Advances in the Study of Greek: New Insights for Reading the Greek New Testament, by Constantine R. Campbell. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015. 253 pp. $34.99.
For a “dead language,” Koine Greek is getting a lot of attention. Current research and discussion is occupied mainly with linguistic issues, many of which hold promise of informing exegesis and interpretation of the New Testament. Yet, many students, pastors, and even some teachers and scholars do not appear to have fully benefited from the recent advances in the conversation. The world of linguistic studies is notoriously difficult to break into. Not every serious student, and certainly not every pastor, can simply pull up stakes and relocate to study under one of the shining lights of NT Greek linguistics. Yet anyone peering into this world of potential insights realizes he needs a guide, at least at the beginning of the journey. Enter Con Campbell’s latest book, Advances in the Study of Greek: New Insights for Reading the Greek New Testament.
Campbell is no outsider when it comes to advances in NT Greek studies. Those who have been following the developing conversation about verbal aspect, in particular, recognize him as a key player and major contributor. Campbell’s book provides an accessible way for serious students of NT Greek to become better acquainted with cutting-edge research in Greek language and linguistics. And as Campbell points out, becoming acquainting with these discussions is important for two reasons. First, “genuine advances in Greek linguistics can lead to new insights into text” (23). Second, “advances in Greek linguistics can correct long-held errors” (23).
Campbell opens with a selective historical survey of advances in the study of Greek, followed by a chapter providing a concise treatment of linguistic theory and its connection to the study of the NT. Readers who desire another perspective or who want to come to a more comprehensive grasp of the linguistic field and its development may have to dig deeper, but Campbell’s book provides a point of entry and a sufficient introduction for understanding linguistic concepts that he references throughout the book.
In chapter 3, Campbell discusses lexical semantics and lexicography. This chapter, heavily dependent on Moisés Silva’s landmark publication, Biblical Words & Their Meaning, provides a concise overview of lexical semantics, covering symbol-sense-referent, synonymy, context, lexical choice, lexical fields, ambiguity, and implications of lexical semantics. Campbell then moves to a discussion of NT lexicography (heavily dependent on John Lee’s 2003 monograph A History of New Testament Lexicography). Campbell highlights the difficulties facing those who attempt accurate NT lexicography. Then, drawing heavily on Lee, he discusses the methodological problems afflicting NT lexicography and offers a way forward for those studying NT words: use the best available resources, but do not rely on them as infallible guides.
Chapter 4 introduces the reader to key voices in NT Greek studies who reject “deponency” as a valid category for Greek verbs. Every first-year student of Greek has to deal with this category of verbs he or she is told is middle/passive in form but active in meaning. But the most recent research suggests that this categorization is faulty. A robust understanding of the Greek middle voice (a feature of the Greek verb system that has no English parallel) eliminates the need for the category of deponency. Although Campbell points out there are difficulties yet to be resolved, he provides a helpful introduction to the conversation and makes a convincing case that the developing consensus is a move in the right direction. Campbell lays out three steps to move forward: (1) understand the middle voice; (2) develop voice-lexeme sophistication; and (3) develop ways to teach Greek without the category of deponency (102–3).
Chapter 5 offers a helpful, brief introduction to verbal aspect theory. Campbell defines verbal aspect, sketches the history of Greek verbal aspect studies, addresses the controversy about whether Greek-tense forms grammaticalize temporal reference, and introduces the ongoing controversy over the aspectual value of the perfect tense-form. He considers exegetical applications of verbal aspect theory (discussing, for instance, how aspect interacts with Aktionsart and how aspect reveals narrative structure). He also addresses unresolved issues (such as the aspectual value of the perfect and the aspectual nature of the future) and highlights areas that require further attention (for instance, the number of aspects, whether the tense forms grammaticalize temporal reference, and whether the future tense form communicates any aspect). Campbell’s perspective (which does not allow for the existence of the stative aspect) no doubt colors his approach to this chapter, but he attempts to be fair with other viewpoints as well. His perspective as a key contributor to the ongoing development of NT Greek aspect studies increases the value of this chapter.
