New book list

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Matthew Longhorn
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New book list

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Jonathan sent me a message to say that he is happy with me posting books here still when I come across them. I just needed a break from it last year as I was going through a period of not really reading much or having the motivation to search as regularly. I will post some as I find them going forward, probably not as regularly as previously though.
Here is a catch up list in order of release date, largely of upcoming books, although a few already released (earliest to latest)

Already released
Romans: A Beginning Intermediate Greek Reader https://www.glossahouse.com/product-pag ... eek-reader
1-4 Baruch - An Advanced Greek Reader with Translation https://www.glossahouse.com/product-page/1-4-baruch
The Life of Adam and Eve and The Testament of Adam - An Advanced Reader https://www.glossahouse.com/product-pag ... nt-of-adam
Lives of the Prophets - An Advanced Greek Reader https://www.glossahouse.com/product-pag ... e-prophets
Kmetko - Middle Voice Verbs in the New Testament - Studies in Pauline Usage
Susan E. Kmetko challenges the general lack of significance afforded the 3726 middle voice verb forms in the Greek New Testament. She explores the essential meaning of the middle voice in light of the demise of deponency and the resultant implications for Biblical interpretation and translation. Integral to her investigation is the awareness that languages do not neatly map onto each other. Hence, whereas ancient Greek employed three voices—active, passive, and middle—many modern languages do not. Consequently, when ancient Greek authors expressed ideas deploying middle verbs, their reduction to active or passive in English or other languages falls short of the intended meaning.

The voice of a verb indicates the relationship of the subject to the verbal process. In the search for a clear definition of the middle voice, Kmetko argues that descriptions vary between grammatical and linguistic fields. Accordingly, the subject acting on, for, or with reference to itself, being affected by the action of the verb, or being internal to the verbal process are among the descriptions that have been proposed. Condensing these into three criteria, her contextual analysis of middle verbs in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Corinthians reveals that middle verb morphology does in fact indicate middle function. This leads her to undertake an inverse study of middle verbs in Galatians in which she explicates the interpretive nuances of middle voice function. In the end, Kmetko demonstrates that a linguistically grounded understanding of the Greek middle voice significantly enhances New Testament Interpretation.
This one is a journal article, but a good read on a mood that doesn't receive much attention in the stuff I have read - The survival of the optative in New Testament Greek

Porter - New Testament Theology and the Greek Language - A Linguistic Reconceptualization https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ne ... 3AB5167D0A
In this book, Stanley E. Porter offers a unique, language-based critique of New Testament theology by comparing it to the development of language study from the Enlightenment to the present. Tracing the histories of two disciplines that are rarely considered together, Porter shows how the study of New Testament theology has followed outmoded conceptual models from previous eras of intellectual discussion. He reconceptualizes the study of New Testament theology via methods that are based upon the categories of modern linguistics, and demonstrates how they have already been applied to New Testament Greek studies. Porter also develops a workable linguistic model that can be applied to other areas of New Testament research. Opening New Testament Greek linguistics to a wider audience, his volume offers numerous examples of the productivity of this linguistic model, especially in his chapter devoted to the case study of the Son of Man.
Mitchell - John Chrysostom on Paul: Praises and Problem Passages https://cart.sbl-site.org/books/061654C
In this new volume in the Writings from the Greco-Roman World series, Margaret M. Mitchell collects twenty-five of John Chrysostom’s lesser-known sermons on Pauline passages as well as some that focus on Paul himself. Mitchell presents the Greek text and an original translation of each of these fascinating sermons in a fresh, engaging style that seeks to recapture the vibrancy and dynamism of the live oratory behind the homilies. Extensive notes to each homily evaluate how Chrysostom dealt with some of the ethical, theological, historical, political, and literary problems present in Paul’s writings. Mitchell’s work on Chrysostom offers a model for scholars to explore and understand how ancient Christian interpreters found in Paul’s letters a legacy that was as problematic as it was precious.
Gentry - Text History of the Greek Ecclesiastes - Introduction to the Göttingen Septuagint Edition of Ecclesiastes https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlag ... clesiastes
Peter J. Gentry provides a complete and full introduction to the critical edition of Ecclesiastes in the Göttingen Septuaginta series along with user-friendly explanations for non-specialists as well as detailed documentation to demonstrate the basis for the critical text of Greek Ecclesiastes. Text History volumes supporting the critical editions in the Göttingen Septuaginta usually provide evidence and lists to document and demonstrate the recensions existing in the textual history and the best methodology for arriving at the earliest form of the text that we can reach. Gentry’s Text History volume provides, in addition, a complete and full introduction which was not given in the critical edition. Since this introduction is in English, it will aid English-speaking scholars who find access to the critical editions difficult because the introductions are in German.
Upcoming

