Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction for Teaching and Exegesis. By STEVEN E. RUNGE. Foreword by DANIEL B. WALLACE

Abstract

T his is an significant book which makes an important contribution to our understanding of the Greek of the New Testament, and hence to biblical exegesis. Its purpose is ‘to introduce a function-based approach to language using discourse grammar’ (p. 3). Runge provides a lucid and non-technical introduction to the subject, and sets out clearly an understanding of the function of many elements of New Testament Greek (e.g. the difference between δέ and καί). He helpfully illustrates the terms ‘function-based approach’ and ‘discourse grammar’ thus: if I ask my wife how our children have been behaving and she replies ‘Your children…’ the use of ‘your’ here has a ‘pragmatic effect’ beyond any (semantic) meaning of the word ‘your’. The use of ‘your’ rather than ‘our’ or ‘the’ children conveys a clear sense of distancing and disassociation, despite the fact that this is not the meaning of the word ‘your’. Similarly in the parable of the prodigal son, something is powerfully conveyed by the elder brother says ‘this son of yours…’ rather than ‘my brother’. Runge rightly complains that much Greek teaching focuses on translation rather than meaning and effect—schooling us to think ‘what is the right English word for this Greek word/phrase’ rather than ‘what does this Greek mean and convey as Greek ’. His emphasis that the objective is not to translate but to understand, and that much of the meaning can’t be captured in a translation, is one which should infuse all of our teaching, reading and examining of Greek.