Thoughts About Preaching and Grammar 9.28.2023

    My formal study of Greek grammar began in the fall of 1982. My math isn’t all that great, but I do believe that 2023-1982=41. Forty-one years is a pretty long time. After graduation, I have continued to spend a lot of time in informal study of Greek NT Grammar, and other related textual issues. This is a matter of keeping familiar exegetical tools sharp whilst adding new tools to the toolbox. I have a good, diverse selection of print grammars—beginning, intermediate, and advanced. In addition, I have 15 or 20 grammars in Logos and Accordance, as well as a healthy selection of PDFs germane to the subject. I have an abundance of lexical tools to help understand the significance of how individual words are used, and how to discern the point at which lexical meaning, grammar, and syntax give way to context as the primary indicators of meaning. 

    Yes, it is a lot of work.  It is the vocation we have chosen, to which we have been called. One must know the text if one is to preach it. There is only so much that can be done with the work of others. I am convinced that the local congregation should expect their preacher to be an expert in hermeneutics. We are responsible first for knowing the meaning of the text—only then can we proclaim it boldly and personally.

    Philippians, being brief, I said to myself, “What a great time to do a quick Greek grammar review!” I don’t regret that choice, however it has become more sprawling and challenging than I expected. Hellenistic Greek is not the spoken or written Greek of the twenty-first century. Languages evolve and change. Were I learning to speak Greek it would be another challenge entirely. My refresher course on what I presumably already know has been challenging enough. 

    The primary driver is change in the way Koine Greek is studied, understood, and taught. I had excellent instruction in NT Greek. The two years of study with a very hard-nosed teacher and a committed group of fellow students prepared me not only for years of study for preaching but also prepared me for a life of self-learning. I can chart a review course in my Greek studies because of what I learned all those years ago, with those men at St. Louis Christian College. Never once have I doubted the quality or focus of the instruction. And as you may tell, I count those years as a highlight of my life. 

    Which brings us back to the present discussion. Aside from the length of the Epistle, there were several other reasons that preaching from Philippians seemed like a fruitful time to bone up on my Greek Grammar. There are several interesting features of Paul’s usage in the Epistle that were going to merit close examination anyway. There is no better time to go a little deeper than when the grammars and lexica are open. Additionally, there are some significant passages in Philippians that, while not necessarily challenging, certainly required detailed attention. Philippians 2.1-11 is one of the most important Christological passages in the New Testament. A well-known, passage, it deserves attention to grammatical as well as theological detail. 

    As is often the case, the outcome develops differently than one intends. The most notable change in understanding Koine Greek that has developed since I Graduated from SLCC is the way that the verb system is studied, discussed, and understood. It is so different that much of the terminology is new and the approach is discomfortingly different. 

    My Greek instruction was old-fashioned, paradigm-driven, morphology, and syntax. Learn these endings. Learn the vocabulary. Locate the verbs. Decline the nouns. The professor, Albert McGee, used textbooks derived from the academic lineage of the renowned Baptist Scholar A.T. Robertson. There was a well-defined pecking order to the choice of these textbooks and clear lines of authority. We began with Davis, William Hersey, ed. Beginner’s Grammar of the Greek New Testament. New York: Harper & Row, 1923. Davis was a student and Son in Law of Robertson. This beginning textbook drew upon his own studies with Robertson and was presumably prepared with the mentor’s blessing. For second-year Greek, the textbook was Dana, H. E., and Julius R. Mantey. A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament. New York: Macmillan, 1993. Again, these were students of Robertson, whose judgments never fell far from the path blazed by their mentor. Supplemental readings were assigned from Robertson, A. T. A Short Grammar of the Greek New Testament, for Students Familiar with the Elements of Greek. New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1908. The final arbiter of all questions was, of course, Robertson's “Big Grammar” Robertson, A. T. A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research. Logos Bible Software, 2006. And no, we did not have Logos back then. Robertson’s Big Grammar is an imposing book. When I finally got my own copy in the mid 1980’s I was in awe that a simple guy like me could have access to such information. That was it. That was the program. Robertson’s methods were those of the historical Philologist striving for scientific precision. Albert McGee was meticulous about teaching forms and applying those principles to everyday exegesis. I use what I learned, all those years ago, virtually every day.

        But many days have passed. About 3 weeks ago I started assembling my grammatical tools to do my little “review.” In my Bible software, I had several fresh, monographs to study. (I am often asked, “Have you read all those books”. The standard answer: “not yet.”) Two caught my eye.  Runge, Steven E., and Christopher J. Fresch, eds. The Greek Verb Revisited: A Fresh Approach for Biblical Exegesis. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016., and Porter, Stanley E. Idioms of the Greek New Testament. Sheffield: JSOT, 1999. The primary commonality of these two books is a vastly different understanding of how the Greek verbal system works, from what I was taught. Less focused on formal features of tense, mood, and voice distinctions they focus on the category of “Verbal Aspect”, a term I had not heard or read for the first 30 years of my experience with reading the language. I am wading through Porter’s book with several more queued up. Aside from those texts specifically dealing with Hellenistic or Koine Greek, I have an entire stack of monographs discussing theoretical linguistics, functional grammar, and semantics. These were not subjects discussed in first year or second year Greek circa, 1982-84. It is, however, where the research is, in 2023. The two seminal dissertations regarding Verbal Aspect in the Green New Testament were published in 1988 and 1990. Since then, the discussion has grown, and the literature has exploded. The primary methodological shift has been from the Historical Philology of Roberson and his cadre to the more linguistically aware Semantic model. 

    In addition to the very personal work of identifying and interpreting the grammar of the text, another issue to keep in mind is that the relevant secondary literature has been evolving in this direction for all those years. It takes a long time to prepare a major critical, exegetical commentary. The extensive period between submission and publication means that these essential references tend to be 15 or 20 years behind the arc of scholarship. So, it is only in the last 15-20 years that Greek-text commentaries have begun to address grammatical, syntactical, and discourse features of the language from within this newer linguistic model.

    Our most effective tools tend to be the ones we know best. Yet we are not exempt from the need to be aware of developments in our field. Our field is Biblical studies. And we should be eager to add new tools that will equip us to do a better job. To grow as exegetes, we must continue to lubricate our hermeneutical skillset. We will need to keep abreast in other relevant fields besides grammar if we are to keep up with the “hermeneutical Joneses”. Much of this study will not change our perspective.  Much of the value is in the work itself. 

    I have said this many times. The call to preach the Word is a call to study. I’m still able to think and learn. You are too. Just maybe, we old dogs need to learn a few new tricks. Let's get to work.