Soon
Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics http://bagl.org/volume9 - this series hasn't published in a couple of years. I contacted Stanley Porter to find out if it is still intending to publish new volumes and he responded that they are looking to put out the next articles soon

Paul, Women, and the Meaning of Silence - A Contextual Reading of 1 Corinthians 14:34–35 https://www.peterlang.com/document/1282561
The definition of silence is essential to the interpretation of 1 Corinthians 14:34–35. What did Paul mean when he silenced women in church? In Paul, Women, and the Meaning of Silence, author Alex S. Carr compares the Greek verb Paul used for silence with other ancient Greek sources containing the same term. Through this comparison, he demonstrates consistency within 1 Corinthians and the other Pauline letters. Through comparison with other passages in the New Testament, Carr also demonstrates that these passages do not contradict the type of silence in 1 Corinthians 14.
Paul, Women, and the Meaning of Silence further considers cultural and historical contextual issues, including women’s education and speech in the Greco-Roman world.
This book will assist Bible scholars, pastors, and theological students in navigating some of key interpretive issues in 1 Corinthians. Scholars seeking to locate primary source material will especially profit. Pastors will find an explanation of various views as they preach and teach on the subject. The book is one of the most extensive discussions of this challenging New Testament passage on women in the church.
January 2023
Analytical Lexicon of the Greek Bible https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlag ... icle/58127
The basic forms of the Greek Bible put in alphabetical order create the lexicon’s entries. Every entry has its English translation along with the number of occurrences of the Greek term in the Septuagint, parallel texts and in the New Testament with the sum of all occurrences in all the Bible. At the end of each entry the lexical forms of it are given and listed in alphabetical order with a grammatical analysis and occurrences throughout the Scriptures. In the dictionary, as it is in the concordance, four colours are given a new category of distinction. They separately characterize the texts and references of the Septuagint (green), parallel texts (red) and the New Testament (blue). The same colours are attributed to the number of appearances of the terms in the text. The terms are presented in the Dictionary firstly in basic form, then in all lexical forms arranged in alphabetical order.
Theodotion’s Greek Text of Daniel - An Analysis of the Revisional Process and Its Semitic Source https://brill.com/display/title/63549?r ... &result=48
This study advances our knowledge regarding the character of the version of Daniel attributed to Theodotion within the larger framework of the Theodotionic problem in Septuagint research. This is achieved in two ways. In addition to demonstrating the recensional character of Theodotion-Daniel and describing its revising techniques, it also breaks new ground on Theodotion’s Hebrew-Aramaic source. The findings compellingly argue for the theory that Theodotion-Daniel is a systematic revision of the Old Greek in conformity with a Semitic text form which often preserved original readings against the Masoretic Text and the Qumran scrolls.

March
Baylor Handbook on Habakkuk, Zephania and Haggai https://www.baylorpress.com/97814813163 ... nd-haggai/
De vita Mosis (Book I) - An Introduction with Text, Translation, and Notes https://www.baylorpress.com/97814813167 ... is-book-i/
This volume, a translation of book 1 of Philo of Alexandria’s De vita Mosis, with introduction and commentary, aims to introduce new readers, both students and scholars, to Philo of Alexandria through what is widely considered to be one of his most accessible works and one that Philo himself may have intended for readers unfamiliar with Judaism. The introduction provides historical, intellectual, and religious context for Philo, discusses major issues of scholarly interest, considers the relation of De vita Mosis to the Septuagint, and explores the immediate Nachleben of Philo’s works. The author’s translation is paired with Cohn’s edition of the Greek text, thereby providing not only a rendering of the Greek but also the Greek itself for those who wish to read Philo’s own words. The English rendering of the Greek aims at clarity and accuracy while retaining as many of Philo’s unique stylistic features as possible. Finally, the notes are designed to elucidate the text, especially for new readers, on a variety of levels: extrapolating on points more fully discussed elsewhere in the Philonic corpus, observing specific divergences from the Septuagint, and suggesting aspects of contemporary historical influence on Philo’s retelling of the biblical narrative. The volume serves as a succinct entry into the basics of Philo while also preparing the reader for some of Philo’s more challenging works.
Deuteronomion: A Commentary Based on the Text of Codex Alexandrinus https://brill.com/display/title/8699?rs ... &result=28
This commentary on Deuteronomion is based on Codex Alexandrinus, the single best complete witness to the Old Greek. It features a new transcription of the manuscript with a fresh translation that treats Deuteronomion as a sacred text that would have been read, studied, and cherished in a worshipping community. Notations of important variants with the other key manuscripts, such as p848, p963, and B (Vaticanus), appear regularly. This commentary represents an interpretative adventure, intentionally giving room for varied ancient reader-responses, and accordingly it functions within several literary spaces. First, it recognizes the substantial intratextual features between the book’s narrative framing and its legal materials. Deuteronomion is also read in its hypotextual relation with the Pentateuch’s other narratives and legal materials, chiefly within Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Sensitivity to the Greek linguistic climate, the so-called koine Greek, is another space. Finally, and most distinctively, this commentary adds to its reading the many voices who read and used Deuteronomy, in either Hebrew or Greek forms, from the late Second Temple Period.
April 2023
Porter - The Pastoral Epistles - A Commentary on the Greek Text http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/t ... les/227340
New Testament scholar Stanley Porter offers a comprehensive commentary on the Pastoral Epistles that features rigorous biblical scholarship and emphasizes Greek language and linguistics.

