Notes, Style, and References

Purpose:

These notes are intended as helps for preachers and Sunday School teachers who wish to work from the Revised Common Lectionary. Though this initial entry is only one week ahead, my aim is to publish them two to three weeks ahead of the date for their use.

This is not intended to function as a calendar. There are several good sites on the internet that list the scriptures for the various weeks. I just take all the scriptures and comment on them. This is not intended as a full commentary. I will frequently refer to other commentary resources. These are study notes that should help to get you started on the study of these scriptures.

I would be happy to correspond with anyone interested in pursuing this topic (henry@energion.com), and also invite you to visit the Energion-sponsored “Scholar’s Corner” section on CompuServe’s Religion Forum to discuss the notes, or other relevant areas of interest to you. The forum is free via the internet. You may use your AOL screenname and password to enter, or select a new one.

Contents:

Each week I will provide translations of the selected passages along with translation notes and comments. In addition, I may add any of the following:

1. Suggested grouping of scripture readings and topics
2. Point outlines for possible sermons or talks
3. Suggested reference sources and specific topics
4. A topical essay based on one of the outlines

Translation:
I struggled with the idea of providing my own translation. In general, I prefer to work from standard translations when teaching or preaching even though I study from the original languages, and normally prepare my own translation in the course of studying the text.

There are several problems with teaching from the original languages.

1. It tends to make the audience think that one can only really understand the Bible by use of the original languages. While I’m an advocate of study of the original languages where possible, I do not believe this is the only way to understand what the Bible is saying. Especially with the rich variety of translations we have in the English language, I believe anyone can have access to the Bible text.
2. It sets the teacher up as superior to professional Bible translators. I’m very wary of saying, “the Greek word used here really means” or “the Hebrew text actually says” as opposed to text translated by a qualified committee. I often do disagree, but it is better to say, “I believe a better translation would be” or something similar. All of us, of course, have strong opinions on certain verses and I’m no exception. You’ll probably catch me calling various renderings “mistranslations” from time to time, but I like to keep that to a minimum.
3. It sometimes overawes the audience for the wrong reason. They think the teacher or preacher must be right because he’s holding a Greek New Testament in his hand. The fact is that many, many preachers hold Greek New Testaments in their hands whilst making grave linguistic errors. The real answer lies in studying for oneself.

So why do I present my own “study” translation for these notes? Most current Bible versions are copyright. I considered using the American Standard Version which is now out of copyright, but I found its text a bit too archaic. Finally, I decided that despite the flaws in my own translation, the best idea would be to present it along with my notes. I ask that you not use this translation as anything other than a resource for study.

There are several characteristics of my study translation that you should be aware of. First, while I compare it to modern translations to some extent, I rarely correct it simply to make it smoother. I translate as I’m thinking about the verse. Sometimes this is woodenly literal, sometimes wildly paraphrastic. If it is paraphrastic, I will likely try to explain my reasoning in the notes. If it’s wooden, I refer you to the abundance of good translations available.

Transliteration:
I use the schemes that are in use on the Bible Translations Discussion List (http://www.geocities.com/bible_translation/list) for both Greek and Hebrew whenever it is important to display the precise form of a Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek word. Otherwise, I use “sounds close” transliteration to make it easy for English speakers to pronounce what they read.

Divine Name:
In all cases of the occurrence of the divine name in the Hebrew Scriptures I use “YHWH.” This will allow easy identification of where the divine name is used, which helps make sense of Hebrew passages, but does not present a pronunciation of the divine name.

References:
I will use a number of standard references, and will cite them in brackets [] by abbreviation. I list the references I expect to cite regularly in the list below. I will expand this list as I work. In cases of lexicons, dictionaries and commentaries, where the particular reference is quite obvious, I will just give the work. For example, the reference [BDAG] following discussion of a Greek word means that I used “A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition” edited by Danker, under the appropriate article. Similarly [IDB] means the “Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible” again under the word being discussed. If there is doubt about what article I’m citing, I will include that. Commentaries will be cited the same way. For example, any volume in the Anchor Bible series will simply be [AB__] with the volume. In this case, it is that commentary relating to the text under discussion. For example, in Psalms 19, if I’m referencing the Anchor Bible commentary I would say use [AB Psalms I], first volume of the three volume Anchor Bible commentary on the Psalms. In addition, in the abbreviation list, I will give only the minimum information necessary to identify the work. Further bibliographic data will be available if there is a review on Energion.com. If there is, there will be a link to it in the abbreviation list. As I see that this list is being used I will improve the reference information.

Other references will be given in greater detail. On each reference in this list, I will include a link to purchase that item via Amazon.com. If you find these notes helpful, please consider making your purchases from Amazon after linking from this site. The referral fees help to keep the site running and make it possible for me to write these notes.

While I am fairly old fashioned and use many print books, I do now use the Logos Scholar’s Library as a foundation for my study. In some cases, works cited are in the editions used in that library. I enthusiastically recommend the Libronix system as a whole, and their Biblical languages material in particular.

Abbreviations for Standard References:

Links on titles go to Amazon.com entry for that title.

Abbreviation	Resource
Bibles
NOAB	New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV)
OSB	Oxford Study Bible (REB)
Learning Bible	The Learning Bible (CEV)
Greek
BDAG	Danker, Frederick William, Ed. A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition.
GBB	Wallace, Daniel. Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics
Robertson	Robertson, A. T. A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research
D&M	Dana and Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament
Moule	Moule, C. F. D. An Idiom-Book of New Testament Greek, Student’s Edition(out of print)
Hebrew
HALOT	Koehler, Ludwig AND Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament
GK	Gesenius-Kautszch, Hebrew Grammar
W&O	Waltke-O’Connor, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax
Jouon	Jouon, Paul and T. Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew
Commentaries
AB	The Anchor Bible (multi-volume set)
Wesleyan	The Wesleyan Bible Commentary (available sometimes used)
IB	The Interpreter’s Bible (available on CD-ROM with the Interpreter’s Bible)
NIB	The New Interpreter’s Bible
Bible Dictionaries
ABD	The Anchor Bible Dictionary
HBD	HarperCollins Bible Dictionary
IDB	The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible