Interview With Daniel B. Wallace

Justin Taylor just completed a 4-part interview with Daniel B. Wallace, Professor of NT Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. Justin provides a short bio: “Dr. Wallace influences students across the country through his textbook on intermediate Greek grammar. It is used in more than two-thirds of the nation’s schools that teach that subject. He is the senior New Testament editor of the NET Bible and coeditor of the NET-Nestle Greek-English Diglot. Recently his scholarship has shifted from syntactical and text-critical issues to more specific work in John, Mark, and nascent Christology. However he still works extensively in textual criticism, and has founded The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, an institute with an initial purpose to preserve Scripture by taking digital photographs of all known Greek New Testament manuscripts. His postdoctoral work includes work on Greek grammar at Tyndale House in Cambridge and textual criticism studies at the Institut für Neutestamentliche Textforschung in Münster. When he is not involved in scholarly pursuits, Dr. Wallace and wife, Pati, enjoy spending time with their boys and beagles.”

Justin interviews Dr. Wallace mainly on textual criticism, and Dr. Wallace gives some fascinating answers about the background and composition of the Bible. Not only does he tell us what exactly “textual criticism” is, he gives clear examples of how it works and how it illumines our understanding of Scripture and the translation process.

Justin leads off in part one with this fascinating question: “Let me start, if I can, on a more personal note. The other day I was reading Lee Strobel’s The Case for the Real Jesus, and he makes the provocative comment that you taught yourself Greek by reading one of your own Greek textbooks-obviously a line begging for an explanation! Can you tell us a bit about that season of your life?”

I hope you will read this interview and be fascinated and awed at the wonders of the history of Scripture Dr. Wallace reveals. You can read the interview by following the links below:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

It’s Greek To Me

Dan Phillips of Team Pyromaniacs fame has begun a new blog named Hellenisti Ginoskeis, or “Know Greek.” The title is taken from Acts 21:37b — And he said, “Do you know Greek?”  You can find it linked in my Blogroll on the right sidebar.

Here’s his own description of the site:

This blog is all about reading, understanding, translating the Greek New Testament. My essays here are not necessarily disciplined, definitive articles. They are musings, observations, puzzlings, popping-offs, speculations, complaints, pronouncements, questions. I hope other students of the Greek New Testament will join in the Comments, to our mutual growth in understanding this God-breathed marvel.

There are a few things that you can do, if you would:

• Invite your pastor (or your fellow-pastors) to visit this page
• Announce it, and link to it on your blog or web page
• Email the URL to your maybe-interested friends
• Comment, contribute (—you can see that this has already been going on in the comment threads, below)

If you’re a Greeker, and want to, email me your own Greek observations. Maybe they’ll make The Big Time!

DJP also warns us that you will need either Firefox, Opera, or Internet Explorer 7 in order to read the Greek font. If you use an IE enhancement such as Maxthon, you’ll need IE7 installed. Otherwise you will see boxes in place of some of the Greek letters.

I immediately went and upgraded from IE 6 to IE 7 and I am enjoying IE 7 immensely. It’s a free upgrade, so go do it whether you like Greek or not.

And please don’t comment mocking me for my lack of internet sophistication since I am apparently one of the few holdouts out there that won’t switch to Firefox.