I just stumbled across a convicting quotation by Dr. Carson that I wrote down during one of his class lectures last March:
“Most people go through life concerned that others will think too little of them. Paul was concerned that others would think too much of him.“
He made this comment while exegeting verse 6 in 2 Cor 12:1–10:
This is both exciting and daunting:
“We are part of the greatest explosion of biblical knowledge in history. Never before has so much been discovered and published in the same generation. For virtually every book of the Bible major projects are coming to light, and commentaries benefiting from them are being written.”
– Grant R. Osborne, “Recent Trends in the Study of the Apocalypse,” in The Face of New Testament Studies: A Survey of Recent Research (ed. Scot McKnight and Grant R. Osborne; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), p. 473.
This is exciting because there are so many fresh advances in biblical studies, yet this is daunting because it seems impossible to master all aspects of biblical studies, let alone one of them! Biblical scholars and scholars-in-training, however, need not get discouraged. Their responsibility is to be faithful stewards of God’s manifold grace in order to glorify Him. Cf. 1 Peter 4:10–11 (NET):
“Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God. Whoever speaks, let it be with God’s words. Whoever serves, do so with the strength that God supplies, so that in everything God will be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”
Rodney Decker informally reviews the latest volume in D. A. Carson’s SBG series: Constantine R. Campbell, Verbal Aspect, the Indicative Mood, and Narrative: Soundings in the Greek of the New Testament [paperback forthcoming] (ed. D. A. Carson; Studies in Biblical Greek 13; New York: Lang, 2007), xxi + 285 pp.
Cf. my earlier post on Campbell’s book.
Related: Andrew David Naselli, “A Brief Introduction to Verbal Aspect in New Testament Greek,” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 12 (2007): 17–28.
Are you VHS only?
David Instone-Brewer just posted his review of the Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible for Logos‘ Libronix Digital Library System.
“Overall conclusion: give away your paper BHS + NA27 and buy this. An extraordinary conclusion for someone who doesn’t like Libronix, but this is an extraordinary product which is more usable than the paper versions.”
Update: Cf. Phil Gons’s review and assessment of the SESB.
I just added this entry to the “theological writings” page of my recommended resources:
Robert V. McCabe (bio): Old Testament Studies (includes his writings and Internet resources)
Highly recommended. Check it out.
Rodney Decker recently uploaded the following article to his useful NT site: “The Rehabilitation of Heresy: ‘Misquoting’ Earliest Christianity.” Jenni and I were fortunate to be present when he presented this paper in July 2007 in Minneapolis. It’s a thoughtful critique of Bart Ehrman‘s recent works.
Update: An MP3 of Decker’s presentation is now available, along with Decker’s brief explanation of the audio.
A couple weeks ago I enjoyed working through a good portion of the latest volume in D. A. Carson’s SBG series: Constantine R. Campbell, Verbal Aspect, the Indicative Mood, and Narrative: Soundings in the Greek of the New Testament (ed. D. A. Carson; Studies in Biblical Greek 13; New York: Lang, 2007), xxi + 285 pp.
The last two or three decades have witnessed an impressive growth in the application of linguistic theory to the study of Hellenistic Greek. Nowhere has this work been more intense than in debates over the relevance of aspect theory to our understanding of the Greek verbal system. Dr Campbell’s book carefully weighs in on some of these debates, focusing on the narrative literature of the Gospels (primarily the Synoptic Gospels) and on several extra-biblical narrative sources. One of the great strengths of his research is the limpid clarity of his prose. It is always a bit disconcerting to discover how much work on aspect theory has been done, and how little of it has crossed into the world of New Testament Scholarship. Because of its clarity and excellent illustrations, Campbell’s volume has the potential for mediating between the two fields. Scarcely less important is the fact that Campbell puts forth some fresh suggestions as to how to understand the perfect and pluperfect. On any theory of the Greek verb—the time-based system of the Rationalist period, the more recent variations of Aktionsart theory, and now aspect theory—the perfect tense has proven notoriously difficult to handle. Campbell provides fresh food for thought–certainly not the last word, but an intriguing suggestion that may well point the way ahead.
Update:
