The Biblical Languages Podcast (brought to you by Biblingo)

This is a republished interview with Matthew Bates on his book “Gospel Allegiance: What Faith in Jesus Misses for Salvation in Christ” (Brazos Press, 2019). Bates recently published a new book called “Why the Gospel? Living the Good News of King Jesus with Purpose” (Eerdmans, 2023). Whereas Bates new book focuses on *why* the gospel was given, this present conversation is a helpful precursor as it focuses on *what* the gospel is. We discuss some of the central arguments made in “Gospel Allegiance”, including Bates' understanding of the pistis ('faith/faithfulness') word group, euangelion ('gospel'), and the relationship between these concepts and others in the Bible, especially the New Testament. 

Deuteronomy 6:5 is typically translated, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength." But what does it really mean to love the Lord with your "heart"?

The word translated "heart" here is לֵבָב, which is a word that does, in fact, refer to the organ that we call "heart". Here, the word is obviously being used metaphorically, just like we use "heart" metaphorically in English. But the key question is whether לֵבָב and "heart" are used metaphorically *in the same way*.

In this video, Dr. Kevin Grasso shows how this Hebrew word actually has a different metaphorical use than you might expect, and that there may be a better English word than "heart" to get its meaning across.

Check out our previous episode on Deuteronomy 6:4 here: https://youtu.be/_DRu1aE4y-s

Deuteronomy 6:4 is quite possibly the most well-known verse in Israel today. It is often referred to as "the Shema" because of the first Hebrew word: שְׁמַע  

However, this verse is also notoriously difficult to understand, and consequently, translate. A lot of the difficulty centers on the Hebrew word אֶחָד, which often just refers to the number "one". Does אֶחָד here refer to a quality of "the Lord", namely his "oneness" or "simplicity"? Or does it refer to some class of things that "the Lord" alone belongs to? Or something else entirely?

In order to better understand and translate this verse, Dr. Kevin Grasso dives into the Hebrew text using key linguistic tools.

Do you want to become a fluent reader of biblical Hebrew (or Greek)? Check out Biblingo, the premier solution for learning the biblical languages. Visit biblingo.org to sign up for a 10-day free trial.

Matthew Thomas read through the entire Septuagint and New Testament in 2022. In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso interviews Matthew about his experience and why others should consider doing it.

*Note: in the episode, we repeatedly reference reading through the Septuagint, when in fact, Thomas' experience was reading through the Septuagint AND the Greek New Testament.

If you're looking for ways to advance your Greek or Hebrew in 2023, join one of our free reading groups. For Hebrew, we're reading through the entire Hebrew Bible. For Greek, we're reading through the whole Greek New Testament and the whole Septuagint. Join us at community.biblingo.org.

This is a recording of a live discussion and Q&A with Dr. Kevin Grasso about our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology. Kevin offers a summary and synthesis of  what was covered in the series, offers more of his own analyses of Greek terms and key texts, and answers questions from the live viewers.

In this series, we interviewed expert guests on their research focusing on key terms on Pauline theology. These terms and the texts in which they appear have been the subject of centuries of debate, with thousands of pages devoted to each. The way we understand these terms has a massive impact on how we understand Paul’s letters and theology.

We covered χριστός (Christ, Messiah) with Joshua Jipp and Matthew Novenson, πίστις (faith, trust, faithfulness) with Teresa Morgan, δικαιοσύνη (righteousness, justification) with James Prothro, νόμος (law, Torah) with John Collins, and Ισραήλ (Israel) with Jason Staples. In addition to these interviews, Dr. Kevin Grasso did a series of episodes on key texts in which these terms appear, showing how a close reading of the Greek, along with the tools provided by theoretical linguistics, can bring a lot of clarity. He covered Romans 10:4, Galatians 3:22, Romans 1:17, Romans 3:24, Romans 2:14, and Romans 2:28-29.

Who is truly a "Jew" in Romans 2:28-29? Does Paul essentially redefine what it means to be Jewish? And what do ellipsis and constituent negation have to do with circumcision?

In order to better understand and translate these verses, Dr. Kevin Grasso unpacks three key characteristics of biblical Greek syntax: ellipsis, negated constituents, and contrastive focus.

This is a bonus episode for our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology. Go to biblingo.org/podcast to learn more and subscribe to the Biblical Languages Podcast.

Show notes:

- Basic Pragmatics Concepts: https://youtu.be/h1xtO_Ozxiw

-  Matthew Thiessen, "Paul and the Gentile Problem": https://academic.oup.com/book/7322

- Andrew Carnie, "Syntax: A Generative Introduction": https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Syntax:+A+Generative+Introduction,+4th+Edition-p-9781119569237

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. Jason Staples about the meaning of Ισραήλ (Israel) in Paul.

