Voice and Mood
A Linguistic Approach
About
This ideal textbook for the intermediate Greek classroom examines two features of the Greek verb: voice and mood. Drawing on his years of teaching experience at a leading seminary, David Mathewson examines these two important topics in Greek grammar in light of modern linguistics, especially Systemic Functional Linguistics, and offers fresh insights. The book goes beyond the typical treatment of voice and mood in modern-day Greek grammars and is illustrated with numerous examples from the Greek New Testament.
This is the first volume in a new series on Greek grammar edited by Stanley E. Porter of McMaster Divinity College. Series volumes offer short, linguistically informed introductions to key concepts in the study of New Testament Greek.
Contents
Series Preface
Introduction
Part 1: Voice
1. Recent Scholarship on Voice
2. Linguistic Model and Voice
3. The Three Voices in New Testament Greek
Part 2: Mood
4. Recent Scholarship and Linguistic Insights on Mood
5. The Greek Mood System
6. Infinitives and Participles
Conclusion
Indexes
Endorsements
"It's difficult to write a grammar that both is accessible for students in the classroom and makes a genuine advancement in the linguistic study of biblical Greek. David Mathewson nevertheless has written a superb textbook on Greek voice and mood that accomplishes these tasks. Voice and Mood brings the reader up to speed on the latest developments in the active, middle, and passive voices and offers a working model for voice as a function of agency and causality. It also frames verbal mood as the assertion, projection, or directive that the author makes for the reader regarding a clause's portrayal of reality. The result is a welcome debut volume in a new series on the essentials of biblical Greek grammar. It offers a simpler taxonomy of semantic categories for voice and mood, replete with examples, and explains why traditional classifications like deponency should be jettisoned. Students and biblical interpreters alike will appreciate the numerous exegetical insights that can be gleaned from a study of voice and mood. Bravo! I'll be using this textbook for my own Greek language and exegesis courses."
Max J. Lee, professor of New Testament, North Park Theological Seminary
"Until a little over a century ago, the value of a book was directly related to how old (how tried and true) its wisdom was. Now, unless people stress how new a book's contents are, prospective buyers will ask, Why bother? In the field of the role of verbs in the Greek grammar of the New Testament, there is definitely an old and a new wisdom. Mathewson judiciously blends the best of each and produces a remarkably user-friendly synthesis of the two. An excellent inaugural volume for this new series, which may just establish itself as tried and true as well!"
Craig L. Blomberg, distinguished professor of New Testament, Denver Seminary
"This is an excellent treatment of Greek voice and mood that strikes a useful balance. On the one hand, it is more informative than Greek grammars regarding these relatively neglected topics. On the other hand, it is more accessible and broadly conceived than typical academic monographs. Interested students will benefit greatly from Mathewson's linguistic approach to these two important topics for the study of Greek."
Constantine R. Campbell, author of Advances in the Study of Greek: New Insights for Reading the New Testament
The Author
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David L. Mathewson
David L. Mathewson (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is associate professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary in Littleton, Colorado. He is the author of Verbal Aspect in the Book of Revelation and has written commentaries on Revelation and the Septuagint...
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