Linguistics and the Bible

Retrospects and Prospects

Stanley E. Porter, Christopher D. Land, Francis G. H. Pang, Stanley E. Porter, Christopher D. Land

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781532659126
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Riferimenti biblici

In 2016, the Centre for Biblical Linguistics, Translation, and Exegesis (CBLTE), a research center located at McMaster Divinity College, hosted the annual Bingham Colloquium. Scholars from around North America were invited to participate in a collegial and collaborative dialogue on what is currently happening (or could happen) at the intersection of linguistics and biblical studies, particularly in regards to the linguistic study of biblical languages, their translation, and the way that linguistic methods can contribute to the interpretation of the biblical texts. This volume of essays publishes many of the presentations that took place at the Colloquium.

Part 1

Linguistics

1

Linguistics and Biblical Studies

An Ongoing Journey

Randall K. J. Tan

Introduction

Around fifteen years ago, early in my doctoral studies, I encountered an article called “Studying Ancient Languages from a Modern Linguistic Perspective,” written by Stanley Porter.1 After reading that article and Porter’s other writings, I became deeply troubled that much of New Testament studies continued to rely on traditional grammar and pre-modern linguistic work. I became convinced that the scientific study of language is critical if we want to better understand the language and texts of the New Testament. This realization started me on a journey that would radically change the direction of my PhD studies, a journey I have continued on for my entire scholarly career.

Over the course of my career I have developed a number of views on how modern linguistics should factor into the wider enterprise of biblical studies. In this essay, I will focus on four areas in particular. First, I will briefly examine why the wider field of biblical studies needs the insights of modern linguistics. Second, I will make some modest suggestions about which aspects of modern linguistics give “the most bang for their buck.” Third, I will provide some recommendations concerning what kinds of corpora, tools, and communities are needed to facilitate smoother incorporation of modern linguistics into biblical studies. Finally, I will discuss what kinds of freedom for reuse are required to facilitate this type of work.

Explaining the Need for Modern Linguistics

The first topic of discussion is the need for applying modern linguistics to the wider field of biblical studies. For a well-rounded consideration it is necessary both to count the costs and to demonstrate the benefits of modern linguistics. On the cost side of the ledger, modern linguistics uses vocabulary and concepts quite different from those found in traditional Greek grammars, and these are foreign to many biblical scholars.2 To make matters worse, because advocates of integrating modern linguistics into biblical studies draw from different theories, the use of the same terms are often used in multiple and often contrasting ways.3 To use a well-known example, once someone learns a term like “verbal aspect,” they are immediately confronted by prolonged and complicated debates about how aspect is to be understood. And it can be difficult to find objective criteria to determine who is right. Confronted with this steep learning curve and uncertainty, many scholars are tempted to retreat to their comfort zone, the traditional grammars they were trained to use.

Despite the difficulties, these scholars should be prompted in the other direction. Traditional biblical scholars recognize that the so-called “traditional grammar” that continues to take pride of place in some circles did not pass down from the time of the apostles to the present fully formed and unchanged.4 They understand some of the weaknesses in traditional lexicons and grammars. They may even acknowledge that the great grammarians and scholars of the nineteenth century would not ignore a century of advances in theory and tools. However, many scholars still neglect the insights of modern linguistics because they are not yet confident that they can be relied on.5 Part of the challenge is that biblical studies is still in the early phases of understanding biblical languages through these newer paradigms, and it is simply hard to be certain about drawing conclusions using either traditional or newer paradigms.

Fortunately, scholars generally understand the inevitability of at least some uncertainty in scholarship. The task thus becomes making a convincing case for the strengths of using modern linguistic theory in biblical studies, but also proactively admitting the unresolved ambiguities and uncertainties that remain. Scholars also generally understand the importance of evidence. Often, however, traditional scholars do not understand what new kinds of evidence need to be considered, why the insights of modern linguistics improve understanding of language, or how these insights can be shown to be true. Traditional grammars often observed the same phenomena that some scholars are now looking at through the lens of modern linguistics. Thus, those advocating for the use of modern linguistic models need to explore where the evidence used in traditional grammars and commentaries was more or less accurately judged according to modern linguistic criteria. To do this well, the similarities and distinctions between modern and classical paradigms need to be thoroughly mapped, respecting the wisdom of many who have gone before while still scrutinizing the work of past generations.6

Admittedly, such a task has several daunting challenges before it, but the fact that all biblical scholars share a reliance on the biblical texts ensures some common ground in the efforts for progress. While no native speaker of Hellenistic Greek is alive today, we still have the texts that native speakers have written. These are the only real evidence available for researching the texts and language of the New Testament.7 Porter makes this point clear in the following quotation:

The study of the New Testament is essentially a language-based discipline. That is, the primary body of data for examination is a text, or, better yet, a collection of many texts written in the Hellenistic variety of the Greek language of the first century CE. Whatever else may be involved in the study of the New Testament . . . to remain a study of the New Testament it must always remain textually based, since the only direct access that we have into the world of the New Testament is through the text o...