Jason Staples is Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at NC State University. He’s the author of two books, The Idea of Israel in Second Temple Judaism, published with Cambridge University Press in 2021, and Paul and the Resurrection of Israel, which will come out next year, also with Cambridge University press. He also has worked in sports media for fifteen years, used to coach football, and does voiceover work to ensure his family can survive, and he will be launching the BiblePod podcast in the next few months.

Kevin and Jason discuss the difference between Ισραήλ (Israel) and Ἰουδαῖος (Jew) and how it relates to difficult texts like Romans 2:13, Romans 9:19-22, and Romans 11:25-26.

Show notes:   

- The Idea of Israel in Second Temple Judaism: A New Theory of People, Exile, and Israelite Identity (Cambridge University Press, 2021) - https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/idea-of-israel-in-second-temple-judaism/CB65E50538F8CC4E48C5294FDE445A58  

- Paul and the Resurrection of Israel: Jews, Former Gentiles, Israelites (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2023)  

- Vessels of Wrath and God’s Pathos: Potter/Clay Imagery in Rom 9:20–23 - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/harvard-theological-review/article/vessels-of-wrath-and-gods-pathos-potterclay-imagery-in-rom-92023/10212C0E6F1B7E444E80CB3CDD58D106  

- What Do the Gentiles Have to Do with "All Israel"? A Fresh Look at Romans 11:25-27 - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/569543b4bfe87360795306d6/t/5a4d463053450af960807100/1515013716367/12Staples.pdf

As always, this episode is brought to you by Biblingo, the premier solution for learning, maintaining, and enjoying the biblical languages. Visit biblingo.org to learn more and start your 10-day free trial. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app and leave us a review. You can also follow Biblingo on social media @biblingoapp to discuss the episode with us and other listeners.

How should we understand φύσει in Romans 2:14? Does it mean that the Gentiles "naturally" do what the Law requires, as suggested by most translations (e.g. ESV)? Or does it mean that Gentiles do not "naturally" have the Law, as suggested in translations like the CSB? And how does this distinction change what Paul is trying to communicate about Gentiles?

In this short explanation, Dr. Kevin Grasso looks at how φύσει functions adverbially in other biblical Greek texts, as well as broader ancient Greek texts. He uses this analysis along with the context of the verse to better understand the meaning of the verse and how it should be translated.

This is a bonus episode for our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology. Go to biblingo.org/podcast to learn more and subscribe to the Biblical Languages Podcast.

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. John Collins about the meaning of νόμος (Law or Torah) in Paul.

A native of Ireland, Professor Collins was a professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Chicago from 1991 until his arrival at Yale Divinity School in 2000. He previously taught at the University of Notre Dame. He has published widely on the subjects of apocalypticism, wisdom, Hellenistic Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and he has numerous scholarly accolades that would take far too long to enumerate. Here, we primarily discuss his book “The Invention of Judaism: Torah and Jewish Identity from Deuteronomy to Paul.”

Kevin and John discuss various scholarly positions on Paul and the Law/Torah, the significance of apocalypticism, the Law of Moses vs. the Law of Christ, diaspora Jews vs. Palestinian Jews on Torah, Torah for Jews vs. Gentiles, the Messiah and Torah, and much more!

As always, this episode is brought to you by Biblingo, the premier solution for learning, maintaining, and enjoying the biblical languages. Visit biblingo.org to learn more and start your 10-day free trial. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app and leave us a review. You can also follow Biblingo on social media @biblingoapp to discuss the episode with us and other listeners.

How should we understand the word δικαιούμενοι in Romans 3:24? It's often translated as "justified", but here we argue for the translation "made righteous." In this short discussion, we first look at recent proposals for what this word means. We then present some linguistic tools that you can use to think through what words mean and how to interpret them. In light of these tools, we will take another look at justification language in Romans 3:24 and in Romans more broadly.  

The Meaning of δικαιόω (Justify) in Paul with James Prothro: https://youtu.be/rDZTV4m5TUA

Basic Semantic Concepts: https://youtu.be/Ul_4JWrx0O4

Kennedy & McNally on Scale Structure: https://semantics.uchicago.edu/kennedy/docs/km-scales05.pdf

This is a bonus episode for our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology. In this episode, Kevin dives into Romans 3:24 to show how the Greek can help us better understand how these terms relate, and ultimately better understand the text.  Go to biblingo.org/podcast to learn more and subscribe to the Biblical Languages Podcast.

