Open Access Journal: Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics (BAGL)

 [First posted in AWOL 25 July 2016, updated 22 March 2024]

Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics (BAGL)

Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics (BAGL), in conjunction with the Centre for Biblical Linguistics, Translation, and Exegesis at McMaster Divinity College and the OpenText.org project (www.opentext.org) is a fully refereed on-line and print journal specializing in widely disseminating the latest advances in linguistic study of ancient and biblical Greek. Under the senior editorship of Professor Dr. Stanley E. Porter and Dr. Matthew Brook O'Donnell, along with its assistant editors and editorial board, BAGL looks to publish significant work that advances knowledge of ancient Greek through the utilization of modern linguistic methods. Accepted pieces are in the first instance posted on-line in page-consistent pdf format, and then (except for reviews) are published in print form each volume year. This format ensures timely posting of the most recent work in Greek linguistics with consistently referencable articles then available in permanent print form.

vol. 1 (2012)|vol. 2 (2013)|vol. 3 (2014)|vol. 4 (2015)|vol. 5 (2016)|vol. 6 (2017)|vol. 7 (2018)|vol. 8 (2019)|vol. 9 (2020)|vol. 10 (2021)|vol. 11 (2022-23)

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11.1	A Methodological Proposal for New Testament Discourse Analysis: Rhetorical Structure Theory and its Application to John 8:31–59 Yan Ma Canadian Chinese School of Theology, Toronto, Canada Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST), which was originally developed by William C. Mann and Sandra A. Thompson as a functional theory to describe the text structure of written discourse, has been further advanced and incorporated into Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) by Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen. This study aims to introduce this new method to New Testament discourse analysis by integrating the features of New Testament Greek. This study also demonstrates the application of RST by conducting a rhetoricalrelational analysis on John 8:31–59 to verify that RST can serve as an effective tool for New Testament interpretation and will offer new insights relevant to New Testament studies. Keywords: Systemic Functional Linguistics, Rhetorical Structure Theory, discourse analysis, New Testament interpretation, Gospel of John
11.2	A Textual-Critical Study of Luke and Verbal Aspect Hojoon J. Ahn Sungkyul University, Anyang-si, South Korea Among 421 variants in the Gospel of Luke revealed from a comparative analysis between TD8 and NA28, this study attempts a textual-critical analysis of five tense-form variants (Luke 7:20, 24, 25, 26; 22:52) in terms of verbal aspect theory. First, concerning their age, geographical features, and genealogical features, the aorist readings (ἀπέστειλεν, ἐξήλθατε) can probably be regarded as superior to the perfect readings (ἀπέσταλκεν, ἐξεληλύθατε). Second, considering the internal evidence revealed via verbal aspect theory, the aorist readings have more weight than the perfect readings. Regarding the reason why Tischendorf chose the perfect tense-form reading even though important MSS (e.g., P75 א B) support the aorist reading, this study suggests that, via Georg B. Winer who was his teacher, Tischendorf had a tense-centered Greek understanding. In addition, concentrating on the perfect tense-form reading of the 4–5c MSS such as A (02) and W (032), this study suggests that the variations involved here may have helped to initiate the change from the reading based on the verbal aspect to a tense-centered reading in the 4c. This study reveals the need for, and significance of, verbal aspect theory for NT textual criticism. Keywords: Textual criticism, verbal aspect, Gospel of Luke, Constantine Tischendorf
11.3	A Natural Language Approach to Koine Greek Exegesis Stanley E. Porter McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, Canada This paper argues that a natural language approach to the Greek of the New Testament is needed in order to perform the kind of exegesis that recognizes crucial characteristics of Greek as a language and that takes into account important developments in linguistic thought about language. The paper questions many of the ways that exegesis is done in contemporary New Testament studies by failure to use a natural language approach. Two major examples of exegetical approaches are used to exemplify some of the problems that arise when the Greek language of the New Testament is not seen to be a variety of Koine Greek of the Hellenistic or Greco-Roman period. Keywords: Natural language, Greek, exegesis, Koine, linguistics

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