Studies in New Testament Greek and JSNTS Collection (17 vols.)

by Stanley E. Porter; D. A. Carson; Jeffrey T. Reed; David Hutchinson Edgar

and

13 more

Publishers:

Sheffield Academic Press; T&T Clark

, 1993–2004

Overview

Modern attempts to understand Scripture have utilized several methods to investigate the use of words and phrases within the historical context in which they were written or spoken. Two of those methods—rhetorical criticism and discourse analysis—are presented in this collection to assist the scholar, teacher, student and pastor to better comprehend the precise meaning of New Testament text.

Rhetorical criticism is used to analyze words, phrases, symbolic or literary images, and discourse. It discovers how, and how well, these linguistic artifacts work in instructing, informing, and/or persuading their audience. It examines individual word choice and attempts to delve deeper into sentence structure to attain the writer’s true intent, coupling with its examination the historical significance of those words and phrases.

Discourse analysis is another tool used to help understand the Scriptures. Discourse is communication of thought by words; a discussion of a subject in speech or writing, particularly one that goes back and forth, such as in a debate or argument. Discourse analysis, therefore, examines the words and phrases of those speaking/writing to clearly understand the meaning and intent. It attempts to study the rules or patterns that characterize the individual units of connected speech or writing, defining the coherent sequences of sentences, propositions, or ‘turns-at-talk.’

The authors represented here are experts in their field, and they provide detailed explanations on how to use rhetorical criticism and discourse analysis to better understand the New Testament. Since the majority of these scholarly resources retail individually for well over $100.00, this collection offers the sixteen volumes at an excellent discount.

The Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement—JSNTS—(renamed the Library of New Testament Studies in 2005) is a premier book series that offers cutting-edge work for a readership of scholars, teachers in the field of New Testament studies, postgraduate students and advanced undergraduates. All the many and diverse aspects of New Testament study are represented and promoted in the series, including innovative work from historical perspectives, studies using social-scientific and literary theory, and developing theological, cultural and contextual approaches.

The Library of New Testament Studies is published regularly by T and T Clark International, a Continuum imprint and world-class religious academic publishing program. It is both interdisciplinary and international in scope, incorporating Sheffield Academic Press, T and T Clark, and Trinity Press International.

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Key Features

• Work from historical perspectives
• Studies using social-scientific and literary theory
• Ideal for teachers and students

Product Details

• Title: Studies in New Testament Greek and JSNTS Collection (17 vols.)
• Volumes: 17
• Pages: 5,243

Rhetorical Criticism and the Bible

• Editors: Stanley E. Porter and Dennis Stamps
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 571

This volume explores the use of rhetoric in the study of biblical literature. The contributors are scholars from North America, Britain, Continental Europe and South Africa who focus on four major categories: the theory of rhetorical criticism, rhetorical criticism of the Old Testament, rhetorical criticism of the Gospels, and rhetorical criticism of the Pauline letters. The chapters here are the compilation of papers presented at the 1998 Florence Conference and reflect the myriad of ways the term rhetoric is used, understood and applied.

Stanley Porter is President, Dean and Professor of New Testament, McMaster Divinity College, Canada.

Dennis Stamps is Director of the West Midlands Ministerial Training Course, Queen's College, Birmingham.

Diglossia and Other Topics in New Testament Linguistics

• Editor: Stanley E. Porter
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 2000
• Pages: 305

Diglossia is the existence within a society of sharply divergent formal and informal varieties of a language. Porter devotes the first part of this volume to the concept of diglossia, summarizing this important area of study in both the Septuagint and New Testament Greek. The second half of the book focuses on new aspects of research into the Greek of both Testaments, such as critical discourse analysis, and more traditional issues like the nature of the Septuagint translation.

Stanley Porter is President, Dean and Professor of New Testament, McMaster Divinity College, Canada.

Linguistics and the New Testament: Critical Junctures

• Editors: Stanley E. Porter and D. A. Carson
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 1999
• Pages: 297

Linguistics and the New Testament explores what the editors believe are crucial phases in the application of linguistics to New Testament Greek. The first half of the volume includes essays on such topics as linguistics and literary criticism, linguistics and historical criticism, and linguistics and rhetoric. The second half includes essays dealing with the relations and uses of individual words, but ranges from oral composition to the value of word frequency in determining authorship. Some of these essays review established models of research, while others propose new models and criteria of linguistic analysis.