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. James Prothro about the meaning of language related to justification and righteousness in Paul.

James B. Prothro earned masters degrees in theology and in classical philology, and completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2017. He has worked in churches and parish ministries and as a professor, and currently teaches at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology in Colorado.

He has written on Greek and on textual criticism, but his main areas of research are in the letters of Paul and in methods of interpretation and biblical theology. His books reflect these interests. He is the author of Both Judge and Justifier: Biblical Legal Language and the Act of Justifying in Paul (2018), The Apostle Paul and His Letters: An Introduction (2021), and a forthcoming volume on Paul’s theology of justification and salvation called A Pauline Theology of Justification: Forgiveness, Friendship, and Life with God (2023).

Reflecting interests in interpretation and biblical theology, he is currently finishing a biblical theology of confession and repentance for Baker Academic, and editing a collection of essays forthcoming with Eerdmans entitled The Future of Catholic Biblical Interpretation: Lagrange and Beyond.

As always, this episode is brought to you by Biblingo, the premier solution for learning, maintaining, and enjoying the biblical languages. Visit biblingo.org to learn more and start your 10-day free trial. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app and leave us a review. You can also follow Biblingo on social media @biblingoapp to discuss the episode with us and other listeners.

Show notes available at: https://biblingo.org/blog/the-meaning-of-δικαιόω-justify-in-paul-with-james-prothro/

Almost every verse in Romans is hotly debated, but Romans 1:17 is one of the few where just about every word is contested. The phrase ‘righteousness of God’ has, of course, received a lot of airtime. Then there is the very condense ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν, usually woodenly translated ‘from faith for faith’ (ESV) or opaquely translated ‘by faith from first to last’ (NIV).

These translations can be quite puzzling even for native speakers of English. What exactly would mean for the righteousness of God to be revealed ‘from faith for faith’ or ‘by faith from first to last’? And how is that connected to the quote from Habakkuk 2:4?  In this video, Dr. Kevin Grasso suggests a different understanding of the noun πίστις in this verse - one that makes sense of both the odd phrase ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν and the Habakkuk quote.  This is a bonus episode for our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology.

In this episode, Kevin dives into Romans 1:17 to show how the Greek can help us better understand how these terms relate, and ultimately better understand the text.  Go to biblingo.org/podcast to learn more and subscribe to the Biblical Languages Podcast.

Teresa Morgan's "Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches": https://global.oup.com/academic/product/roman-faith-and-christian-faith-9780198724148

Kevin Grasso's "A Linguistic Analysis of πίστις χριστοῦ: The Case for the Third View": https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0142064X20949385

The Meaning of πίστις (faith) in Paul with Teresa Morgan: https://youtu.be/fL227P1dD8w

The Jesus-Christ-Faith: Galatians 3:22 and The Pistis Christou Debate: https://youtu.be/IfuX5fG1hB0

Galatians 3:22 in Greek reads: ἀλλὰ συνέκλεισεν ἡ γραφὴ τὰ πάντα ὑπὸ ἁμαρτίαν, ἵνα ἡ ἐπαγγελία ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ δοθῇ τοῖς πιστεύουσιν.

We can translate this as 'But the Scriptures shut up everything under sin, so that the promise from πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ might be given to those who are faithful.'

The only phrase left untranslated in this sentence has led to a tremendous amount of scholarly sparring, which I myself have taken part in. It is the phrase ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, and the debate is called "the Pistis Christou debate". It centers around how to understand the relationship between the words 'pistis,' usually translated 'faith' or 'faithfulness,' and 'Jesus Christ.'

Most translations translate this as 'faith in Jesus Christ.' This is called the objective genitive position. A significant portion of the scholarly world thinks it should be translated 'faithfulness of Jesus Christ.' This is called the subjective genitive position. Here, Dr. Kevin Grasso argues for a third view, translating the phrase as 'the Jesus-Christ-faith,' where it is the faith or message about Jesus the Christ that is being referred to.

This is a bonus episode for our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology. In this episode, Kevin dives into Galatians 3:22 to show how the Greek can help us better understand how these terms relate, and ultimately better understand the text.  Go to biblingo.org/podcast to learn more and subscribe to the Biblical Languages Podcast.

