Jonathan Robie wrote:I was eating lunch with Stephen Carlson, and I mentioned that I wish there were a New Testament version of Rijksbaron. He replied that the biggest issue would be finding good New Testament examples for each section instead of the wide ranging classical ones, and that B-Greek might be a place to do that. If we had a good set of examples, there might not be much need for a new book.
Would that make a good project? Suppose I started a subforum like Ken Penner's Septuagint subforum, and we read through Rijksbaron one chapter at a time, discussing the chapter and loooking for good New Testament examples. Would that be interesting and useful?
Yes and yes, it would.
At first I felt that Rijksbaron is too difficult and not informative enough. But the more I read his book the more I appreciate it. Yes, it requires more from the reader than e.g. Wallace. But it's rewarding. And the writer's good understanding about the subject matter shines through. Sometimes it seems that especially selection of the examples is a work of a genius. That, of course, makes selecting and explaining good NT (or rather Koine) counterparts challenging.
I see also one big problem. This would easily lead to pressing Koine into the same mold than Classical Greek. It would be easy to neglect counter-examples. It would be easy to loose different nuances. This requires highly competent project leaders.