New Testament Greek Exegesis

SPRING QUARTER 2022

INSTRUCTOR: Justin Barber ( justin.barber@iliff.edu )

PROSPECTUS

This course builds upon the knowledge of Greek gained in Greek I and Greek II in order to give the student the ability and confidence necessary to study, teach, and preach from the Greek New Testament (and other related literature). This course surveys several methods used to interpret the Greek New Testament and focuses on the practical skills necessary for using Greek in teaching, writing, study, and preaching. This course aims to give the student a reading knowledge of Greek by providing the student with the opportunity to read through large chunks of the New Testament (and other related literature) and to learn all of the vocabulary that occurs 20 times or more in the Greek New Testament.

COURSE GOALS

With this prospectus in mind, our goals are to do the following:

1. To acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to read and interpret the Greek

2. To recognize our own exegetical questions and predispositions;

3. To understand how our understanding of Greek informs the methods we use to

4. To become more competent in reading and understanding the Greek language.

COURSE OUTCOMES

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to do the following:

1. To read and interpret the Greek text with the help of a lexicon and grammar;

2. To select appropriate methods for interpreting passages of the Greek New

3. To use our knowledge of Greek to inform any (and all) of the exegetical methods New Testament in a responsible fashion; interpret the Greek text; Testament and to identify the exegetical predispositions and questions that we tend to lean into the most.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Croy, N. Clayton. A Primer of Biblical Greek. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub., 2011. (ISBN-13: 978-0802867339)

Nestle, Eberhard, Erwin Nestle, Barbara Aland, Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, Bruce M. Metzger, and Universität Münster. Novum Testamentum Graece. 28 Aufl., Stuttgart 2012. (ISBN-13: 978-1619700307)

Van Voorst, Robert E. Building Your New Testament Greek Vocabulary . Resources for Biblical Study. 3rd ed. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2001. (ISBN-13: 978-0884140429)

RECOMMENDED TEXTS

Danker, Frederick W., Walter Bauer, and William Arndt. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament  and Other Early Christian Literature . 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. (ISBN-13: 978-0226039336)

Danker, Frederick W. and Kathryn Krug. The Concise Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2009. (ISBN-13: 978-0226136158)

Course Overview

 

Course Objectives

This course is a bit different from the two previous courses in this sequence. In this course, we will focus on developing proficiency in the reading of Greek and on exegetical skills. That means that--unless you have worked something else out with me (as some of you on an ordination track may)--you will read at least one page of Greek each week from a critical edition, actively build your Greek vocabulary, and review Greek syntax as necessary. We will also be learning exegetical methods that will help you interpret ancient Greek texts. In addition, you will need to submit an exegetical paper for this course (a requirement for the third quarter of all Iliff language courses). At the end of the course, I will still ask you to submit a self-evaluation for your work in this course, and we will combine your self-evaluation with my evaluation of your exegetical paper to ascertain your grade for the course. (You may attempt or revise the exegetical more than once if you complete the first iteration of the paper early enough!) Here are some more comments regarding each of these requirements:

1. Read one page of Greek each week. I want you to read one page of Greek each week from a critical edition of a Greek text. Most of you will probably choose to read Greek from the Nestle-Aland edition of the New Testament (Novum Testamentum), an excellent choice for those of you who hope to (or are already engaged in) ministry. I am more than happy to have you read from any text written in ancient Greek, however.
2. Actively build your Greek vocabulary. I want you to work through Van Voorst's Building Your New Testament Vocabulary book or use an app of your choice to learn all (or at least 95% of) the Greek vocabulary that occurs 20 times or more in the New Testament. If you use Van Voorst or another app, I would like you to quiz yourself on a weekly basis in order to hold yourself accountable for this aspect of the course. Feel free to submit these quizzes to me for review or to hold yourself accountable.
3. Review Greek syntax. You all have done an amazing job of plowing through (most of) Croy's grammar in two quarters. Well done! I want you to keep Croy close by as you translate these passages. For example, you will want to review paradigms and declensions that are rusty (or that you might not have learned well enough to begin with) as you encounter them. He has a helpful index in the back of the book to help in this regard.
4. Learn relevant exegetical methods. We will discuss various approaches to exegetical methods throughout the course (sometimes with optional supplementary readings).
5. Submit an exegetical paper. Finally, Iliff requires that you submit an exegetical paper for this course. You should choose a passage (biblical or extra-biblical) for the paper by the second week of the quarter. In the third week, I will ask you to submit a hard copy of a careful translation of that passage. I will want you to submit your final copy in week 8. If you are dissatisfied with how the paper went, I am happy to give you the chance to revise (or redo) it as much as you would like, as long as I have the final copy by the end of the tenth week (or in time for me to assess by the coursework deadline for graduates if you are graduating this quarter). The paper should be 8-10 pages. I will say more about this as the quarter progresses.

 

Degree Learning Goals: Please take some time to look over the Professional Degree Learning Goals (MDiv, MASC, MAPSC) and the Academic Degree Learning Goals (MTS, MA).

Incompletes:  If incompletes are allowed in this course, see the Master's Student Handbook for Policies and Procedures.

Pass/Fail:  Masters students wishing to take the class pass/fail should discuss this with the instructor by the second class session.

Academic Integrity and Community Covenant:  All students are expected to abide by Iliff’s statement on Academic Integrity, as published in the Masters Student Handbook, or the Joint PhD Statement on Academic Honesty, as published in the Joint PhD Student Handbook, as appropriate.  All participants in this class are expected to be familiar with Iliff’s Community Covenant.

Accommodations:  Iliff engages in a collaborative effort with students with disabilities to reasonably accommodate student needs.   Students are encouraged to contact their assigned advisor to initiate the process of requesting accommodations.  The advising center can be contacted at advising@iliff.edu or by phone at 303-765-1146. 

Writing Lab:  Grammar and organization are important for all written assignments.  Additional help is available from the Iliff Writing Lab, which is available for students of any level who need help beginning an assignment, organizing thoughts, or reviewing a final draft. 

Inclusive Language:  It is expected that all course participants will use inclusive language in speaking and writing, and will use terms that do not create barriers to classroom community.