[B-Greek] Christian chumash?

Curtis Hinson curtis at curtishinson.com
Tue Aug 16 11:24:06 EDT 2005


I have been discussing this idea with someone and I would like to see it 
done or know if it exists.

As far as I've been able to tell, there is no true Christian equivilant 
of the chumashim.  Why not have a type of Synopsis Quattor with a line 
or two of the Greek text of, say, Mark at the top, and around it use the 
other gospels as commentary.  Different volumes could do the same thing 
with other synoptic priorities I suppose.  Now where you'd find talmudic 
commentary in a Chumash, you could have NT commentary, early fathers, 
and modern commentators.  Where you'd find the targum, one could have 
related LXX texts and Peshitta.  There should be a standard format used, 
and each gospel should get its own font, its own personality so to speak.

Of course it would be nice to have the same sort of format for the 
entire NT:  texts commenting on each other, related versions, and 
external commentary showing opposing or varying points of view.  This 
sort of literature emphasizes the diversity and personalities of the 
texts in the NT anthology.  The idea is not to harmonize texts that 
don't harmonize, but to give each its own voice and personality, and 
also to juxtapose different opinions rather than distilling scholarship 
into one opinion, or presenting one option as the correct one.

The closest thing to this I've run into is Alford's Greek New 
Testament.  Alford had a 6-volume set.  Each page has a few lines of 
critical text.  Next to that are canon references and cross-references.  
Under this is his apparatus.  This app is interesting because it often 
notes interesting anomalies in particular manuscripts you might not 
ordinarily pick up in an app.  Then Alford writes his own commentary 
where he quotes and reacts to other major scholarship and presents some 
different interpretive options.  I am proud to own Alford but I really 
wonder why it hasn't been updated, or why I haven't seen similiar recent 
works.

Bless the Name
Curtis




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