The Logos Academic Blog
by Alan Taylor Farnes
In 2007, James R. Royse published his exceptional study on the scribal habits of six early New Testament papyri. In his work, Royse revolutionized text critics’ understanding of the text-critical canon lectio brevior potior or, “the shorter reading is preferred”1 by demonstrating that the scribes he studied tended to omit more than they added. In its place he coined a new canon which he called lectio longior potior or, “the longer reading is preferred.” [Read more…]
by Christoph Heilig*
Two weeks ago, Tavis Bohlinger wrote a blogpost in which he encouraged students and scholars of the New Testament to focus on the “common dialect,” ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος of the Greek language—that is, the Greek spoken roughly between 300 BCE and 300 CE. In the German-speaking sphere, from which I come, many students of theology still learn “Classical Greek” as it was used between 500 and 300 BCE (well, at least the Attic dialect of that time). [Read more…]
by Vinh T. Nguyen
In his recent post Four Reasons to Master Koine (and to Leave Attic Alone), Tavis Bohlinger made a plea to specifically focus on Koine in order to master “this particular type of Greek as thoroughly as possible.” This post continues a collegial dialogue about studying Greek which includes an article from Shawn Wilhite on the importance of reading background texts of the New Testament. [Read more…]
Learning to read Koine (or biblical) Greek is essential, if you are training for church ministry, an academically focused career in biblical studies, or simply as a means to reading the New Testament in its original language.
Even while I was in seminary, however, there was pressure to learn to read Attic, or Classical Greek. I was inspired to expand my narrow horizons beyond the NT, to begin reading Homer, Sophocles, and Plato. Indeed, even on this blog, we recently posted an article encouraging people to read widely throughout the corpus of Classical Greek literature. [Read more…]
by Tavis Bohlinger*
Yesterday we celebrated International LXX Day by publishing an essay on The Origin of the LXX. Today we are pleased to present the second half of that essay, because, well, we just love the Septuagint here at Logos (this proves it).
Plus, this gives us the chance to extend the 30% discount on select LXX resources, so you can boost your Logos digital library (see list below; if you don’t yet have Logos Bible Software, check this out). Don’t forget that today is the last day of the sale. [Read more…]
by the Revd Dr Alan Garrow
Alan’s work recently enjoyed attention as the focus of the $1,000 Synoptic Problem Challenge—as taken up by Mark Goodacre on Bart Ehrman’s blog (we covered the debate here, here, and here). While having an interest in the Synoptic Problem, the primary focus of Garrow’s research is the Didache, or The Teaching of the Lord by the Twelve Apostles to the Gentiles. This article offers an overview of how his research impacts questions about that identity of this infamously enigmatic early Christian document. [Read more…]
Using a commentary like you use a lexicon — it’s not really a far-fetched idea. There are scads of context-sensitive discussions of Greek and Hebrew words locked away in commentaries. [Read more…]
We are honored to have Drs. Peter Williams and Dirk Jongkind of Tyndale House, Cambridge, join us on theLAB to discuss the Tyndale House Edition of the Greek New Testament (THGNT). [Read more…]
The fuller version of this article was just published in the Journal of Biblical Literature as “The Messiah Is ‘the Holy One’:ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ as a Messianic Title in Mark 1:24” JBL 136, no. 2 (2017): 417–433.
It has become almost obligatory to begin a discussion of ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ (“the Holy One of God”) by conceding that it “was not a messianic title in Judaism.”1 The title never occurs outside the New Testament and, outside of Mark 1:24, it only occurs in two other places (Luke 4:34; John 6:69).2 In light of such paltry attestation, some scholars reach the conclusion of Edwin Broadhead, that ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ is a “largely inconsequential description.”3 Such pessimism is perhaps further warranted by the fact that, despite the efforts of a number of scholars, no compelling explanation for the derivation of this title has been offered.4 Rather, it would appear that the best one can offer is a range of possible connotations that ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ might evoke. [Read more…]
It is inevitable that every student of ancient Greek will find a time when they feel out of their depth. Greek literature, as with literature in any language, ranges from relatively easy to read to frustratingly complex. And, since literary Greek syntax is anything but intuitive to native speakers of most modern languages, there will come a time when every student stares at a sentence in a text without even knowing where to start.
[Read more…]