Steven Runge, D. Litt

Scholar-In-Residence, Clear Bible

Steve serves as a Scholar-in-Residence at Clear Bible and founder of Everyday Exegesis. He was previously a Scholar-in-Residence at Logos. He has a Doctor of Literature degree in Biblical Languages from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, supervised by Christo Van der Merwe. He currently serves as a research associate affiliated with the Department of Ancient Studies, University of Stellenbosch. In preparation for his doctoral research, Steve completed several years of study in the linguistic fields of pragmatics and discourse grammar. This culminated in attending a workshop on discourse analysis offered by SIL/Wycliffe Bible Translators, facilitated by Stephen H. Levinsohn. He has also earned a Master of Theological Studies degree in Biblical Languages from Trinity Western Seminary in Langley, B.C., and a BA in Speech Communication from Western Washington University.

Steve has served as a visiting professor teaching Greek discourse grammar at Knox Theological Seminary, Dallas Theological Seminary, and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He also served as an adjunct faculty member at Northwest Baptist Theological College, Trinity Western University, and Associated Canadian Theological Schools (ACTS) while completing his education. He is very active in the church. He and his wife were married in 1990. They have two daughters, and live in Bellingham.

Products by Steven Runge

Articles by Steve Runge

2012

“Where Two or Three are Gathered, There is Discontinuity: the Correlation between Formal Linguistic Markers of Discontinuity and the Masoretic Paragraph Markers in Genesis 12-25.” Festschrift to be presented Summer, 2012.

2011

“The Verbal Aspect of the Historical Present Indicative in Narrative.” In Discourse Studies and Biblical Interpretation: A Festschrift in Honor of Stephen H. Levinsohn, edited by Steven E. Runge, 191-224. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2011.

2009

“Joel 3:1-5 in Acts 2:17-21: The Discourse and Text-Critical Implications of Quotation and Variation from the LXX.” Pages 103-113 in Early Christian Literature and Intertextuality (Library of Second Temple Studies and Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity), eds. Craig A. Evans and H. Daniel Zacharias. New York: T & T Clark, 2009. [PDF]

2008

“Relative Saliency and Information Structure in Mark’s Account of the Parable of the Sower.” Journal of the Linguistics Institute of Ancient and Biblical Greek 1:1-15. [PDF]

Review of Ivan Shing Chung Kwong, The Word Order of the Gospel of Luke: Its Foregrounded Messages, Review of Biblical Literature [http://www.bookreviews.org]. [PDF]

2006

“Pragmatic Effects of Semantically Redundant Referring Expressions in Biblical Hebrew Narrative.” Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 32(2):85-102. [PDF]

Conference papers by Steve Runge

2011

“James 2:1-26: A Discourse-Pragmatic and Cognitive Approach.” Invited paper presented in the “New Testament Language and Exegesis Consultation” of the ETS Annual Meeting, San Francisco, Nov. 16-18, 2011.

“Now and Then: Clarifying the Role of Temporal Adverbs as Discourse Markers.” Invited paper presented in the “Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics Section” of the SBL Annual Meeting, San Francisco, Nov. 19-22, 2011.

“Redundancy, Discontinuity and Delimitation in the Epistle of James.” Paper presented in the “Hellenistic Greek Language and Literature” Section of the SBL International Meeting, London, UK, July 3-7, 2011.

“Semantic Meaning Versus Pragmatic Effect: An Effective Way Through the Polysemous Fog.” Paper presented at the Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting, London, UK, July 3-7, 2011.

2010

“Verbal Aspect and Discourse Prominence: A Reassessment of Porter’s Linguistic Model.” Paper presented in the “Greek Grammar and Exegesis” Section of the ETS Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, Nov. 17-19.

2009

“The Effect of Redundancy on Perceptions of Emphasis and Discontinuity.” Paper presented in the “Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew” Section of the SBL Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, Nov. 21-24.

“The Aspect of the Historical Present Indicative in Narrative.” Paper presented in the “Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics” Section of the SBL Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, Nov. 21-24. [PDF]

2008

“The Discourse Function of Left-dislocation Constructions and their Contribution to Information Structure.” Paper presented in the “Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics” Section of the SBL Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, Nov. 22-25. [Full paper] [PowerPoint Presentation]

“‘I want you to know…’ The Exegetical Significance of Meta-Comments for Identifying Key Propositions.” Paper presented in the “Discourse Grammar and Biblical Exegesis” Consultation of the ETS Annual Meeting, Providence, RI, Nov. 19-21, 2008. [Full paper] [PowerPoint Presentation]

2007

“Joel 3:1-5 in Acts 2:17-21: The Discourse and Text-Critical Implications of Quotation and Variation from the LXX.” Paper presented to the “Greek Bible” Section of the SBL Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA., Nov. 17-20, 2007.

