ORB Online Encyclopedia
Bibliographies
Greek Bible Bibliography
Compiled by Jim Marchand
- If you want to learn a little Greek, there are numerous aids. A
good one is Greek Tools, a computer vocabulary card manipulator (+ other
things) from Parson Technology. It comes bundled with John H. Dobson,
Learn New Testament Greek (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989). An excellent help
in learning vocabulary is Bruce M. Metzger, Lexical Aids for Students of
New Testament Greek (Princeton: Theological Book Agency, 1970). It
contains a small word count so you don't learn infrequent words first. If
you like the approach from a root-dictionary (as I do), then use Leslie
Robinson Elliott (Kansas City: Central Seminary Press, 1945).
- If you want to learn more Greek, there are excellent
intermediate grammars, e. g.: A. T. Robertson & W. Hersey Davis, A New
Short Grammar of the Greek Testament (NY: Harper, 1933); Eugene Van Ness
Goetchius, The Language of the New Testament (NY: Scribner, 1965). Often
praised. Machen's book is also frequently cited.
- For a `scientific' grammar: F. Blass and A. Debrunner, Grammatik
des neutestamentlichen Griechisch, 9th ed. (Goettingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1954), available in English: A Greek Grammar of the New
Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, transl. R. W. Funk
(Chicago: UChicagoP, 1961).
- For a compendious grammar: James Hope Moulton, A Grammar of NT
Greek. 3 vols. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1908-1963), various editors.
The huge grammar of A. T. Robertson is also good, especially if you are
familiar with IE grammar.
- If you want a grammar of Greek: Schwyzer. For a comparative
grammar, Buck.
- There are more Greek fonts than you can shake a stick at, many
available by BBS. I use ScriptureFonts from Zondervan (Grand Rapids).
- If you don't want to learn any Greek, there are several things
you can do: The Interlinear Literal Translation of The Greek New Testament
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1956), only an example of many, contains a quite
literal interlinear translation, with the KJV in the margin. --- To make
sure you have the grammar correct, you can look at The Analytical Greek
Lexikon (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970), one of many which give you a
grammatical analysis of each form in the Gk. NT. Or perhaps simpler, if a
little more expensive: Analytical Greek New Testament, analysis by Barbara
& Timothy Friberg (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), which has a running analysis + the GNT3 of the
United Bible Societies. For a fuller analysis cum sort of word study:
Frizt Reinecker, A Linguistic Key to the Greek NT, 2 vols, tr. Cleon L.
Rogers, Jr. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976). --- For a more thorough study
of concepts, etc., besides the standard dictionaries (Bauer, available
also in English translation as Arndt-Gingrich-Bauer; for more thorough
work the splendid Theologisches Woerterbuch zum Neuen Testament, available
in English translation from Zondervan, is outstanding), you might like a
concept dictionary: Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on
Semantic Domains, ed. Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, 2 vols. (United
Bible Societies, 1988). For a linguist, the name of Nida is a guarantee of
outstanding work.
- You need to consult Gothic in the edition of Wilhelm Streitberg,
Die Gotische Bibel, 2 vols, 4th ed. (Heidelberg: Winter, 1960). Various
hands have messed with it since Streitberg died, and it was never accepted
by most biblical scholars, but it does have a sort of facing-page Greek.
It is good to look at the apparatus; sometimes Streitberg is more accurate
than the GNT3, though he is based on von Soden and you have to check.
- When you have to look at Greek variants, you need to have at
hand some form of the Greek New Testament, 3d. ed. or of Nestle-Aland,
26th ed., which have rather full apparatus, though not always trustworthy
in Gothic and certainly not very complete for Gothic, which makes one a
little unsure. A nice little volume is available from the United Bible
Societies for a small amount of money, but you can also obtain it in
notebook form for sterner use. I even have an interleaved (thus ready for
notes) version of Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, 26th ed.
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1979; ISBN 3-438-05102-8).
- If you are unfamiliar with the textual criticism of the NT, you
can get a good idea from: The Text of the New Testament. A Short
Introduction, by Vincent Taylor, 2d ed. (London: Macmillan, 1963). For a
stronger introduction, see Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of the NT, 2d ed.
(Oxford: OUP, 1968), or Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, The Text of the NT,
tr. Erroll F. Rhodes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987). On other versions:
Bruce M. Metzger, The Early Versions of the NT (Oxford: Clarendon, 1977).
- If you want to work on a computer, the NIV-PC program from
Zondervan offers you the NIV, the Greek (GNT3; in transliteration,
transcription or original, to toggle; minimal grammatical analysis), + a
notes window in which you can enter the Gothic with textual notes.
- I am tiring and beginning to wander. If you want to, you can
output your work in Greek, using BBS fonts. You can generate your own
Gothic font, making up only thorn (caps and sm.) and hw- (caps and sm.),
on screen, for downloading, etc. You can also scan manuscript photographs
and clip out letters, so that you can type any of the Gothic 20 some odd
hands, or make up a kind of printed Gothic like the Junius font, etc.
etc.
- I failed to mention one of the best tools, unfortunately still
unpublished: Joseph Puryear, "A Greek-Gothic Concordance of the
Gothic Bible," (Diss. Vanderbilt University, 1967). It allows you to
go backwards from the usual Gothic dictionary, i.e. to look up the Greek
word and find the Gothic. Joe would enjoy being no. 13.
Copyright (C) 1996, Jim Marchand. This file may be
copied on
the condition that the entire contents,including the header and this
copyright notice, remain intact.
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