[B-Greek] Idioms in the NT!

Eric Weiss eweiss at gte.net
Thu Jan 8 09:13:03 EST 2004


I have both those books (Moule and Porter). They are good, and Porter's also helps you understand his positions regarding verbal aspect. Bullinger's book on Figures of Speech in the Bible (which I have, but have only occasionally read) might be another resource.

But, when it comes to idioms, these books probably won't even begin to get you close to "all of the idioms found in the Greek text of the New Testament."

Chapter 22, I believe, in Do It Yourself Hebrew and Greek, by Edward W. Goodrick, ISBN 0310417414, is a fascinating and humorous chapter on "idioms." You read that and you realize that probably about every third sentence you say or read is idiomatic in some way, and that it's therefore quite likely that much of the Bible is that way, too. I would think that a person would have to spend a lifetime (or career-lifetime) reading Koine literature, including the New Testament and Septuagint, plus ancient Greek outside the Koine, to be able to identify "all of the idioms found in the Greek text of the New Testament."

Eric S. Weiss
eweiss at gte.net
http://home1.gte.net/vzn05pnm/index.htm




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