Stanley Porter is President, Dean and Professor of New Testament, McMaster Divinity College, Canada.

D. A. Carson is Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois.

Discourse Analysis and Other Topics in Biblical Greek

• Editors: Stanley E. Porter and D. A. Carson
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 1995
• Pages: 222

Discourse analysis is the study of the rules or patterns characterizing units of connected speech or writing. The essays here were first presented at the Society of Biblical Literature in the early 1990s. Porter contributes two chapters which survey discourse analysis—one dealing with New Testament studies and the other on how biblical discourse can be analyzed. Topical chapters include these subjects: identifying the theme in the New Testament; recognizing prominence in the text; interpreting the language of Paul; syntactical background studies; and diachronic analysis.

Stanley Porter is President, Dean and Professor of New Testament, McMaster Divinity College, Canada.

D. A. Carson is Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois.

Discourse Analysis and the New Testament: Approaches and Results

• Editors: Stanley E. Porter and Jeffrey T. Reed
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 1999
• Pages: 412

Some of today’s major discourse analysts of the New Testament have contributed to this resource, including E.A. Nida, W. Schenk, J.P. Louw and J. Callow. Their essays deal with the theory and method of discourse analysis and then demonstrate how to apply that methodology to studying the Gospels and Acts, the Pauline corpus, and the general epistles. Porter and Reed offer a helpful text readily accessible for all scholars interested in this increasingly important area of New Testament research.

Stanley Porter is President, Dean and Professor of New Testament, McMaster Divinity College, Canada.

Jeffrey Reed is Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advanced Theological Research at the University of Surrey Roehampton, London.

A Discourse Analysis of Philippians: Method and Rhetoric in the Debate over Literary Integrity

• Author: Jeffrey T. Reed
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 1997
• Pages: 505

In Part 1 of Reed’s Discourse Analysis of Philippians he supplies an introduction to discourse analysis and includes a sketch of its history before presenting a model of its use in analyzing the New Testament. He explains how discourse analysis can be used in systemic-functional linguistics and in the study of presuppositions and functional grammar in the New Testament. In Part 2, Reed carefully details the literary integrity, structure, and texture of Philippians while providing the reader with an introduction to ancient letter writing and epistolary theory. His voluminous citations of papyrus examples help illustrate his points, and two appendices offer more important information for understanding Paul’s letter to the believers in Philippi.

Jeffrey T. Reed has taught Greek at Biola University and Fuller Seminary.

Sentence Conjunctions in the Gospel of Matthew: Narrative Discourse

• Author: Stephanie Black
• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 412

Black applies current linguistic research on discourse markers to the sentence conjunctions found in Matthew's Gospel. This treatment combines linguistic insights with a detailed examination of Matthew’s use of conjunctions in narrative passages. She breaks new ground in linguistic theory by modeling the interplay between features such as sentence conjunction, word order, and verb tense in the portrayal of continuity and discontinuity in Greek narrative. Her book will be of interest to New Testament scholars, classicists, discourse analysts and linguists alike.

Stephanie Black is a member of the faculty of the Evangelical Graduate School of Theology, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Testimony and Interpretation: Early Christology in its Judeo-Hellenistic Milieu

• Editors: Jan Roskovec and Jiri Mrazek
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 314

Roskovec and Mrazek have compiled a collection of essays on early Christology in honor of Professor Petr Pokorný, whose interests in early Christianity were wide ranging. Part One deals with Pauline Christology and includes essays on the nature of Paul's Jewishness, the Corinthian controversy, Paul's so-called mysticism, the Christ-in-Paul idea in Galatians, the Dionysian background of Ephesians and the contribution of archaeological evidence when interpreting Colossians, Philemon and Ephesians. Part Two is devoted to the Christological problems in the synoptic traditions. Topics here include the problem of hell in Jesus’ message, the evidence about Jesus outside the Gospels, the birth narrative in Matthew, and the Christology of the Sermon on the Mount. Part Three includes essays on the possible influence of the Enoch traditions on the Johannine concept of the Son of Man, and the Father/Son motifs in the parables. Part Four contains essays on New Testament Christology as found in the creeds, sermons, and Christian life.

