BDAG & UBS texts update from SBL

Rodney J. Decker rdecker at bbc.edu
Mon Nov 20 12:53:00 EST 2000


I just returned from Nashville (ETS/IBR/SBL confs). Several notes of interest.

1. Yes, BDAG *is* indeed a reality. I have also touched a real printed 
copy. (I suspect that before the conference is over (I had to return early) 
that U.Chg. will have to install a "drool shield" over the three copies 
that are on display! One additional note--the printed copies arrived from 
the printers *2 days* before the conf. began (I assume that means last 
Turs.). Those who ordered at SBL last year on pre-pub special should have 
their copies waiting for them when they return from this year's 
conference--or so they say at the U.Chg. booth. Others who order at the 
conf this year ($68) should receive their copy in "about 3 weeks." And BTW, 
don't count on an Amazon or Dalton online order arriving for $42--I suspect 
that they most certainly will readjust the price when they realize that 
U/Chg. has raised the list price.

2. Re. prices of UBS Greek testaments from Am. Bible Soc.--there was quite 
a fuss on the list here earlier this fall when the ABS catalog came out 
with substantial price increases on their materials--esp. the Greek 
testaments. I stopped by the ABS booth at SBL to inquire (& lodge my 
complaint!). What I was told is that ABS is moving to distribution through 
the normal wholesale/retail distribution channels in the US market. In 
order to do that, they had to raise the prices so that they could maintain 
their cost structure and still give the wholesalers a standard discount. 
When I protested that the cost was excessive ant that students were going 
to be pinched severely, their response was, "Well, students pay about 
$300/semester for books anyway, so what's another $15?" (That almost an 
exact quote--as near as I can remember it.)

So I then talked to a rep. at the Zondervan booth and shared the gist of 
our "price discussion" here on b-greek this past fall and asked about the 
possibility of Zondervan printing an inexpensive, text-only Greek NT for 
student use. I thought that they might be a good choice since they print 
several Greek testaments now, so there would be minimal cost for them to 
reformat it to this type of use. The rep. (who was a sr. editor) was quite 
interested in my comments and proposal and he wrote out a number of notes 
to consider when he returned from the conference. A few bits from that 
conversation: Z. used to have a license for the UBS text (used for their 
UBS/NRSV/NIBV parallel edition), but that has been revoked by UBS. Z. will 
be one of the publishers with some sort of distribution arrangements with 
UBS (not sure if that is through their "Family Bookstores" or the printing 
division). Z. *does* have a useable modern, eclectic Greek NT that they 
*own* that could be used for such a project. This is the same text that 
they used for the "odd" Reverse Interlinear that they just published. It is 
a derived text in that they (actually John Kohlenberger) worked backwards 
from the NIV, selecting the variants accepted by the NIV translation team. 
This essentially creates a new, independent text that is not controlled by 
the UBS and can thus be used by Z. as they please with no license.



****************************************************
Rodney J. Decker, Th.D.       Baptist Bible Seminary
Assoc. Prof./NT  PO Box 800, Clarks Summit, PA 18411
rdecker at bbc.edu      http://faculty.bbc.edu/rdecker/
XNS Universal Address: =RodDecker
The *Resources for NT Study* site is accessible at:
http://faculty.bbc.edu/rdecker/rd_rsrc.htm
****************************************************




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