This book breaks new ground in its interpretation of the Pastoral Epistles by focusing on the Greek text and utilizing a linguistically informed exegetical method that draws on various elements in contemporary language study. Porter pays attention to the overall argument of each book while also delving into the semantics and lexicogrammar to tease out the textual meaning. Attentive to the history of scholarship on these three controversial works, the commentary addresses the major exegetical issues that arise in numerous highly disputed passages and offers innovative answers to traditional exegetical problems. Professors, students, and scholars of the New Testament will value this substantive work.
Harrison-Mills Serving at the Banking Tables - New Light on Acts 2-8 and the Link Between Spiritual and Economic Transformation https://brill.com/display/title/64251?r ... &result=26 (April 2023)
Traditional exegesis divides scripture into two distinct economic models: the OT (Hebrew) model of blessing with a “surplus of prosperity”, and the NT (Christian) model of economic collectivism with “all things in common”. Using an economic perspective as an exegetical tool, the author demonstrates that this differentiation is an artificial construct. In particular, he argues that various NT Greek words and phrases in Acts, which have been rendered to describe acts of charity, should be reinterpreted to depict overtly commercial activities, including the possibility of a banking operation at the heart of the primitive church that posed a serious political and economic threat to the Jewish elite in first-century Jerusalem.


May 2023
Latin Loanwords in Ancient Greek - A Lexicon and Analysis https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/la ... 53B99CCDE9
Why, when, and how did speakers of ancient Greek borrow words from Latin? Which words did they borrow? Who used Latin loanwords, and how? Who avoided them, and why? How many words were borrowed, and what kind of word? How long did the loanwords survive? Until now, attempts to answer such questions have been based on incomplete and often misleading evidence, but this study offers the first comprehensive collection of evidence from papyri, inscriptions, and literature from the fifth century BC to the sixth century AD. That collection – included in the book as a lexicon of Latin loanwords – is examined using insights from linguistic work on modern languages to provide new answers that often differ strikingly from earlier ones. The analysis is accessibly presented, and the lexicon offers a firm foundation for future work in this area.


June 2023
Porter - Discourse Analysis and the Greek New Testament Text-Generating Resources https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/discourse ... 567709882/
This volume examines and outlines the Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) model of discourse analysis and its relationship to New Testament Greek. The book reflects upon how SFL has grown as a field since it was introduced to New Testament Greek studies by Stanley E. Porter in the 1980s.
The first part introduces basic concepts regarding discourse analysis and the major approaches to discourse analysis within New Testament studies. The second part provides a detailed exploration of discourse analysis in terms of the textual metafunction, beginning with an introduction to the architecture of language within SFL, before exploring several individual elements within it. By focusing upon these individual components – in particular, theme and information structure, markedness and prominence, and coherence and cohesive harmony – Porter and O'Donnell introduce and exemplify the major resources of the textual metafunction.

July 2023
Linguistic Descriptions of the Greek New Testament - New Studies in Systemic Functional Linguistics https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/linguisti ... 567710017/
The chapters in this volume provide descriptions of various important topics – such as linguistic theory, metaphor, rhetoric, orality and textuality – in Greek linguistics from a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) perspective. This approach has been foundational to Stanley E. Porter's long and influential career in the field of New Testament Greek. Each chapter provides deep insights into Porter's understanding of SFL, based upon how he positions it in relation to other linguistic models or how he utilizes it to describe topics within Greek and New Testament studies. The topics Porter covers in this volume include rhetoric, cognition, orality and textuality, as well as studies on linguistic schools of thought and on traditional grammar.

