We are on a tear here at D33 with publishing books in 2023. We had to make up for lost time during the several years of dealing with Covid-19 and the associated lockdowns. By “we,” I mean mostly Stan.

Most recently, Stanley Porter has come out with a book, Linguistic Descriptions of the Greek New Testament: Studies in Systemic Functional Linguistics, LNTG 1 (T&T Clark). This is the first volume of a new series, published by T&T Clark, called Library of New Testament Greek, of which Porter is the series editor.

This new series is described on the website as:

The Library of New Testament Greek provides a home for traditional grammars, reference resources, classic works, monographs, and edited volumes related to the study of New Testament Greek. Volumes examine the language historically and linguistically, and show how it functions in terms of specific linguistic uses in the different and varied texts of the New Testament. The series features several landmark volumes [both newly commissioned and new editions of classic works] that will orient students and scholars to the language of the New Testament, giving a full survey of the grammar of New Testament Greek from introductory to reference levels, alongside academic studies and handbooks on key topics.

A summary of the first volume, Linguistic Descriptions, is provided on the website as well:

Stanley E. Porter provides descriptions of various important topics in Greek linguistics from a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) perspective; an approach that has been foundational to Porter’s long and influential career in the field of New Testament Greek.

Deep insights into Porter’s understanding of SFL are displayed throughout, based either upon how he positions SFL in relation to other linguistic models, or how he utilizes it to describe topics within Greek and New Testament studies. Porter reflects on his core approach to the Greek New Testament by exploring subjects such as metaphor, rhetoric, cognition, orality and textuality, as well as studies on linguistic schools of thought and traditional grammar.

The table of contents is as follows:

Introduction to This Volume on Linguistic Descriptions
Part One: Linguistics and New Testament Study
1. Linguistic Theory and New Testament Greek Study I: Linguistic Schools and Traditional Grammar
2. Linguistic Theory and New Testament Greek Study II: Modern Linguistics and Its Schools of Thought
Part Two: Systemic Functional Linguistics and New Testament Study
3. Metaphor in the New Testament: Expressing the Inexpressible through Language within a Systemic Functional Linguistics Perspective
4. Rhetoric and Persuasion in the New Testament from a Systemic Functional Linguistics Perspective
5. Defining Cognition through Systemic Functional Linguistics System Networks and the Greek of the New Testament
6. Orality and Textuality and Implications for Description of the Greek New Testament from a Systemic Function Linguistic Perspective
Conclusion

Two other books in this series are scheduled to be published in early 2024: Stanley E. Porter and Matthew Brook O’Donnell, Discourse Analysis and the Greek New Testament: Text-Generating Resources, LNTG 2 (T&T Clark); and Stanley E. Porter, Hermeneutics, Linguistics, and the Bible: The Importance of Context, LNTG 3 (T&T Clark). The discourse analysis book is one that has been in the works for about two decades and is a highly anticipated work.

We are excited to see this series commence and see how subsequent volumes will contribute to our understanding of the Greek of the New Testament.

— David I. Yoon