New Testament Philology

Essays in Honor of David Alan Black

Melton Bennett Winstead, Winstead

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781532618949
  9781498244879
• eBook ISBN:
  9781498244862
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

This work is dedicated to David Alan Black, a New Testament scholar who has contributed to the love of the Koine Greek language as it pertains to New Testament studies in numerous ways--as a professor, author, missionary, and editor. The goal of this book is to demonstrate for students the value of continued research in the Greek New Testament. The essays demonstrate how research is currently being done, utilizing such tools as grammatical studies, discourse analysis, textual criticism, verbal aspect, and other linguistic analyses. The chapters include studies on exegesis, verbal aspect, prepositional compounds, relevance theory, and scripture memorization. This book demonstrates the explanatory power of an in-depth usage of New Testament Greek. It is recommended for those who have had at least one year of Greek.

Chapter 1

Who is Resisting—the Righteous One or Someone Else?

James 4:6 and 5:6

—William Varner The Master’s University

Personal Introduction

When I began to teach Intermediate Greek at the university level, I utilized a couple of grammars and found them adequate but not that helpful pedagogically. Then I discovered It’s Still Greek to Me by David Black and I have used it with my students ever since. When I decided to adopt a more linguistic approach to teaching advanced Greek and discourse analysis, I discovered Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek by David Black, and I have used it with my students ever since. When I was looking for a simple introduction to NT textual criticism for beginning students, I discovered New Testament Textual Criticism: A Concise Guide by David Black, and I have used it ever since. Finally, when I desired to teach my students a basic exegetical approach to the New Testament for the purpose of exposition, I discovered Using New Testament Greek in Ministry by David Black, and I have used it ever since. Therefore, the following proposal which utilizes a discourse approach to the Greek text of James is offered to David in appreciation for his influence on my teaching the Greek New Testament. He not only helped to form my thinking on the value of a linguistic approach to Greek but he also has helped me to communicate these insights to my students.

Abstract

The two passages—Jas 4:6 and 5:6—at first do not appear to be directly related because of the distance between them. A theological tendency by many evangelicals is to identify quickly τὸν δίκαιον in 5:6 as the Messiah. We should not allow that assumption to trump the context and the use of the term in non-canonical texts. A literary assumption held by many is that the subject of the verb in 5:6 is τὸν δίκαιον as well. By relating 5:6 to 4:6, my suggestion is that the subject of the verb ἀντιτάσσεται in 5:6 is the expressed subject of the same verb earlier in 4:6—God. The sentence should also be read as a question expecting a positive answer. Therefore, the Prov 3:34 quotation in 4:6 functions as a statement not only at the paragraph level of 4:1–10 but also as a question at the wider discourse level of 4:1—5:6.

Introduction

An overly simple but not inaccurate definition of discourse analysis is that the method emphasizes that we ought to be “looking at grammar above the level of the sentence.” Reed affirms what many other writers have also recognized — that the first and most often mentioned tenet of discourse analysis is to examine language at a level beyond the sentence.1 Dave Black also observed: “The study of larger units of language (larger than just words and clauses) is normally called discourse analysis, or text-linguistics.”2 Biber, Conrad, and Reppen are more specific. “Discourse analyses focus on language characteristics that extend across clause boundaries.”3 This is perhaps the most distinguishing tenet of discourse analysis. Wallace declares “that one does not truly understand the meaning of a linguistic category until one comprehends its function in a text.” He adds that much of modern linguistics has all but ignored such a critical affirmation.4 Sadly, much traditional biblical exegesis, while always nodding its approval on the importance of context, has oftentimes ignored this principle in practice. The analysis of words and clauses is vastly important, but their importance is constrained by the perspective of the larger discourse in which they are found. It is probably helpful to view all the linguistic elements of a text as comprising different “levels of discourse,” with individual words on the bottom level and then clauses, clause complexes, sentences, paragraphs, and the entire discourse on the ascending levels, similar to a pyramid.5

One of the many benefits of utilizing discourse analysis in the interpretation of the New Testament is its reminder to focus on the discourse as a whole (holistic analysis) while not neglecting the “minutiae” of the specific text. Interpreters have often focused on a “bottom up” analysis while neglecting a “t...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Permissions
• List of Contributors
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Who is Resisting—the Righteous One or Someone Else?
• Chapter 2: “Give Me This Water(!)”
• Chapter 3: Verbal Aspect and Imperatives
• Chapter 4: Semitic Wordplay Behind the Greek of the New Testament
• Chapter 5: An Overview of the Gnomic or Logical Future Tense in the Pauline Corpus
• Chapter 6: The Role of Chiasm for Understanding Christology in Hebrews 1:1–14*
• Chapter 7: The Virginal Conception
• Chapter 8: Is Relevance Theory Relevant for Biblical Studies?
• Chapter 9: Disarming Significant Textual Issues in Jude
• Chapter 10: The Linguistic Features of Second Timothy and Its Purpose
• Chapter 11: Scripture Memorization and Theological Education
• Chapter 12: Defining Discourse Analysis as an Important New Testament Interpretive Framework
• Chapter 13: Legal Metaphors in 2 Thessalonians 1 and 2
• Chapter 14: “Participatory” Language in Ephesians Mediated through Σύν Compounds