For a longer, more scholarly treatment of this topic, please see Dr. Kevin Grasso's journal article "A Linguistic Analysis of πίστις χριστοῦ: The Case for the Third View" available for free here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0142064X20949385

This is a bonus episode for our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology. As we release the main episodes for this series where we interview top scholars in the field regarding their research on key terms, we're also going to release these shorter episodes where we dive into a specific biblical text that deals with that term. So in our previous episode, Kevin interviewed Joshua Jipp about the term Χριστός, or Messiah, and how it relates to other terms, such as νόμος, or Torah. In this episode, Kevin dives into Romans 10:4 to show how the Greek can help us better understand how these terms relate, and ultimately better understand the text.

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso discusses how to analyze word order in biblical Greek and biblical Hebrew.

Show notes at: https://biblingo.org/blog/how-to-analyze-word-order-in-the-biblical-languages/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. Chiara Gianollo about the syntax of negation in biblical Greek.

Show notes here: https://biblingo.org/blog/the-syntax-of-negation-in-biblical-greek-with-chiara-gianollo/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso discusses topic, focus and question words in biblical Greek, and how each of these affects word order.

Show notes available here: https://biblingo.org/blog/topic-focus-and-questions-in-biblical-greek/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso discusses the basic word order of biblical Greek.

Show notes: https://biblingo.org/blog/basic-word-order-in-biblical-greek/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Nick Messmer talks with Alan Cossey about his experience learning biblical Greek and Hebrew, including how he has managed to practice 30 minutes nearly every day for 2 years.

Show notes at: https://biblingo.org/practicing-the-biblical-languages-30-minutes-every-day-with-alan-cossey

This episode is a recording of a livestream event hosted by the Ancient Language Institute. They invited Nick Messmer, co-founder of Biblingo and co-host of the Biblical Languages Podcast, to be a part of their roundtable discussion about how to learn ancient languages, specifically in light of modern second language acquisition research. The conversation was about 2 hours long, so we're splitting it up into 2 parts for the podcast. In this first part, we talk about about our backgrounds, the grammar-translation method, comprehensible input, and communicative approaches.

Show notes at: https://biblingo.org/blog/grammar-translation-communicative-approaches-and-ancient-languages/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss the VS vs. SV debate in biblical Hebrew.

Show notes at: biblingo.org/blog/the-vs-sv-debate-in-biblical-hebrew

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Nick Messmer talks with Teresa Kovac about her experience learning biblical Hebrew, including self-studying to pass a Hebrew competency exam and place out of first semester Hebrew.

Show notes at: https://biblingo.org/blog/how-to-pass-a-hebrew-or-greek-competency-exam-with-teresa-kovac/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. Daniel Wilson about some special clauses in biblical Hebrew: copula clauses and existential clauses.

Show notes available at: https://biblingo.org/blog/copula-and-existential-clauses-in-biblical-hebrew/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. Vince DeCaen about basic word order in biblical Hebrew.

Show notes at biblingo.org/blog/basic-word-order-in-biblical-hebrew

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. Paul Kroeger about the basics of word order.  Find show notes at: https://biblingo.org/blog/introduction-to-word-order/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso shares core concepts that are essential for doing the task of pragmatics.

Find show notes and a full blog post at: https://biblingo.org/blog/basic-pragmatics-concepts/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso shares core concepts that are essential for doing the task of syntax.

Find show notes and a full blog post at: https://biblingo.org/blog/basic-syntax-concepts/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso shares core concepts that are essential for understanding morphology.

Find show notes and a full blog post at: https://biblingo.org/blog/basic-morphology-concepts/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss how to group biblical Hebrew verbs into classes and why that matters for our understanding of those verbs and the language as a whole.

Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/biblical-hebrew-verb-classes-and-alternations/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss the concept of deponency in Greek studies.

Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/who-killed-deponency/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Nick Messmer is joined by Esdras Oliveira Borges, Timothy Hughes, and Dan Olinger from Bob Jones University to discuss their recent Greek curriculum refresh.

Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/how-to-refresh-your-greek-curriculum-with-bob-jones-university/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss the how to do lexical semantics to determine the meaning of biblical Greek words by looking at specific examples.

Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/how-to-know-what-biblical-hebrew-words-mean/

Register for our Linguist Lab on "How to do Lexical Semantics" at https://biblingo.typeform.com/linguist-lab

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss the importance of data, common fallacies, and objections to lexical semantics.

Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/data-fallacies-and-objections-lexical-semantics/

Register for our Linguist Lab on "How to do Lexical Semantics" at https://biblingo.typeform.com/linguist-lab

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss how to do lexical semantics to determine the meaning of biblical Greek words by looking at specific examples.

Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/how-to-know-what-biblical-greek-words-mean/

Register for our Linguist Lab on "How to do Lexical Semantics" at https://biblingo.typeform.com/linguist-lab