Chapter 6 “explore[s] the exegetical implications of individual authors’ Greek style (idiolect) and the type of literature contained in the New Testament (register)” (134). Campbell lays out the distinction between “writing style” and idiolect, noting that an individual author may adopt a different writing style depending on the situation, but that idiolect “is more of a permanent pattern of language use, regardless of occasion or, indeed, regardless of style” (135). The chapter includes a brief treatment of genre and a discussion of register, which Campbell defines as “a configuration of meanings that is associating with a particular [social] situation” (142). Campbell leans on his strengths by discussing aspectual patterns across the Synoptics in relation to idiolect and register. However, he closes the chapter by pointing out that “verbal aspect is but one area of investigation when it comes to idiolect, genre, and register” and calls for further research involving other parts of speech besides verbs (146).
Chapters 7 and 8 focus on discourse analysis, a rapidly developing field with promise to yield significant exegetical results. Campbell explains: “Discourse analysis is an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how units of text relate to one another in order to create the theme, message, and structure” (148–49). According to Campbell, “the simplest way to think of discourse analysis is that it deals with text beyond the level of the sentence” (149). Chapter 7 overviews the four major schools of discourse analysis (drawing on a 1995 essay by Stanley Porter) and explains M. A. K. Halliday’s approach, focusing, as Halliday does, on cohesion. While commending the strengths of the approach, Campbell also notes some criticisms and the fact that no one to date has “mapped” Halliday’s theory to NT Greek specifically. Chapter 8 explains and evaluates Stephen Levinsohn’s and Steven Runge’s approaches to discourse analysis. While Campbell offers a few concerns and criticisms, he finds Levinsohn’s Discourse Features of New Testament Greek to be a valuable and significant contribution. Similarly, Campbell finds much value in Runge’s Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament but finds some shortcomings as well. Campbell believes that Halliday has a robust theory without application to Greek, while Levinsohn and Runge, although eclectic in their approach and “more focused on the level of the clause and sentence,” provide excellent help identifying and discussing discourse features in Greek (190). Overall, Campbell argues, the insights of all three scholars may be brought to bear “in a complementary manner” (191). These two chapters demonstrate Campbell’s impressive ability to summarize and evaluate a large body of complicated material for his readers. The chapters by no means exhaust the topic of discourse analysis in NT Greek, but do provide much that is helpful to readers seeking better acquaintance with this rapidly developing area of study.
In chapter 9, Campbell demonstrates that the traditional Erasmian pronunciation is incorrect for Koine Greek and discusses paprylogical evidence for how first-century Greek may have been pronounced, arguing that “the evidence strongly suggests that a pronunciation that is essentially the same as that of modern Greek today was in place by the time the New Testament was written” (200). Although some have argued for Erasmian pronunciation on purely pedagogical grounds, Campbell recommends using a more accurate pronunciation (Modern, or Buth’s similar Reconstructed Koine scheme), or, if need be, adopting a compromise by teaching students both Erasmian pronunciation and one of the more modern pronunciations.
Campbell rounds out his book with a highly practical chapter focused on teaching and learning Greek. Providing fresh ideas for traditional Greek pedagogy, discussing the value and potential of immersion methods, and suggesting strategies for retention, Campbell offers counsel that teachers and students of Greek would do well to consider.
Campbell does not set out to provide maximum-depth treatment on every topic. Nor should this book be viewed as itself a major scholarly advance in the study of Greek. Readers expecting this text to read like a technical journal article are going to be disappointed. Such an approach would work against the author’s goals in writing, and much of this book’s value lies precisely in its (relative) accessibility. Campbell demonstrates a remarkable ability to take a large body of material, introduce some of the critical questions at stake, narrow his focus to a few key voices in the conversation, and provide clear and concise summaries of key works coming from those voices. Recommended readings at the end of each chapter provide a way for the reader to keep going. Readers who are inspired to move beyond Campbell’s book to engage with more detailed treatments of the topics may someday come to disagree with his particular treatment of one or more issue, but even if they do, they will appreciate this resource for giving them a solid start on their journey.