Learn to Read New Testament Greek, by David Alan Black

David Alan Black. Learn to Read New Testament Greek, Third edition. Nashville, TN. B & H Publishing, 2009

Many thanks to Jim Baird at Broadman & Holman (B & H) for the review copy.

(Dr. Black is currently professor of New Testament & Greek at Southeastern Baptist Seminary. You can check out his blog here.)

I’ll start this review by confessing that I find learning new languages to be tedious and boring. I have to really force myself to keep coming back and stick with it. I am not in seminary, but I would imagine that the only thing that would make a semester of introductory Greek bearable for me would be a good teacher, who cared deeply for and loved the subject so much that their enthusiasm would rub off on me. Well, as for classes, so for books, and David Alan Black is just the teacher for someone like me. His book, Learn to Read New Testament Greek, is about as engaging (and sometimes even fun) as I could ever have hoped for a Greek textbook to be. It’s also very effective. I’m still learning the language, so I don’t have many points of comparison, but I can attest that if you stick with it, you’ll definitely find yourself learning and enjoying New Testament Greek for yourself. The book itself is divided into 26 lessons and 9 appendices, and Black says in the introduction that one way to use the book is to focus on one lesson per week (which makes 26 weeks). Following that sort of timescale, the reader is translating simple Greek sentences by the end of week 3. The next two weeks or so will find the reader able to write simple Greek sentences (with some help on the vocabulary). From that foundation, the lessons build until, in the final lesson, Black gives a 14-page overview of reading the Greek New Testament so that you are actually using your newfound skills so to get the most out of them. This last lesson and the concluding epilogue give the reader a path to further study (and enjoyment!), complete with Black’s suggestions for good reference works to have available, and a further reading guide covering everything New Testament Greek. One other thing that I liked about the book: It’s size. At roughly 9 x 5” and hardcover, it’s perfect for taking along with you to study when you’re stuck somewhere waiting with nothing to do. I even took mine deer-hunting a couple of times (yes, we do that here in Georgia).

Bottom line: David Alan Black has managed to write a Greek textbook that even a novice with absolutely no skills in this area (like myself) can enjoy and profit greatly from. It’s hard to imagine a better book for the beginning student of the language of the New Testament. I’ve already suggested the book to family members who have even a passing interest in learning to read the New Testament in its original language.

John Goldingay on Metaphor & Sacrifice

…It’s only a metaphor, but you should never put the word “only” before the word “metaphor.“

John Goldingay, in response to a student’s discomfort with Paul’s use of “sacrifice” as referring to the Gentiles (in Romans 15) and our bodies (“living sacrifices” in Romans 12).  The problem being, of course, that a sacrifice is something that you offer up to be killed.

No prosperity gospel here.

The audio of the lectures are available on Itunes (search for Fuller Seminary)

Audio Lectures: Craig Keener on Missiology in the Gospels & The Book of Acts

I can’t get enough of this guy. Dr. Keener is currently professor of New Testament at Palmer Theological Seminary, & the author of numerous books at all levels. You can check out his homepage here. If you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing him lecture or teach, please check out the following talks from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. Good stuff!

Missiology in Matthew’s Gospel

Missiology in John’s Gospel

Missiology in The Book of Acts

The 5 Books That I am Most Excited to Read This Year

While I’m doing the top 5 thing, I thought I would look ahead. These are the top 5 books (or sets) that I am most excited about reading this year (so far). Again, none of these are actually new books. I’m still playing catch up.

1. John Goldingay – Old Testament Theology (3 volumes)

Yes, its true. I haven’t read any of them yet. I messed around and found his Pentateuch lectures on ITunes, and now I’m fairly sure that volume 1 is going to be the next book that I buy.

2. Craig Keener – Commentary on the Gospel of John

Keener is the man. At 1500 pages or so, this should keep me busy for awhile. Check out the table of contents here, and tell me that doesn’t get you excited?

3. Something by Eugene Peterson

I’m open to suggestion on this one. I’ve heard a few of his lectures, and I’ve really liked what he had to say. Sometimes its good to step away from the academic stuff, and just listen to an elder in the faith.

4. GK Beale – The Revelation (NIGTC)

I take it this is pretty much the standard commentary on the book from a Reformed amillennial perspective. Actually, I’ve heard many say its the best commentary on the book from any perspective. As amillennial myself, I’m already inclined to agree with Beale, but that doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy the read. My experience with books from a decidedly Reformed perspective has been a little frustrating lately, so I’m counting on this one to break the streak.

5.  Gordon Fee – Pauline Christology

Enough said.

My Top 5 Favorite Books of 2009

Well, it’s time for the obligatory top 5 list. These are the top 5 books that I read in 2009. Only one was actually released this year, and it was a new edition reprint. These are in no particular order.

1. Bruce Waltke – An Old Testament Theology

A pleasure to read. Waltke’s love for the Old Testament comes through on every page. I would have liked a little more on the prophets, but who am I to complain? Maybe we’ll get something fresh on the prophetic literature from Waltke’s pen at some point in the future.

2. David Alan Black – Learn to Read New Testament Greek

Probably as fun as a beginning Greek textbook could possibly be, and it’s definitely worth the time spent studying & working through it. I’ve already got a list of people who I plan on loaning it to once I finish.

3. Gordon Fee – God’s Empowering Presence

Enough said.

4. V. Phillips Long, Iaian Provan, & Tremper Longman III – A Biblical History of Israel

I wasn’t what I expected, but it certainly was worth reading and will definitely be one that I will return to. The bibliography gave me loads of new books to go on the “wanted” list. This one has also wins the “most annoying endnotes ever” award for the year. Flipping to the back is always a pain, but in a book like this, it’s almost unforgivable.  Almost.

