theLAB

The Logos Academic Blog

New Testament Manuscripts, Knowledge, and Art

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The evidence we have for the New Testament in the form of manuscripts, copied from the second straight through to the nineteenth century, is an embarrassment of riches.

Scholars have long used the many thousands of manuscripts in Greek, Latin, Coptic, and other languages to reconstruct an “original” or other early form of the text, to trace the history of particular New Testament texts in particular historical contexts, to see the traces of human activity within the New Testament’s tradition, and to better understand the book technologies that have brought us the New Testament as we now experience, whether in print or digital forms. There continues to be much to do with the manuscripts along these more traditional lines.

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Understanding Greek Verbs

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Part 4 of the series Observations from a Linguistic Spectator: An Annual Report. For part 1, see here. For part 2, see here. For part 3, see here.

Introduction

In the last post, we’ve considered some basics of grammatical aspect and the lexical actional potential of verbs. This part of the series continues this exploration. In particular, we will look at some other dynamics that occur when these two factors interact. Again, I would recommend to you reading Thomson’s essay for a fuller account. We will also address some practical issues that arise when it comes to dealing with aspect and Aktionsart in our daily exegetical work. Note that the categories that were introduced in part 3 of this series will be presupposed here. So if you are new to this subject, I would strongly encourage you to read that post first.

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The Covid Vaccine has 666 Written All Over It…and Why that Doesn’t Matter According to Revelation

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by Matthew L. Halsted, PhD

In an article published last week on theLAB, COVID-19 and The Mark of the Beast, I claimed that the mark of the beast (666) is most likely not a physical or visible mark (Rev. 13:16). The biggest objection I received from readers had to do with this very point: how could the mark be non-physical and invisible if having the mark was what allowed people to “buy or sell” things (Rev. 13:17)? Wouldn’t the mark need to be visible in order to do that? Furthermore, isn’t there enough evidence that the vaccine is the “number” of the beast, including a bill currently before the House of Representatives (6666) and the very letters “C-O-R-O-N-A” themselves?1 These are good questions, and I think a response would be helpful. But first, we need to start from square one and do some background work.

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Grammatical Aspect and Lexical “Aktionsartpotential”: Some Basic Observations

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From the cover of Siebenthal’s Ancient Greek Grammar for the Study of the New Testament. Source: Peter Lang.

Part 3 of the series Observations from a Linguistic Spectator: An Annual Report. See also Part 1 and Part 2.

From events to verbs

As announced in my last blog post, I want to explore now in more detail the lexical semantics and the lexicography of Greek verbs. Verbs express events or “situations” as we call them on the most general level. We probably all have an intuitive understanding of what events/situations are: something that happens in the real world at a given point in time. We perceive these events and interpret them and give them a specific shape on a conceptual level.

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COVID-19 and The Mark of the Beast

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Watching the news a few days ago, I saw photos and videos of those protesting the COVID-19 quarantine on full display. I’m growing weary of how certain biblical texts are attached to certain political movements and demonstrations—texts that are, quite frankly, misused and misunderstood. Sadly, Christianity ends up getting misrepresented in the process.

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Beyond ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: Lynn Cohick on Teaching with a Spirit of Mutuality and Authenticity

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How do we teach well amid the volatile social climate of our world today? How should educators from Western nations interact with scholars around the globe? And what can seminary professors do to confront racism and sexism in the classroom? These questions arose during the recent conversation between Cohick and Didaktikos editor Douglas Estes.

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Lexical Semantics and Lexicography

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Part 2 of the series Observations from a Linguistic Spectator: An Annual Report.

For part 1, see here.

A Semiotic Framework

I’m going to cheat right away in this first post in this series that discusses an actual linguistic subject – quite a bit of what I discuss here isn’t that new to me. So it’s not really part of the honest annual report of new insights that I promised. Still, I feel like I have to include these considerations because in my experience this is perhaps the single issue where publications in biblical studies fail most often.

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Best Resources for Studying New Testament Backgrounds and Context

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Image: © Tavis Bohlinger

One of the most important set of resources in which students of the Bible and pastors can invest is New Testament backgrounds and context. We will divide up our discussion into four categories.

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Observations from a Linguistic Spectator: An Annual Report

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Part 1: Introduction

Why this blog post series?

Beginning this April, I will work as an assistant at the University of Basel at the chair of Prof. Moisés Mayordomo. Already on my second work day, I was going to give a presentation in the research seminar in Zurich – an event which now has of course been cancelled due to the Corona virus situation. Since I had already begun making some mental notes for this presentation, I thought it might be wise to instead make a series of blogposts about the subject that I was going to talk about. Here, I’ll make some introductory remarks and I hope I’ll be able to find the time over the coming weeks for the other instalments.

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a priori: Chris Seglenieks’s Work on Faith in John

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A Priori is a new series on the theLAB in which we put three simple questions to scholars undertaking important research in biblical studies, theology, ethics, and more. We seek out the authors whose work may be poised for future renown in this early stage in their career, whose mission is the church, whose vocation is research. This week we hear from Chris Seglenieks and his work on the concept of “faith” in the Gospel of John.

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