Jan Roskovec is an assistant lecturer in New Testament at Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague.

Jiri Mrazek is a lecturer in New Testament at Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague.

The Coming Crisis: The Impact of Eschatology on Theology in Edwardian England

• Author: Mark Chapman
• Publication Date: 2001
• Pages: 189

Chapman has written a compelling case study of a distinctive theological theme—the eschatological interpretation of the historical Jesus in Edwardian England—where he attempts to add greater precision to the history of theology in a neglected period. Looking at the impact of Adolf Harnack, Alfred Loisy, Albert Schweitzer and Johannes Weiss on biblical studies and theology before the First World War, Chapman argues that the future course of theology, in which eschatology plays a crucial role, was already mapped out at this time. Assessing the work of William Sanday, F.C. Burkitt and George Tyrrell, Chapman examines the theological diplomacy between Britain, France and Germany and uncovers a cultural crisis that made eschatology such an appealing study.

Mark Chapman is Vice-Principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford and a member of the Faculty of Theology, Oxford University. He has written widely on modern church history, ethics and theology. His books include Blair's Britain and Anglicanism: A Very Short Introduction.

Has God Not Chosen the Poor?: The Social Setting of the Epistle of James

• Author: David Edgar
• Publication Date: 2001
• Pages: 261

In recent years, the apostle James and his epistle have received renewed attention, and Edgar’s contribution to the revival examines the way in which James and his addressees are depicted within the social world of emerging Christianity. Edgar finds strong points of contact with the sayings of Jesus and with early Christian itinerant proclaimers, who are often seen as having been active in preserving and transmitting these sayings. The Epistle challenges the commitment of its reader to a new allegiance with God and, in no uncertain terms, proffers the choice one must make between loyalty to Him and identification with the earthly value system dominated by the rich.

David Edgar is Lecturer in Biblical Studies in the School of Hebrew, Biblical and Theological Studies, Trinity College and at the Church of Ireland Theological College, Dublin.

Early Jewish and Christian Monotheism

• Editors: Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Wendy North
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 255

It is the premise of Early Jewish and Christian Monotheism that early Christology must focus not simply on historical but also on theological ideas found in Jewish thought and practice. The contributors to this book consider the context and formation of early Jewish and Christian devotion to God alone. The idea of monotheism is critically examined from various perspectives, including the history of ideas, Graeco-Roman religions, early Jewish mediator figures, scriptural exegesis, and the history of its use as a theological category. The essays explore different ways of conceiving of early Christian monotheism today, asking whether the concept should be applied cautiously and with qualifications, or whether it is to be questioned in favor of different approaches to understanding the origins of Jewish and Christian beliefs and worship.

Loren T. Stuckenbruck is B.F. Wescott Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Durham and is co-editor of the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha.

Dr. Wendy North, formerly of Hull University, is a New Testament scholar.

Transitivity-Based Foregrounding in the Acts of the Apostles: A Functional-Grammatical Approach to the Lukan Perspective

• Author: Gustavo Martín -Asensio
• Publication Date: 2000
• Pages: 193

This study of the language of Acts is based on M.A K. Halliday's functional grammar, which offers a theory based on linguistic choices and the effects they have on readers or hearers. Interacting with selected interpretations from, among others, C.K. Barrett, Ben C. Witherington, Jerome Neyrey, Jacob Jervell and John Lentz, Martín-Asensio argues that transitivity (who does what to whom) emerges as a key factor in the foregrounding scheme of Acts, and this analysis offers a linguistically-based perspective on Luke's overall concern to underline the supremacy of the divine will on the stage of human affairs.

Gustavo Martín-Asensio is an independent scholar living in London.

Text in a Whirlwind: A Critique of Four Exegetical Devices at 1 Timothy 2:9-15

• Author: J. M. Holmes
• Publication Date: 2000
• Pages: 383

Holmes examines four exegetical devices employed by countering sides in the debate regarding 1 Timothy 2:9-15. She proposes that together these differing positions actually create a 'whirlwind' which obscures the text's meaning. Her investigation considers whether (1) the immediate context is general, not ecclesial; (2) the background reconstructed from passages elsewhere in the Pastoral letters is misleading; (3) comparison of 1 Timothy 2:9-15 with 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 can similarly be misleading; and (4) whether the conjunction gar ('for') has been allowed unduly to dominate interpretation. It is herein argued that Paul has been misunderstood since very early in the Christian era, his intentions having been simply to moderate women's everyday behavior in ways that parallel the behavior he requires of men.

