[B-Greek] Very interesting GNT, _A Readers Greek New Testamen t_
bgreek at ntresources.com
bgreek at ntresources.com
Tue Apr 27 16:44:26 EDT 2004
> is it really a good idea to consider this a Greek text on par with the
UBS/NA
I see little difference; it is only a text determined by a different group
of scholars. UBS/NA scholars made their choices, and the NIV translators
also considered the same evidence and made their choice (same as NASB). The
RGNT is *not* a "back translation," but a text based on the choices of the
scholars involved. (Wasn't it Scrivener who did something similar for KJV?)
And there is, BTW, a textual note in each case where RGNT differs from
UBS/NA.
> Zondervan ... might benefit if students and teachers chucked the UBS and
switched to the RGNT.
Any publisher profits from their publications. And students might benefit by
having a more reasonably priced Greek NT! From discussions with folks at
Zondervan, the copyright issue is probably a major factor; they can't print
a UBS/NA text without paying royalties. They can print their own text.
RGNT will never replace UBS/NA simply because RGNT has no critical apparatus
to speak of (other than a note where the text differs from UBS/NA). It's for
a different purpose--and perhaps a valid one. It does offer those of us who
teach (& our students) the option of a Greek testament that doesn't cost $40
or $45 with little or no discount. With a Zondervan title priced at $30 and
the more customary discounts available, here's a decent Greek NT at half the
price. So when I start adding up the cost of first semester Greek textbooks,
I can more readily justify adding a Gk NT to the textbook, workbook, and
lexicon. Later on down the road I can add the UBS text when the students are
ready to address text critical issues. My tentative plans for next fall are
that I will use RGNT and Trenchard's new lexicon from Cambridge for first
year Greek in place of UBS4 with Newman's dictionary. We'll see how it
goes...
>It would follow that whenever the NIV changed as the result of a textual
reevaluation,
> the RGNT would have to change as well.
Perhaps so, perhaps not, but how is that different than a new edition of the
UBS or NA texts? There will be an NA28 before long, and I doubt that we'll
consider that a problem.
As to the potential of this edition adding confusion, the differences
between RGNT and UBS4/NA27 are probably less than the differences *among*
the UBS1-2-3-4 editions, and surely among the N1>N24 & NA25-27 editions, so
I can't see that this will be any different than other texts in the same
family. (And there have, of course, been many other Greek texts in that same
general family over the past century or so, each slightly different than the
others.)
I'm not an "exclusive fan" of this new text, but I do see some
potential--enough promise to try it for a year's classes and see how it
goes. There are some things I don't like about it. The font, for one. I'd
like to have thought that they would have learned from the criticisms of the
font in the UBS4 and not used a similar italic face. And I think the number
of footnote references in the text could have been greatly reduced to make
for a cleaner, more legible text (esp. helpful for beginners). This could
have been done by listing the vocab entries by verse instead of foot-noting
each individual word. I wouldn't mind if the page size were smaller so it
might slide into a pocket, but only if it stayed the same thickness. Perhaps
a narrower page, but the same height--with same size text font (not
italic!), but smaller font for notes? (One can stuff a UBS text into a suit
coat pocket, but not easily. (I have an old leather Nestle 24th ed. that I
typically carry as a pocket edition.) The RGNT is not a bad size, though, as
it stands; it's just not "pocketable."
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Rodney J. Decker, Th.D., Assoc. Professor/NT
Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, PA, USA
URL: www.NTResources.com
PURL: purl.oclc.org/NT_Resources/
Email: <rdecker> at <NTResources.com>
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