August 2023
Hermeneutics, Linguistics, and the Bible - The Importance of Context https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/hermeneut ... 567709905/ I have included this as it seems to be part of a three volume release by Porter
The volume present Stanley E. Porter's considered thoughts and reflections on key questions of meaning and context, addresseing the problems of biblical interpretation and how a close collaboration between hermeneutics and linguistics can help to solve them.
The chapters display Porter's work in both fields, examining how hermeneutics functions as a field in modern biblical studies, and how the quest for meaning in biblical texts is underpinned by the study of linguistics. The volume focuses on context for understanding the meanings of biblical texts. Porter suggests that linguists can learn more from the philosophical questions around meaning that hermeneuts apply in their study of biblical texts, and that there is more fruitful work to be done in the field of hermeneutics using insights from linguistics.
Jonathan Robie
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Re: New book list

Post by Jonathan Robie »

Matthew Longhorn wrote: January 2nd, 2023, 11:00 am Kmetko - Middle Voice Verbs in the New Testament - Studies in Pauline Usage
Susan E. Kmetko challenges the general lack of significance afforded the 3726 middle voice verb forms in the Greek New Testament. She explores the essential meaning of the middle voice in light of the demise of deponency and the resultant implications for Biblical interpretation and translation. Integral to her investigation is the awareness that languages do not neatly map onto each other. Hence, whereas ancient Greek employed three voices—active, passive, and middle—many modern languages do not. Consequently, when ancient Greek authors expressed ideas deploying middle verbs, their reduction to active or passive in English or other languages falls short of the intended meaning.

The voice of a verb indicates the relationship of the subject to the verbal process. In the search for a clear definition of the middle voice, Kmetko argues that descriptions vary between grammatical and linguistic fields. Accordingly, the subject acting on, for, or with reference to itself, being affected by the action of the verb, or being internal to the verbal process are among the descriptions that have been proposed. Condensing these into three criteria, her contextual analysis of middle verbs in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Corinthians reveals that middle verb morphology does in fact indicate middle function. This leads her to undertake an inverse study of middle verbs in Galatians in which she explicates the interpretive nuances of middle voice function. In the end, Kmetko demonstrates that a linguistically grounded understanding of the Greek middle voice significantly enhances New Testament Interpretation.
This seems to be based on her thesis, available here:

https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item ... -testament

Stephen Carlson seems to have been one of her supervisors ... maybe he can weigh in?
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
Stephen Carlson
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Re: New book list

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Jonathan Robie wrote: January 2nd, 2023, 4:46 pm Stephen Carlson seems to have been one of her supervisors ... maybe he can weigh in?
Her thesis been updated in response to some very good comments by her thesis examiners, so I recommend getting the book instead.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Matthew Longhorn
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Re: New book list

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Stephen Carlson wrote: January 2nd, 2023, 11:35 pm Her thesis been updated in response to some very good comments by her thesis examiners, so I recommend getting the book instead.
Good to know, I will give it a read sometime soon
Matthew Longhorn
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Re: New book list

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Can't believe I missed this one which is just published - including here due to the supposed showing of linguistic signals of sarcasm in ancient Greek.

Matthew Pawlak - Sarcasm in Paul’s Letters
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/sa ... 7498F989A0
In this book, Matthew Pawlak offers the first treatment of sarcasm in New Testament studies. He provides an extensive analysis of sarcastic passages across the undisputed letters of Paul, showing where Paul is sarcastic, and how his sarcasm affects our understanding of his rhetoric and relationships with the Early Christian congregations in Galatia, Rome, and Corinth. Pawlak's identification of sarcasm is supported by a dataset of 400 examples drawn from a broad range of ancient texts, including major case studies on Septuagint Job, the prophets, and Lucian of Samosata. These data enable the determination of the typical linguistic signals of sarcasm in ancient Greek, as well as its rhetorical functions. Pawlak also addresses several ongoing discussions in Pauline scholarship. His volume advances our understanding of the abrupt opening of Galatians, diatribe and Paul's hypothetical interlocutor in Romans, the 'Corinthian slogans' of First Corinthians, and the 'fool's speech' found within Second Corinthians 10-13.
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