J. M. Holmes is a part-time tutor in the Department of History at La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.

Linguistics and Exegesis in the Gospel of Mark: Applications of a Case Frame Analysis and Lexicon

• Author: Paul L. Danove
• Publication Date: 2001
• Pages: 247

Danove attempts to apply constructional grammar to the analysis of the New Testament text. Constructional grammar accounts for linguistic relationships through the concrete, observable constituents of sentences, or as Danove states, “Constructional Grammar describes the grammar of a language in terms of grammatical constructions that identify a particular set of sentence elements and detail the syntactic and semantic constraints on these elements.” In the first two chapters, the author explains his method of analysis and description, focusing on presuppositions, concepts, syntactic and semantic functions and lexical realizations. In chapters three through six he demonstrates the application of his methodology to the Gospel of Mark, addressing such topics as textual criticism, narrative analysis, and the general contributions of the lexicon and parsing guide. For those working in biblical studies, Danove’s insight into contemporary biblical linguistics will surely be welcomed.

Paul Danove is Associate Professor of New Testament Studies at Villanova University, USA. He is the author of The End of Mark’s Story

The New Testament as Reception

• Editors: Møgens Müller and Henrik Tronier
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 218

As the title implies, The New Testament as Reception systematically explores the concept of the New Testament as a "reception" of various antecedents. Three of the antecedents it examines are the Old Testament, Second Temple Judaism, and Graeco-Roman culture. The contributors also explore the reception of Jesus, using as examples the Synoptic parables, Matthew's Messianic Teacher, and the Christology of the Book of Revelation. Paul is considered in a chapter on his reception in Acts, and three final chapters survey broader themes, such as feminist reception, reception history within the New Testament (using the Annunciation as an example), and translation as interpretation.

Møgens Müller is Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the University of Copenhagen.

Henrik Tronier is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Biblical Exegesis, University of Copenhagen.

The Original Language of the Lukan Infancy Narrative

• Author: Chang-Wook Jung
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 236

Some scholars have claimed that the Greek of the Lukan infancy narrative (chapters 1–2) displays numerous Semitic features. The majority of recent scholarship assumes that such features stem from an imitation of the Septuagint (imitation theory) and that Luke relied on this written source for the infancy narrative—or at least for some parts of it. Others claim that Luke was not merely the reviser or compiler of his source; rather, he rewrote the source employing his own style and language for his own purpose. In The Original Language of the Lukan Infancy Narrative, Jung examines the arguments most commonly put forward by both sides and considers their merits.

Chang-Wook Jung studied at the Calvin Seminary (Th.M.) and received his Ph.D. from the Free University in Amsterdam. He is part-time lecturer in New Testament Studies at Chongshin University in Seoul, Korea.

Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics: Open Questions in Current Research

• Editors: Stanley E. Porter and D. A. Carson
• Publication Date: 1993
• Pages: 223

Do verbal tenses, such as aorist and imperfect, actually communicate a temporal reference—time—or do they communicate something else entirely—aspect? Or can the tenses sometimes communicate both time and aspect? The verbal aspect debate is one of the hottest topics in Biblical Greek linguistics. Edited by Stanley E. Porter and D.A. Carson, Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics brings together into one volume essays from scholars in the field of Greek and linguistics to examine the Greek language from a linguistic and grammatical perspective.

The first half of the book is devoted to verbal aspect, and includes essays by Stanley E. Porter and Buist Fanning, two central figures in the debate over verbal aspect. The second part of the book contains a potpourri of articles on other applications of modern linguistics to the Greek Bible, and includes essays by Jeffrey T. Reed, Paul Danove, Michael W. Palmer, and Mark S. Krause.

D. A. Carson is Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois.

Stanley Porter is President, Dean and Professor of New Testament, McMaster Divinity College, Canada.