Book Review: Interpreting the Pauline Letters

Interpreting the Pauline Letters: An Exegetical Handbook (Handbooks for New Testament Exegesis). By John D. Harvey. Kregel Publications: Grand Rapids, Michigan. pp. 211. 2012. (List Price $22.99 Paperback)

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4 out of 5 stars 

This first volume of the Handbooks for New Testament Exegesis series by series editor John D. Harvey, is a useful introduction to the writings of Paul. This series is intended for seminary students and pastors who are already familiar with New Testament Greek, although most of the book would be useful for people who have yet to take a class on the language.

Harvey is well qualified to write on this subject, and has written much on both New Testament Greek and Paul. As such this resource is a welcome addition to my shelf and a guide for both understanding and working through the Pauline epistles. His introductory chapters on genre and historical background give the reader a basic understanding of how Paul's letters and letters of his day are both similar and different, and Harvey masterfully traces out a timeline of Paul's life, first using only the letters themselves, and then adding in the details found in the book of Acts. This timeline works like a Holmesian deduction and is quite interesting.

His chapter on Paul's theology seems brief compared to the massive volumes available on the subject today. However, this book is intended to aid in interpretation, and a full theology of Paul is beyond its scope. He does point out some of the major themes which will surely aid the reader in developing a basic framework for reading and understanding Paul's writings.

The last few chapters of the book get into the details of interpreting and communicating specific passages in Paul's letters. This section is where a knowledge of Greek is helpful, and in the last chapter, essential. I recognize the Greek can be a put off for some people, but the section on preparing a sermon is very helpful, especially for young seminarians.

In all I would recommend the book mostly for its introductory materials. The last third of the book will not be as useful for those without any Greek training.

I received this book from the publisher for the purposes of review. The opinions expressed are my own.

Book Review: The Handy Guide to New Testament Greek

The Handy Guide to New Testament Greek: Grammar, Syntax, and Diagramming. By Douglas S. Huffman. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications. pp. 112. 2012. ($16.99 Paperback)

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4.5 Stars

I took two back-to-back semesters of New Testament Greek in 2012 and have found that keeping up with it is not as easy as I had hoped. The books are big and thick, and remembering all those tenses, irregular verbs, and grammar is a little daunting at times.

I recently had a chance to read and use The Handy Guide to New Testament Greek by Douglas S. Huffman, which turned out to live up to its name: I found it very handy. It covers pretty much everything that was covered in my two semesters of Greek, from grammar and syntax to diagramming, which turned out to cover more methods than I studied in class.

The book is definitely aimed at people who are into their second semester of Greek and beyond. Personally, I would have liked to have had it with me while I was studying for my tests and preparing for translation. The small size and easy-to-understand notes make refreshing my memory a lot easier than trying to browse through my couple-hundred page grammar textbook.

Although it seems somewhat paradoxical to state it, the little book is very thorough. Huffman outlines many of the uses of the various tenses, which comes in “handy” when trying to determine the way a given word or phrase should be rendered that uses the genitive or dative case.

My lone criticism of the book is its color scheme (see picture to the right). The book uses an orange theme for all of its charts, but the background and font colors do not always contrast well enough for easy viewing. I have nothing against using an orange color theme, but it would have been more beneficial to this reader to have more contrast in the charts. Despite this flaw, I would highly recommend this book for anyone studying New Testament Greek or brushing up on the language.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

How Greek Helps

I've been studying biblical Greek almost nonstop since January. That means I know just enough to be dangerous, and not enough to get me very far without a reliable English or Spanish translation at my side. Since no one becomes an expert on biblical Greek after a few semesters, you might wonder what benefit there is to studying the language if you have no desire to write commentaries or work on translation committees. Here are a few reasons I’ve come up with:

1) It makes you learn English. I never really realized how little I understand how my own language works until I started studying other languages. When we encounter different ways of arranging the elements of a sentence or different uses of words than we are used to, it forces us to learn how meaning is conveyed in the written word. Understanding how the various parts of a sentence come together will help with interpreting our English translations of the Bible even if we aren’t experts on the underlying Greek.

2) You better appreciate the translation process. Although each of us will likely prefer one translation above others for study or reading, it makes it a little harder to criticize some of the translation decisions made by the contributors to the ESV, NIV, HCSB, and other versions. If I want to translate “Tengo hambre” faithfully, should I write, “I have hunger,” “I hunger,” or “I am hungry?” It’s harder to criticize a more literal translation that gives me a glimpse into the underlying Greek, and it’s also harder to criticize a more dynamic equivalency translation for giving me a look at the meaning. (For what it’s worth, I still prefer the ESV).

3) It prepares you for deeper study. Many things we say and do in English are very simple. We use the word “you” to refer to one person or a group of people. Knowledge of Greek can prepare you for deeper study that can assist you in better understanding a given passage. Although personal study without looking at what more accomplished Greek experts have to say can lead to error, an elementary knowledge of the language can shed more light on a given passage.

4) It stretches your mind. Greek is not easy. It forces you to think about something as foundational as language in ways that you’ve never done before. There’s a lot of memorization, and if you don’t keep practicing, you’ll lose a lot of what you’ve gained. But it is some heavy weightlifting for your mind, which will prove beneficial in other areas where you’re required to think, like when reading the Bible, engaging a good book, or in everyday conversation.

Thoughts on Learning Greek

I’m taking my first seminary Greek class this semester. This isn’t my first dabbling in Greek. Some time ago while I was still in high school (or was it middle school?) I studied the language with my pastor and a deacon from church. It went well up until school started up and I dropped it just as we were getting to the Aorist and Future Passive Indicative tenses in Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar (chapter 24).

Now that I am bilingual in English and Spanish, I have a somewhat better understanding of language learning than I did when I first took Greek. Here are my thoughts as I go into this semester:

1.      I will know very little Greek after this semester. After four years of Spanish I aced the A.P. Final and tested out of a Spanish minor in college. I had an awesome teacher, had spent over three months overseas, and lived with a Spaniard for a year. That kind of helped. Many of the people I met in college who’d taken four years of Spanish could barely order food at the local Mexican restaurant. I shouldn’t pretend to know much Greek after this semester.

2.      One semester is too short to learn Greek. Not only will I not know much, I will be expected to learn about as much Greek after one semester as I knew Spanish after two years. This won’t stop me from trying, but it will stop me from doing many of my favorite activities including blogging, reading books, watching M*A*S*H, and doing a host of other things that I enjoy. Hopefully it will also prevent me from doing things I don’t enjoy, like cleaning the bathroom.

3.      I’m not a linguist. This is related to the first point. A lot of students think that taking a semester or two of systematic theology makes them experts on good doctrine. Likewise, a lot of Greek students think that they are experts on translation. It’s easy to criticize the ESV for being too wooden or the NIV for compromising the integrity of Paul’s argument. After one semester of Greek, the only thing I should really know about translating the ESV and the NIV is that the scholars who worked on those translations had a little bit more Greek instruction than myself.

Pray for me this semester. I’m not sure how often I’ll be posting.