The articles in this collection demonstrate that a change is taking place in New Testament studies. Throughout the twentieth century, New Testament scholarship primarily worked under the assumption that only two languages, Aramaic and Greek, were in common use in the land of Israel in the first century. The current contributors investigate various areas where increasing linguistic data and changing perspectives have moved Hebrew out of a restricted, marginal status within first-century language use and the impact on New Testament studies. Five articles relate to the general sociolinguistic situation in the land of Israel during the first century, while three articles present literary studies that interact with the language background. The final three contributions demonstrate the impact this new understanding has on the reading of Gospel texts.

Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics (BAGL) is an international journal that exists to further the application of modern linguistics to the study of Ancient and Biblical Greek, with a particular focus on the analysis of texts, including but not restricted to the Greek New Testament. The journal is hosted by McMaster Divinity College and works in conjunction with its Centre for Biblical Linguistics, Translation and Exegesis, and the OpenText.org organization (www.opentext.org) in the sponsoring of conferences and symposia open to scholars and students working in Greek linguistics who are interested in contributing to advancing the discussion and methods of the field of research. BAGL is a refereed on-line and print journal dedicated to distributing the results of significant research in the area of linguistic theory and application to biblical and ancient Greek, and is open to all scholars, not just those connected to the Centre and the OpenText.org project.

In The Multilingual Jesus and the Sociolinguistic World of the New Testament, Hughson Ong provides a study of the multifarious social and linguistic dynamics that compose the speech community of ancient Palestine, which include its historical linguistic shifts under different military regimes, its geographical linguistic landscape, the social functions of the languages in its linguistic repertoire, and the specific types of social contexts where those languages were used. Using a sociolinguistic model, his study attempts to paint a portrait of the sociolinguistic situation of ancient Palestine. This book is arguably the most comprehensive treatment of the subject matter to date in terms of its survey of the secondary literature and of its analysis of the sociolinguistic environment of first-century Palestine.

A pioneering, comprehensive study of the pronunciation of Judeo-Palestinian Koine Greek. How was New Testament Greek pronounced? Often students are taught Erasmian pronunciation, which does not even reproduce Erasmus’s own pronunciation faithfully, let alone that of the New Testament authors. In his new book, Benjamin Kantor breaks a path toward an authentic pronunciation of Koine Greek at the time of the New Testament. To determine historical pronunciation, The Pronunciation of New Testament Greek surveys thousands of inscriptions and papyri. Kantor’s work integrates traditional methodology and statistical analysis of digital databases to examine spelling variations in the chosen texts. Kantor covers this cutting-edge approach, the primary sources, and their contexts before explaining the pronunciation of each Greek phoneme individually. Written for interested students and specialists alike, this guide includes both explicatory footnotes for novices and technical analysis for veterans. As the first comprehensive phonological and orthographic study of Judeo-Palestinian Koine Greek, The Pronunciation of New Testament Greek will be an essential resource for years to come.

Bauckham shows that Jesus was devoted to the God of Israel, with a special focus on God's fatherly love and compassion, and like every Jewish teacher he expounded the Torah, but did so in his own distinctive way.

This is the twelfth volume of the hard-copy edition of a journal that has been published online (www.jgrchj.net) since 2000. Volume 1 was for 2000, Volume 2 was for 2001-2005, Volume 3 was for 2006, Volume 4 was for 2007, Volume 5 was for 2008, Volume 6 was for 2009, Volume 7 was for 2010, Volume 8 was for 2011-2012, Volume 9 was for 2013, Volume 10 was for 2014, Volume 11 was for 2015 and Volume 12 is for 2016. As they appear, the hard-copy editions will replace the online materials. The scope of JGRChJ is the texts, language and cultures of the Greco-Roman world of early Christianity and Judaism. The papers published in JGRChJ are designed to pay special attention to the 'larger picture' of politics, culture, religion and language, engaging as well with modern theoretical approaches. Contents Seth M. Ehorn and Mark Lee The Syntactical Function of ὰλλὰ καί in Phil. 2.4 Matthew Oseka Attentive to the Context: The Generic Name of God in the Classic Jewish Lexica and Grammars of the Middle Ages--A Historical and Theological Perspective David I. Yoon Ancient Letters of Recommendation and 2 Corinthians 3.1-3: A Literary Analysis Stanley E. Porter The Synoptic Problem: The State of the Question Greg Stanton Wealthier Supporters of Jesus of Nazareth Preston T. Massey Women, Talking and Silence: 1 Corinthians 11.5 and 14.34-35 in the Light of Greco-Roman Culture Hughson T. Ong The Language of the New Testament from a Sociolinguistic Perspective Jonathan M. Watt Semitic Language Resources of Ancient Jewish Palestine Stanley E. Porter The Use of Greek in First-Century Palestine: A Diachronic and Synchronic Examination

This book introduces sociolinguistic criticism to New Testament studies. It utilizes a wide range of sociolinguistic theories, principles, and concepts in treating the language and sociolinguistic contexts of the New Testament, social memory, orality and literacy, and the oral traditions of the Gospels, and various texts and genres in the New Testament.