5. Bishop NT Wright – The Resurrection of the Son of God (again) (sort of)

Right, so I read this one straight through back when it came out, and loved it. Well, I happened to pick it up this year to see what he had to say about a certain passage in Paul, and ended up basically reading the last 2/3 or so straight through again. If on the off chance you haven’t read this one, you really should do yourself a favor and pick it up. I simply can’t say enough about the thing.

The Nativity in Luke’s Gospel

Ben Witherington III gives us some thoughts on what Luke’s Gospel says (and doesn’t say) about the birth of Jesus over at Biblical Archeology Review. It’s worth a look, despite Dr. Witherington committing the apparently cardinal sin of voicing an opinion on a certain Biblical Studies program (to which I respectfully have to say, ‘who cares?’). Go on over and give it a read.

Audio Lecture: Gordon Fee, GK Beale, etc. on Apocalyptic Texts (and how to preach on them)

Ok, so wrong Apocalypse

I wish there was an audio file for the closing roundtable discussion, but I imagine that the rest is definitely worth listening to. It requires Realaudio. If anyone has these on .mp3, please let me know.

Preaching Apocalyptic Texts
Third Bible and Ministry Conference
Calvin Theological Seminary
June 9-11, 2005

Douglas Stuart on Theology in the Book of Exodus

‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.’ (Exodus 6:6)

…the book is not about liberation in general or about political or religious freedom in particular, but about deliverance from bad servitude to good servitude. The Israelites served (‘abad) Pharaoh but were called by God to serve (again, ‘abad) him instead. It was not a question of needing freedom from being under the control of a national leader; it was a question of a good, divine, national (and universal) leader rescuing his chosen people from a bad, human, national leader.

…In the New Covenant, bondage to the greatest power, sin, and its consequence, death, constitutes the last enemy. But this is not merely a New Covenant concept. Sin is whatever offends God, and sin is an enslaver. But this slavery can be escaped – not by skill or cunning but by changing masters from sin to God”

- Exodus (NAC), pp. 34

Crucifixion in the Ancient World & the Folly of the Message of the Cross

Martin Hengel. Crucifixion in the Ancient World & the Folly of the Message of the Cross. Philadelphia, PA. Fortress Press, 1977

Thanks to Fortress Press for the review copy.

Martin Hengel’s Crucifixion is considered a classic, and for good reason. The book is only 99 pages long, but there is hardly a wasted word in the entire work. Hengel has a straightforward and to-the point style of writing (at least in this work) that is actually very refreshing. It was originally written in German, so there are a few clumsy phrases where apparently the translation did not come over perfectly, but overall it’s pretty easy reading as far as the actual language and writing is concerned.

The content is another matter entirely. Hengel manages to compress a massive amount of information into the short little book. At times it feels like being on the receiving end of a machine gun of information, drawn from the mind of someone who has obviously spent decades in the classics of the Roman and Greek world. Many readers, if they are anything like me, will find themselves reading and then re-reading many passages multiple times to allow them to sink in. It’s great stuff, but I wouldn’t call it easy reading.

The basic thesis of the book, if I can be so bold to try and distill it down, is twofold:

1. In the ancient world, crucifixion was not only a gruesome and painful death, but was a shameful death, and was the “death of a slave”, in ways that we often do not understand today.
2. As such, the claim that a victim of crucifixion was the Son of God would have been seen as utterly foolish, in ways that may be impossible for a modern person to understand.

Since the second point naturally follows from the first, probably 95% of the book is devoted to the historical background of crucifixion. The first three chapters focus on the general “folly” of the claim that a crucified figure could be ‘divine’ in any sense of the word by going deep into the mythology of the ancient world to compare other gods and their claims with the Christian claim. It takes a while to get your bearings when reading these sections, as quotes are often rendered in Latin, and Hengel is basically just smarter and well-read than any of the rest of us, and it shows. The remaining eight chapters are all concerned with the historical information, and it is here where the real meat of the book lies.

Hengel makes his point extremely well, and it is  hard to try and give the force of his argument in just a few sentences. It is one thing to say that Jesus died a gruesome and shameful death. Not many are surprised or ignorant of this. It is something totally different entirely to be led by a scholar like Hengel through the ancient world, and actually be shown just how shameful that death would have been. By the time I finished the book, I truly had a completely new understanding of just how shameful death by crucifixion would have been seen at the time of Jesus, and how scandalous the message of the cross that we proclaim as Christians truly is. When it comes to the contemporary significance of the shame of the crucifixion, Hengel pulls no punches with the modern church and the tendency among some to ‘domesticate’ the message of a crucified Messiah.

As he says himself in the conclusion, Hengel is “breaking off where theological work proper ought to begin”. As such, this short little book works best as a work of history, with a little theology thrown in for good measure. It’s hard to imagine a better historical survey of that way in which crucifixion was viewed in antiquity, and, even though the book was originally published in 1976, I am not aware of any book that has filled its spot to date.

Bottom Line:

Crucifixion is an extremely useful survey of ancient attitudes toward crucifixion. Reading it will cast new light on your reading of the New Testament (not just the Gospels). Recommended.

In the Mail

Thanks to P & R Publishing, 3 books were in the mail today:

Richard C. Gamble – The Whole Counsel of God, vol. 1

John Frame – Apologetics to the Glory of God

Tremper Longman III – Immanuel in Our Place (Seeing Christ in Israel’s Worship)

I thumbed through each of them, and they all look great. The Tremper Longman III volume looks particularly good. I have to admit that I was most excited about The Whole Counsel of God, but after reading a few snippets that happened to be about Genesis 1, I think I’m going to have plenty to disagree with here. It should definitely be an interesting read, and will probably need multiple posts to review in detail (which I plan on).

In any case, these should definitely scratch my “Reformed” itch for awhile. I’m looking forward to getting into them.