax, vocabulary, and morphology.

Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), by Murray Harris

May 18, 2015

Todd Scacewater

Harris’ introduction is brief, noting some brief arguments for Paul as the author of both Colossians and Philemon. Paul probably wrote the letters during his first Roman imprisonment (4, 207-209) in order to exhort them away from their relapse into paganism and to combat false teaching (5). Harris provides a bibliography for further reading on the occasion for the letters and the “Colossian heresy.” The purpose of the series is to deal extensively with grammatical and syntactical issues, while briefly explaining the implications of such issues for theological interpretation. Harris interacts heavily with secondary literature, showing that he has done the difficult job of wading through various grammatical analyses of the texts by others. He does a superb job of explaining the various grammatical and syntactical possibilities for each phrase….

Devotions on the Greek New Testament, ed. Duvall & Verbrugge

May 13, 2015

Todd Scacewater

This work includes contributions from various New Testament seminary professors such as Craig Blomberg, Darrell Bock, Scot McKnight, Ben Witherington III, and many others. Each devotional is a brief two pages or so. They begin with either a brief sentence from the Greek New Testament or with a paragraph. The author then explains anything difficult about the sentence or paragraphs, breaking down the meaning of words, syntax, grammar, and anything else notable….

Sing and Learn New Testament Greek, by Kenneth Berding

April 16, 2015

Laura Guzman

This week’s Featured Resource is Ken Berding’s Sing and Learn New Testament Greek: The Easiest Way to Learn New Testament Grammar (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008). (CD Hardcopy) (Audio Download) Among those who have rigorously attempted to teach or study Koine Greek, many will agree that memorizing paradigms and how to parse are equally the most important and the most difficult part of learning the language. Since paradigms are the foundation for parsing and parsing is part of the foundation for translation,…

Keep Your Greek: Strategies for Busy People, by Constantine R. Campbell

March 30, 2015

Laura Guzman

Constantine Campbell is a lead contributor on the latest discussions concerning verbal aspect theory and has put his knowledge of the language to good use with his most recent book on Union with Christ. Not only is Dr. Campbell worth noting because he is a highly proficient Greek scholar and professor, but he is also jazz musician who knows the value of practice and hard work and uses these insights to inform his approach to maintaining your knowledge of the language. With excellent reviews from Craig L. Blomberg….