Alena Lamirato
Book Review
Advanced Greek
Dr. M. Vitalis-Hoffman
March 12, 2006
Linguistics for Students of the New Testament:
A Survey of Basic Concepts and Applications
Second Edition
David Alan Black
Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995
ISBN: 978-0-8010-2016-2
Initially, I was very intrigued by David Alan Black’s book. I thought perhaps this
would be the break open my brain so that I could finally understand Greek. Yes, I was
looking for the great Greek panacea. Unfortunately, it was not found here. But, let’s face
it, there is no such thing – short of Bible Works I suppose.
Black’s book is interesting; however, I’m not sure that it shares any new
information for those who have been through Greek education at LTSG. Granted, it has
been three and a half years since I have had a Greek class… Therefore, I will tell you
about the book and you can make your own determination if it is worth adding to your
library. It can be yours for a mere $15.95 plus tax from Sherry in the book store (which
is cheaper than Amazon by $5).
Basically, linguistics is the “scientific study of the language systems of the world”
(p5). The goals of the linguist is to figure out how language works, why languages
change, what languages have in common, and how people learn to use language (p4).
Black starts his book with the basics of how humans produce sounds and ends
with an analysis of Philippians based on the text as a whole. It is a lot to cover in 201
pages, but Black emphasizes that this is only an introduction –the tip of the iceberg,
really. With that, he provides a number of sources for further research.
He begins the book with explaining what “linguistics” means and the importance
of it. The spoken language is very important to the linguist and as the New Testament
was meant to be shared orally, linguistics is vital to the understanding of Koine Greek as
we are reading it today. Black also emphasizes that language is alive and the Greek New
Testament is a freeze frame of an evolving language, which can be better understood by
looking at it in the context of its past and future.
Black begins with the smallest unit studied by New Testament linguists and ends
with the largest. The most basic unit the linguist studies is the phoneme, the sounds that
make up a word. Linguists are interested in how sounds are produced by the vocal
system and the relationship of those sounds to meaning.
From there, we go to the Morphology of Greek words. Words can be broken up
into smaller parts, from their roots to affixes. Each part of the word adds meaning to the
whole word. Black shows how the root dik forms at least fifteen words. When affixes
are added, the list grows significantly. He goes on to describe common prefixes and
suffixes and lists fifteen of the most common roots.
The next step is to syntax. Syntax goes beyond the word into the structure of the
sentence. The sentence is made up of structure words and content words. Structure
words are articles, prepositions and conjunctions that change rarely as a languages
evolve. Content words are the most likely to evolve, and relatively quickly. They
include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs and are made up of the root words with
affixes. He goes on to discuss how Greek is different from English in that word order is
not as essential for clear communication. He continues by diagramming Greek sentences
and showing how very complicated sentences can be made from very simple ones by
adding various phrases and clauses.
From Syntax we go into Semantics, emphasizing the importance of context.
Black stresses that meaning is continuously subject to change. The important thing for
students of the New Testaments to know is if the original meaning of the word is still
valid in its later context. He goes on to lift up the Louw-Nida Lexicon, which at the time
this book was written was still in production. Black goes on to say that ambiguity is,
“usually results from our ignorance of the original context rather than from the deliberate
intention of the author” (p129) and then goes on to discuss idioms and rhetoric. Black
also discusses semantic changes where words gather new meanings when they cease to
be used in their former context.
The sixth chapter I found to be the most interesting – historical and comparative
linguistics. Black discusses the Indo-European family of languages to which Greek and
English both belong, although English is slightly more removed. We can thank
Alexander the Great for our need to learn Koine. Black gives a history of the evolution
of the Greek language from early to modern. As languages evolve, they move from
being more complex to simple, clarity of expression increases, and there are changes in
semantics. It is important to realize that modern English is at a different stage of
development than Koine Greek was.
Also found in chapter six is Grimm’s Law. Yes, one of the Brother’s Grimm. He
noted consonant shifts as Germanic languages evolved from the Indo-European parent
language. With that, similarities can be found between Greek and English words if we
realize that p, t, k have evolved into f, th, and h. pater being a classic example. He goes
on to give many other examples.
The last chapter is also the newest chapter. The original edition was 1988. This
chapter was added to the second edition in 1995. Apparently none of the other chapters
were changed.
The seventh chapter discuses discourse analysis. This is the largest unit a linguist
would study – the book as a whole. Although I would imagine a linguist would also
study a collection of books, such as the Bible, as well. So maybe this is the second
largest…
In the final chapter, Black takes an in-depth look at the structure of Philippians to
emphasize the importance of looking at the text as a whole and not just its constituent
parts. The cohesion and the coherence of the text are important, as are the situation in
which the text was written. Black breaks down Philippians to show its cohesion and how
apparent ambiguities are not ambiguous when the text is looked at as a whole knowing
the context and the type of letter it is.
Black’s goal, as stated in his postscript, is to shown that language can be, “studied
objectively like other types of human behavior” (p199). He says often in his book that
linguists are not looking to judge, just observe and gather understanding; to be objective,
not subjective.
Overall, I thought the book was quite good. It was very organized with many
clear examples. It is a good introduction to linguistics, explaining all of the basic
concepts, and then provides a number of resources for further research should you be so
inclined.
My only concern is that the book may be dated. It seems to me that we may have
already picked up a lot of what he has to say from different resources. It seemed to me
that there was nothing really new in the book, although emphasize more than grammar.
Perhaps I have had too many classes with Pr. Kathy, but the book seemed to be
excessively modern in a post modern world. Maybe it was just too many rules for my
brain to appreciate (senioritis!). One thing that never bothered me before seminary is
non-inclusive language. This book runs rampant with it and I would have given money
for one “her” in the book.
I would encourage everyone to take a look at the book and see if it is a worthy
library addition. I cannot enthusiastically endorse it, but I can see where it might be
helpful. The price is not exorbitant, but how many times do you want to move it?
Everyone is welcome to take a look at my book any time for as long as you like – up until
May 11 anyway.