David L. Mathewson - Voice and Mood: A Linguistic Approach

I am pleased to introduce the Essentials of Biblical Greek Grammar series. This new and innovative set of volumes is designed to introduce scholars, students, and others who are interested in recent developments in Greek language studies to some of the most important topics in current discussion. This series is accessible and suitable for use in the classroom and in research.

Current treatments of the Greek language of the New Testament still often slavishly employ the categories of traditional grammar, even though there have been monumental developments in linguistic studies throughout the last century. The last thirty or so years have seen significant interest in the study of New Testament Greek from a more linguistically informed perspective, and these volumes attempt to capture and reflect that interest. Each of the volumes is written by a scholar who has made a noteworthy contribution to the discussion of Greek grammar and linguistics and who has experience teaching such concepts. These books are not designed simply to reinforce or summarize the entrenched categories often used in Greek language studies, nor do they offer only theoretical discussions. Instead, they offer linguistically informed treatments of major topicsbut without getting mired in technical, theoretical language. They are designed to introduce readers to the major areas of discussion, the pertinent issues within these areas, and suitable categories that are transferable from linguistics to Greek language descriptionand they provide enough examples to illustrate how these topics influence exegesis. Along the way, each volume offers new proposals on how to understand its respective topic and some new ways of exegeting that will have an impact on our understanding of the New Testament.

The books within this series address some of the fundamental topics in Greek language studies but also include topics more recently incorporated into Greek linguistics. One volume treats lexical semantics, showing approaches to Greek vocabulary and suitable ways of discussing words and their meanings. Another volume discusses Greek syntax, with attention to the ways that various groupings of words, such as sentences, are organized and with attention to their meanings. One of the volumes in this series addresses the functions of the Greek mood and voice systems, presenting the most recent points of contention while making a positive proposal regarding these two important yet often overlooked categories. Another volume is dedicated to discussion of Greek verbal aspect, defining what is meant by aspect and proposing a straightforward way of understanding this semantic category. There is also a volume on discourse analysis, which assumes many of the kinds of discussions found in other volumes within this series but brings them into conversation as a means of examining not just words, clauses, or individual components but an entire text and how it conveys its meaning.

Every serious reader of the Greek of the New Testament will benefit from this series and be able to incorporate these insights into their own exegetical work.

Stanley E. Porter
McMaster Divinity College