“‘So, Brothers’: Pauline Use of the Vocative.” Paper presented with Sean Boisen to the “Biblical Greek and Linguistics” Section of the SBL Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA., Nov. 17-20, 2007.

“Teaching Them What NOT to Do: The Nuances of Negation in the Greek New Testament.” Paper Presented at the National Meeting of the ETS, San Diego, CA., Nov. 14-16, 2007.

“The Exegetical Significance of Prospective Demonstrative Pronouns in Luke’s Gospel.” Paper presented at the ETS Pacific Northwest Regional Meeting, Salem, OR., Feb. 24, 2007.

2006

“What Difference Does It Make If NT Greek Has a Default Word Order or Not?” Paper presented in the New Testament Section of the ETS Annual Meeting, Washington D.C., Nov. 15-17.

“Referring Expressions as Exegetical Signposts in Genesis 16.” Paper presented in the “Pentateuch (Torah)” Section of the SBL International Meeting, Edinburgh, Scotland, July 2-6.

“Where Two or Three are Gathered, There is Discontinuity: The Correlation between Formal Linguistic Markers of Discontinuity and the Masoretic Paragraph Markers in Genesis 12-25.” Paper presented in the “Pericope: Scripture as Written and Read in Antiquity” Section of the SBL International Meeting, Edinburgh, Scotland, July 2-6.

2005

“Relative Saliency and Information Structure in Mark’s Account of the Parable of the Sower.” Paper presented at the “Biblical Greek and Linguistics” Section of the SBL Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.

“The Pragmatic Effects of Semantically Redundant Discourse Anchors in BH Narrative.” Paper presented at the “Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew” Section of the SBL Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.

Blog posts by Steve Runge

Who Cares About Participles? I Do!
This introductory post presents Dr. Steve Runge, who is a scholar-in-residence here at Logos Bible Software. The blog describes his project to annotate discourse function in the Greek New Testament and Hebrew Bible. It presents to us a really smart guy with a passion for explaining the exegetical significance and importance of discourse functions in language that non-academics can understand—so that sermons and lessons can take such things into account, resulting in better preaching and teaching.

Making of the Lexham High Definition New Testament
In this follow-up to the post entitled “Who Cares About Participles?I Do", Steve, inspired by a reader's question, discusses the grammatical principles used—and most importantly—the grammatical background necessary, to do the analysis without mis-applying the principle of 'backgrounding.'

Stylistic Variation or Intentional Shaping? A Look at Characterization in John 11
In this post, Steve wonders about the changes in names, or the orders of names, seen in the New Testament. A common answer to this kind of question has been that the changes represent “stylistic variation” by the writers, and are not very significant. Depending on your view of inspiration, you might not be satisfied with such an answer.

Study the NT Like Never Before!
This post speaks of the countless hours Steve has spent studying the devices that speakers and writers of all languages use to communicate, and tagging those devices in every book of the New Testament. Most of us use many of these devices in our everyday communication, but figuring out what they are, what they signify, and how to identify them in the Bible is something that the vast majority of people are not equipped to do.

Waiting for the Next Shoe to Drop, Part 1
Here Steve brings to light the literary devices use do create expectations in the minds of readers. These tools make for powerful communication and are quite useful for putting information into the reader's consciousness for later recollection or shading of text as it is being read.

Waiting for the Next Shoe to Drop, Part 2
This post is a follow up to tell you about another strategy that the New Testament writers used to create point-counterpoint sets. This device allows the writer to highlight important connections that they did not want us to miss.

Talking about What I Am Talking About
This post is about the fact that we do not often take much time to think about how and why we say things the way we do. We tend to just do ‘what seems right’ in the context. Studying how and why we use language has helped not only be a better English speaker, but has opened doors into studying the Bible in ways that were never thought possible.

Paying Attention to ‘This’ and ‘That’
In this post, Steve reflects upon Grover the blue monster of Sesame Street fame, and his treatment of "near vs. far"—heady stuff indeed. Steve assures us that, believe it or not, this information can really help our Bible study, especially in John’s writings.

Help from ‘Left Field’
Here Steve discusses looking at the parables that occur in more than one gospel and taking note of how they are used in each. He writes of having come across differences in wording which beg the question: ‘So what?’

Attention-Getters
In this post, Steve introduces one of the remaining concepts that is annotated in the Lexham High Definition New Testament and the Lexham Discourse Greek New Testament. The literary device is the repetition of information: key words to emphasize their importance, or known information to slow the pace of a story.

What's with All Those Extra Words?
This post is about adding extra words at different points to add more drama or flair, this being another one of the discourse devices found in the Lexham High Definition New Testament and the Lexham Discourse Greek New Testament.