It's for episodes like the one related from chapter 9 through chapter 11 of the Martyrdom of Polycarp. The below is Holmes' translation of the Apostolic Fathers (amazon.com) (which you really need to buy and read, either the Greek-English diglot (amazon.com) or the English-only edition (amazon.com)). The setting? Polycarp, an old man and bishop of Smyrna, was arrested and brought to the stadium for persecution — to be persuaded to confess the greatness of Caesar. He's being interviewed in a stadium full of masses of people by the proconsul.

9. But as Polycarp entered the stadium, there came a voice from heaven: “Be strong, Polycarp, and act like a man.” And no one saw the speaker, but those of our people who were present heard the voice. And then, as he was brought forward, there was a great tumult when they heard that Polycarp had been arrested. (2) Therefore, when he was brought before him, the proconsul asked if he were Polycarp. And when he confessed that he was, the proconsul tried to persuade him to recant, saying, “Have respect for your age,” and other such things as they are accustomed to say: “Swear by the Genius of Caesar; repent; say, ‘Away with the atheists!’ ” So Polycarp solemnly looked at the whole crowd of lawless heathen who were in the stadium, motioned toward them with his hand, and then (groaning as he looked up to heaven) said, “Away with the atheists!” (3) But when the magistrate persisted and said, “Swear the oath, and I will release you; revile Christ,” Polycarp replied, “For eighty-six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”

10. But as he continued to insist, saying, “Swear by the Genius of Caesar,” he answered: “If you vainly suppose that I will swear by the Genius of Caesar, as you request, and pretend not to know who I am, listen carefully: I am a Christian. Now if you want to learn the doctrine of Christianity, name a day and give me a hearing.” (2) The proconsul said: “Persuade the people.” But Polycarp said: “You I might have considered worthy of a reply, for we have been taught to pay proper respect to rulers and authorities appointed by God, as long as it does us no harm; but as for these, I do not think they are worthy, that I should have to defend myself before them.”

11. So the proconsul said: “I have wild beasts; I will throw you to them, unless you change your mind.” But he said: “Call for them! For the repentance from better to worse is a change impossible for us; but it is a noble thing to change from that which is evil to righteousness.” (2) Then he said to him again: “I will have you consumed by fire, since you despise the wild beasts, unless you change your mind.” But Polycarp said: “You threaten with a fire that burns only briefly and after just a little while is extinguished, for you are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and eternal punishment, which is reserved for the ungodly. But why do you delay? Come, do what you wish.”

 

Holmes, M. W. (1999). The Apostolic Fathers : Greek texts and English translations (amazon.com) (Updated ed.) (233). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

While Mohr-Siebeck books are as expensive as all get-out, that doesn't mean they aren't great books. Whenever the catalog arrives (it gets sent to me at Logos since that's my typical shipping address) Mike Heiser and I refer to it as a "productivity hit". You can't help but stop and carefully look at the new books in the catalog while using a tissue to clean up the drool-puddle that inches ever closer to your keyboard. The recent catalog is no exception. If I had a whole lot of money to throw at books, I'd seriously think about these new ones in the Mohr catalog:

• Richard Bauckham, The Jewish World around the New Testament: Collected Essays Volume I (€130)
• Bengt Holmberg and Mikael Winninge, Identity Formation in the New Testament (€ 80)
• Bengt Holmberg, Exploring Early Christian Identity (€ 65)
• Petrus Gräbe, The Power of God in Paul's Letters (€ 49)
• Stephen E. Witmer, Divine Instruction in Early Christianity (€ 50)

But, alas, I do not have "a whole lot of money to throw at books", or to throw anywhere else for that matter, so I'll have to content myself by making sure the drool puddle doesn't overtake the keyboard.

BTW, Of the above, Gräbe (especially) and Witmer look most interesting to me, in case anyone is thinking they'd like to get me something nice for my birthday in October ...

Thanks to the folks at Baylor University Press, today I received a copy of Reinhard Feldmeier's The First Letter of Peter: A Commentary on the Greek Text. This is a translation of Feldmeier's 1 Peter commentary by Peter H. Davids.

Here's the blurb from Baylor Press' web site:

The New Testament book known as "The First Letter of Peter" describes how Christians should relate to the world. Specifically, it suggests how Christians should define themselves against a powerful and sometimes hostile culture. Written to first-century Christians in Asia Minor who were suffering from religious persecution, this letter brings Biblical and extra-Biblical traditions together to forge an original and unique pastoral strategy. At the same time, in its depiction of "practical piety," the letter is an impressive display of early Christian theology. Here, one of the world's authorities on Peter provides a verse by verse interpretation of First Peter that is both highly readable and deeply informed.

