[B-Greek] Hebrews commentaries
mrt
mrt at hisurfer.net
Mon Jan 5 07:08:37 EST 2004
David wrote:
>I am hoping to prepare myself for a class in the Greek text of Hebrews
starting in August. What commentaries and other aids would be most helpful
for helping me to understand the Greek text of Hebrews?
I am told it is scary stuff!
Greetings,
QARSEI, MH FOBOU DAUID. To begin with I recommend NO commentaries... this
can come later. I would first work through the text - read, read, read. It
may be helpful in conjunction with this to have a reader's lexicon or low
frequency word list of Hebrews, and grammatical aids IF need be, that is, if
you lost some of your Greek retention and need a refresher during your first
read through (see suggestions below). Of greatest aid would be a reading
partner. I highly recommend this if you can find one.
Why no commentaries to begin with? By way of illustration, this can be
compared to procedures in solving variant readings i.e. methods of TC
(textual criticism). Harold Greenlee recommends to first seek out the
Internal evidence then External. Which BTW I rarely if ever see done.
Because if one notes the external evidence first there often becomes a
strong tendency whether consciously or unconsciously to follow one's
favorite text-types or MSS (manuscripts). E.g. Alexandrian vs. Byz. or vice
versa etc., at the demise of recognizing what a scribe may have done to
alter the text (Internal evidence) in the first place!
Thus along the same lines, I am a believer in first understanding the text
through your own struggling with it and THEN let the commentaries follow.
So that your not pre-persuaded by what so and so said. I really only see
positives by doing it this way.
Aids
Reader's lexica:
Kubo, Sakae. A Reader's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 1975. Words that appear infrequently in the GNT are
listed in their order of appearance in the text with a definition.
Frequently occurring words are listed alphabetically. Useful for "rapid"
reading. But at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0310269202/ref=pd_sxp_elt_l1/103-4169950-6891866
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product/134502790?item_no=6269&netp_id=152421&event=ESRCN&item_code=WW
~Grammatical Crutches:
Zerwick, Max and Mary Grosvenor. A Grammatical Analysis New Testament. 2
vols. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1974. Quirky but good. Similar to
Rienecker.
Rienecker, Fritz. A Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament. 2 vols. Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976. The editor explains elements of the text that he
expects students to cause students trouble.
~Commentary: Charles J. Ellicott (though I don't know if he did a commentary
on Hebrews, if so then I guess I have no commentary recommendations :-)
~Certain online articles and introductions to Hebrews:
http://ntgateway.com/hebrews/
~A General Annotated Bibliography of Reference Works and Commentaries on the
Greek New Testament
http://www.cincybible.edu/college/academics/annotbib.doc
~Software: Bible Works 6 http://www.bibleworks.com/default.htm
Michael Tarver
Oregon, USA
<'\\>< laus Deo
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