New Testament Books for Pastors and Teachers - II

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by Ralph Martin
published: 2001-04-18
© 2001 Theologybooks.com, Wipf and Stock.
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Greek grammars come in all shapes and sizes. There are the elementary textbooks, of which J. Gresham Machen is perhaps the best known in the United States, and H. P. V. Nunn, as revised by John Wenham, the most popular in Great Britain. The more advanced include the work of A. T. Robertson, reprinted by Broadman Press, and the indispensable Blass-Debrunner-Funk, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. The four volumes of A Grammar of New Testament Greek, by J. H. Moulton, W. F. Howard, and Nigel Turner, are excellent as reference works and will illuminate many a preacher's texts. A grammar to read from cover to cover is Charles F. D. Moule's An Idiom-Book of New Testament Greek in its latest edition. This is not so daunting a task as may at first appear; but if the thought is enough to scare away those whose Greek has grown rusty, why not make a start with Nigel Turner's Grammatical Insights Into the New Testament, or the same author's marvelously suggestive Christian Words? I guarantee your interest will be amply rewarded as sermon suggestions leap from the page. Even simpler is Ronald A. Ward's Hidden Meaning in the New Testament: New Light from the Old Greek, also written with an eye on the preacher's need.
Lexical data are always an essential part of adequate sermon preparation as well as a good control on our exegetical flights of fancy. All we can desire is supplied by Bauer-GingrichDanker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Danker's name is a sign of the second edition (1979), replacing Arndt's in the 1957 edition. The later edition is the one to possess. In default of the large Bauer volume, I have found much profit in G. Abbott-Smith's A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, a book on my shelves with its spine broken from constant use. That usually says something about a book's practical worth! Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed., 1940), is the standard work for classical studies, but pastors will be able to make do with the abbreviated edition, usually obtained secondhand, though it is apparently still in print.
Before we leave the subject of resources to assist our Greek knowledge, let me mention a few other books of great value. First, as an aid to serious Gospel study we all need a synopsis of the Gospels, and the prime choice is Kurt Aland's Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum. (Despite its Latin title, the book is accessible to all who can use New Testament Greek. A Greek-English edition, entitled Synopsis of the Four Gospels, is published by the United Bible Societies.) There are various counterparts to this aid, which print the English text, notably B. H. Throckmorton, Gospel Parallels, and F. L. Cross's translation of the Huck-Lietzmann Synopsis, but these are really second best. An exception is the Huck-Greeven Synopsis, a first-class resource, published in 1981 and now available in the United States. Reuben J. Swanson's The Horizontal Line Synopsis of the Gospels offers a conspectus of the English texts in vertical columns, with agreements underlined. A start has been made toward producing an equivalent in Greek with textual variants, and so far Matthew has appeared.
Concordances in Greek are mainly for the academician, with the standard Moulton and Geden now superseded by H. Bachmann and H. Slaby (eds.), Computer-Konkordanz zum Novum Testamentum Graece and the less complete but very useful Statistik des neutestamentlichen Wortschatzes, by Robert Morgenthaler. More immediately serviceable is Clinton Morrison's An Analytical Concordance to the Revised Standard Version of the New Testament, which provides excellent and comprehensive coverage, enough to satisfy most needs. Of the older works there is the ancient Cruden's Concordance, which has done yeoman service, though it is incomplete in parts and is based on the King James Version. Robert Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible, or James Strong's The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, or both, should therefore be sought out and kept at one's elbow.
(vijon)