Here are a few back cover blurbs:

Reinhard Feldmeier has produced an exceptional commentary that is not only brilliant academically, but one that is also edifying. Feldmeier is at once erudite and accessible. Here is an exegetical commentary that unfailingly leads the reader to the meaning and significance of the text. I recommend it with the greatest enthusiasm. Donald A. Hagner

This volume is among the most important theological commentaries of 1 Peter written during the modern era. The thematic of the church's "foreignness" within a pervasively pagan culture, a continuing interest of Feldmeier's by which he orients his interpretation of 1 Peter, yields extraordinarily evocative insights for today's post-Christian church. Fully fluent with the social and literary worlds that shaped the letter's composition and the complex history of its reception into the 21st century, Feldmeier is able to produce an informed and richly detailed exegesis of 1 Peter. His steady interest in the church's "practice of piety" as a practical expression of Christian existence will surely lend this commentary for use by preachers and teachers as well. Robert Wall

The book is in two primary parts, the first "Introduction" (47pp) and the second "Exegesis" (210pp, including 11 excurses). There is a very large bibliography (34pp) and a reference index (22pp) as well, though no subject/topic index.

I'm looking forward to reading through it and reporting about the book as I do. Thanks again, Baylor Press!

The ETS 2008 tentative program is out, earlier than I ever recall. That's awesome. I finally get to see when my paper is scheduled to be given.

Rhode Island Convention Center
Room 551B

Discourse Grammar and Biblical Exegesis
11:00am-11:40am
Rick Brannan (Logos Bible Software)
The Discourse Function of αλλα in Non-negative Contexts

Looks like a good session; my friend Steve Runge presents before my paper, and Randall Buth presents before him. If you find yourself at ETS on Thursday morning, you might want to drop in for the whole session.

It's been too long, so here are some recent pictures of Ella. The first was taken in June; the last two on July 4. Enjoy!

Oh, yeah.

If I had a quarter for every time someone asked me about Logos doing Migne's Patrologia Graeca over the years ... well, I guess I'd have about five bucks. But still, that's a lot! Maybe I'll get to cash in on it some day.

Why? Because Migne's Patrologia Cursus Completus, Series Graeca, Part 1 (Vols 1-18) is on prepub at Logos Bible Software.

This is big, and we want to do it—the whole blasted PG, all 161 numbered volumes (166 volumes in print). All of the text, not just the Greek parts. I spent the last week living in the first 18 numbered (20 in print) volumes to evaluate them and let me tell you there is some real cool stuff in there.

We can only do it if enough people are interested, though. So get thee to the prepub page, and sign up!

Update (2008-07-10): Rod Decker (NT Resources Blog) responds in the comments asking about the usability of "untagged" versions of the text. My basic response is that if one approaches a text primarily as a database, then this is a valid question. But overall, I'd say the texts themselves are valuable. The ability to look up citations of these fathers in lexica, commentaries and other studies (e.g. Drobner's Fathers of the Church (amazon.com)) is valuable. I can't tell you the times I've seen a citation in a footnote, sitting as a lonely, orphaned reference with no other content, that I've wanted to look up but can't (try reading Luke Timothy Johnson's Anchor Bible commentary on 1&2 Timothy without wanting to look one of these up). Reading the text is valuable too. I'd say that the Latin materials (dissertations, translations, etc.) are valuable even though they are largely inaccessible to many. But this is one of those big tasks of Biblical Studies* that just needs to get done, somehow, in some way. And this is the best way we can come up with to try to start that task. Maybe it'll work; maybe it won't. But we've got to try.

Tagging the PG Greek texts morphologically would be a large task. I won't say we (Logos) haven't thought about it, because we have. But since we're unsure how/if a task of that magnitude would work in a timely fashion in concert with the production of the first 20 volumes, we chose not to address the subject of "tagging" in the prepub description. We're more interested in first making the content available as text instead of as facscimile scans (which you can find in Google Books and perhaps other sources, though note these are not Logos' sources for the material). If there is support for that (already large) task then there may be support for further enhancement of the texts as well.

* Reminds me of a quote of Fred Danker in John Lee's book on the History of NT Lexicography. Danker is quoted as saying, "Scholar's tasks are not for sissies". I love that quote.

Some may have been following this meme. I've been tagged three times now. So here are the meme rules:

a. Tag five Biblical studies bloggers.
b. Invent fictional posts that they might have written over the last month.
c. Link to this post.

Here's are the fictional posts that people tagged me with:

James Spinti, Idle Musings of a Bookseller: "Greek accents don't really matter, one αλλα is as good as another!"

Nick Norelli, Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: "Idolatrous Grammar: αλλα and Islamic Word Worship"

Chuck Grantham, A 'Goula Blogger: "John Lightfoot says it's time for more adorable pictures of my little gal holding my favorite textual criticism book—all twenty-seven of them, all on the Pastoral Epistles"

Thanks, guys.

So I figure I should probably respond, but honestly I can't come up with five blogs that haven't already been tagged that I'd like to tag.

So I guess Todd Bentley (whoever he is) will show up some day to read the complete works of Zwingli to me. That's a risk I'm willing to take.