Jun 292008
Continuing with the theme of my previous post–that the best way to learn Greek is to read Greek–let me recommend UBS’s Greek New Testament: Reader’s Edition.
The most difficult aspect of keeping up with Greek is limited time, especially if you are a busy pastor or student juggling multiple projects. A Reader’s Greek NT helps tremendously in this regard, as it will define words that occur infrequently in footnotes, keeping you in the text and not out and about searching through other books. Zondervan published one of these years back, but their version utilizes an awkward font, has hard to read footnotes, and most importantly does not make use of the of the “standard” UBS text (it uses a modified version, the basis of their NIV translation). The UBS edition makes up for all these deficiencies and additionally includes more words (occurrences up to 22 times or less, if I remember correctly), provides a comprehensive dictionary in the back (which you should never admit to using, since I’m sure you already know all the words that occur 22 times or more), and even parses out words that misbehave (a prize to the first person that provides the parsing and lexical form of ἐνέγκας).
All in all, I have found it incredibly helpful. They are available at the Westminster Bookstore, which offers great deals on shipping.
Next up in the summer Greek series: how to write ἐνέγκας in such a way that it does not look like evne,gkaj to half of your audience.
Jun 272008
One question I get a lot is “how do I keep up with my Greek?” At the risk of over-simplification, my answer is… wait for it… read Greek!
Lee Irons has a variety of resources on his site to make such reading less intimidating for the beginner to intermediate Greekling. To get started, check out his introduction to his reading program. You will also want to download his more detailed Greek Reading Calendar. Most importantly, pick up a copy of his Greek Syntax Notes, which he promises to distribute in installments throughout the year.
Also, I highly recommend Young’s Intermediate NT Greek, which is concise. comprehensive, linguistically-aware, and easy to use. All together, it is an excellent reference that should be on everyone’s bookshelf, and will be enormously helpful in those tough-to-read sections.
Finally, I am making some of my beginner Form and Function guides available here. They are still a work in progress, and only cover the basics of Greek syntax, but they can serve as a good resource for reminding you of what you already know. These are highly indebted to Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek, Machen/McCartney’s NT Greek for Beginners and Young’s aforementioned Greek grammar (many of the terms of several of the guides have been directly lifted from the last two of these, since they are both used in my Greek class).
- Rules for Verb Forms
- Form and Function Guide
- Moods Function Guide
- Adjective Function Cheat Sheet
- Use of Autos Cheat Sheet
Stay tuned! I plan on posting a variety of Greek resources in the near future, including a guide to typing in Greek and an introduction to diagramming with Bibleworks. So if you haven’t subscribed to the site, do so!
Jun 172008
The much anticipated release of the excellent web browser Firefox 3.0 is available for download. Curious what all the fuss is about? Wondering if you should switch from Internet Explorer (you should, by the way)? Check out the discussion here and here for the best Firefox analysis. Wondering what’s new? Check out this list or a more in depth visual tour.
Convinced? Help Mozilla (the organization behind Firefox) set a record for most downloads in a day by downloading now! Once you have your very own copy, you can start adding extensions and customizing to your heart’s content.
In honor of this milestone in Web development, I thought I would provide some of my favorite extensions. Check them out!
Zotero of course. I have already posted a brief introduction. If you do any amount of research, Zotero is a must for organizing bibliographical material. It also generates citations in a variety of formats, including Chicago and SBL. If you are having trouble getting start, make sure you check out their online screencast, and I plan on developing my own tutorial for SBL/OpenOffice support in the near future.
Ever wish you could access your most-used internet bookmarks anywhere? Or maybe you want to share them with friends and family? Or post automatically generated links to your favorite posts on a blog (as I have in the sidebar to the right)? Well then del.icio.us is for you. The interface takes a little getting used to, and the website has the kind of interface only a techie could love, but its worth the effort. More to the point, it has a brilliant Firefox Extension.
If you’re a longtime use of Firefox, you probably already have a collection of favorite extensions. Some of them might not yet be updated for Firefox 3. Don’t worry, you can still use them: just download Nightly Tester Tools to override Firefox’s default functionality.
Gmail is wonderful, but it is even more wonderful when you install Better Gmail 2, which adds some customizable functionality to gmail’s site.
If you’re a blogger, you definitely want to check out Scribefire. Like Zotero, it runs inside Firefox, allowing you to browse and blog at the same time; no more switching tabs and juggling windows!
Well that’s enough to get you started. I would love to hear what everyone else finds helpful. Post your ideas in the comments!
Jun 162008
Despite more recent developments to the contrary, drinking and enjoying wine is still regarded as somewhat taboo in evangelical circles. In the course of preparing an article for the upcoming Baker Bible Dictionary I have found this attitude to be increasingly suprising, given the biblical evidence to the contrary. Even if we exclude all the technical details, such as the impossibility of maintaining large amounts of grape juice without refrigerators, it is interesting that the abundance of wine is a pretty prominent symbol of God’s blessing upon his covenant people.
Here is a small sample of verses to that effect:
Genesis 27:28 May God give you of heaven’s dew and of earth’s richness– an abundance of grain and new wine.
Isaiah 25:6 On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine– the best of meats and the finest of wines.
Isaiah 55:1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Amos 9:13 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills.
1 Corinthians 11:25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Correspondingly, when God wants someone to know that they are under his curse, he denies them wine (Hos 2:8, 21-22; 9:2; Joel 1:10).
Of course there are two sides to this coin; the abuse of wine is a persistent symbol of God’s curse. This is also an interesting pattern in Scripture: when someone falls into persistent sin, God’s response of judgment is somewhat paradoxical. Rather than deny them their heart’s desire, he gives it to them in great abundance.
Isaiah 63:6 I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground.”
Jeremiah 25:15 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.
Jeremiah 51:7 Babylon was a gold cup in the LORD’s hand; she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they have now gone mad.
So was it blessing or curse that Jesus received when he drank wine on the cross (Matt 27:34ff)? The ambiguity is informative, for Jesus on the one hand foresees in Gethsemane that he will have to drink a cup of judgment (Luke 22:42)–and perhaps this drink symbolizes that cup (and, of course, Elijah does not come to Jesus’ rescue). On the other hand, it is by receiving this cup that Jesus receives the great Joy of covenant blessing (Heb 12:2), and it is in that rich inheritance that we receive the blessings of the covenant.
All this to say, wine should be enjoyed with thanksgiving! Why? Not just because it “delights the hearts” of men and women (Ps 104:15), but more importantly because it is one of many symbols that God uses to remind us of the abundance of blessing he has provided in Jesus Christ. 
To put it another way: Christians actually have more reason to enjoy wine than non-Christians!
On a lighter note: readers interested in a more practical exploration of theology might (somewhat ironically) find Seven Deadly Zins to be an affordable start.
