New Open Access Journal: Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics (BAGL)

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 hosting 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.

Areas of Research of Interest to BAGL

The following list provides an indication of some of the open questions for research that are currently being investigated or are of interest to the journal, as well as those connected with the Centre for Biblical Linguistics, Translation and Exegesis, and the OpenText.org project (www.opentext.org). These include:

• a Systemic-Functional analysis of voice in ancient Greek
• developing a discourse grammar of conjunctions
• the identification and functional classification of the paragraph as a unit in Greek discourse
• the identification and functional analysis of discourse units intermediate to clause complexes and the text
• discontinuous constituents in Greek syntax
• the quantitative and qualitative analysis of register
• the morphology, grammar and discourse function of the vocative case
• significant discourse analyses of books of the New Testament and of the Septuagint
• thematization and word order in ancient Greek
• issues and problems in discourse analysis of ancient Greek
• lexicography in the light of semantic domain theory
• various theories of syntax
• levels of linguistic analysis including word group, clause component, clause structure, clause complex, and paragraph
• the challenges of corpus linguistics related to the study of ancient Greek
• the problems of the case and voice systems
• textual encoding and analysis
• functional hermeneutical models

Volume 1 (2012)

Show table of contents

1.1	ἔχειν πίστιν in Hellenistic Greek and its Contribution to the πίστιϛ Χριστοῦ Debate Wally V. Cirafesi McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada This article argues that the construction ἔχειν πίστιν in Hellenistic Greek is a nominalized ideational metaphor that is semantically related to the finite verb πιστεύειν. Therefore, when the construction possesses a genitive modifier, the function of the genitive is disambiguated as denoting the object of πίστιν. This understanding of ἔχειν πίστιν + the genitive has significant implications for interpreting the construction in Mark 11:22, Jas 2:1, and Hippolytus‘s De Antichristo 61:26. (Article) Keywords: πίστιϛ Χριστοῦ, Greek linguistics, nominalization, grammatical metaphor, Mark 11:22, Jas 2:1, Hippolytus
1.2	Testing the Intertextuality of ματαιότηϛ in the New Testament Gregory P. Fewster McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada Adapting Michael Hoey‘s lexical priming theory, this article provides a new rubric for the evaluation of intertextuality in the New Testament. This article tests the veracity of the claim that the lexeme ματαιότηϛ functions to invoke the language of Ecclesiastes. Romans 8 mirrors some of the language of Ecclesiastes, while Eph 4:17 has strong ties to Rom 8, creating an intertextual chain via the lexeme ματαιότηϛ. (Article) Keywords: ματαιότηϛ, intertextuality, priming, Romans 8, 2 Peter 2, Ephesians 3
1.3	Language Choice in Ancient Palestine: A Sociolinguistic Study of Jesus' Language Use Based on Four "I Have Come" Sayings Hughson Ong McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada This article relates to the criteria of language authenticity in historical Jesus research and inquires into the lingua franca of Je- sus’ social environment. It demonstrates via sociolinguistic principles that Palestine was a multilingual society, establishes that various so- cial groups necessitate the use of language varieties, and addresses the issue of language choice—the occasions and reasons multilingual people use their native tongue over and against their second language. The objective is to show in four “I have come” sayings in the Synop- tics that, with high probability, Jesus’ internal language was Aramaic, and his public language was Greek. Keywords: Historical Jesus, Greek language, sociolinguistics, Mark 2:17, Mark 10:45, Luke 12:49–51, Matt 5:17
1.4	Relative Saliency and Information Structure in Mark's Parable of the Sower Steven E. Runge Logos Bible Software | Stellenbosh University, Stellenbosch, South Africa This study applies the cognitive model of Chafe and Givón, and the information-structure model of Lambrecht as applied by Levinsohn and Runge to the Markan explanation of the Parable of the Sower (4:14–20). The primary objective is to identify and analyze other linguistic devices, besides demonstratives, which might clarify the apparent prominence given to the unfruitful scatterings in Mark’s account. This study provides the necessary framework for comparing Mark’s pragmatic weighting of saliency to that found in Matthew and Luke’s accounts in order to determine whether Mark’s version is con-sistent with or divergent from the other traditions. Keywords: saliency, information structure, Mark 4:14–20, Matt 13:19–23, Luke 8:11–15, οὗτος, ἐκεῖνος