Review of "Martin M. Culy - Mikeal C. Parsons, - Josiah D. Hall, Acts 1–14, vol I; Acts 15–28, vol. II. A Handbook on the Greek Text. Second Edition. Revised and Expanded. (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2022)."

Laurent Pinchard

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Laurent Pinchard. Review of "Martin M. Culy - Mikeal C. Parsons, - Josiah D. Hall, Acts 1–14, vol I; Acts 15–28, vol. II. A Handbook on the Greek Text. Second Edition. Revised and Expanded. (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2022).". Filologia Neotestamentaria, 2025, 38, pp.191-193. hal-05185587

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Submitted on 25 Jul 2025

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cant contribution to biblical studies, particularly for Matthean scholars and for those interested in intertextuality and Second Temple Judaism. It combines exegetical precision with theological depth, offering a new lens – namely an intertextual analysis of Matthew’s use of use of the Davidic shepherd-ruler image of 1–2 Samual – for understanding Matthew’s Gospel. New Testament scholars and graduate students in biblical studies, particularly those interested in intertextuality, Matthean Christology, or the Davidic tradition, will profit greatly from Grønbech-Dam’s insightful text.

While the monograph is technical in places and presumes a level of fa-
miliarity with biblical languages and intertextual methodology, it remains
accessible to a wide variety of fields and interests.

Andrew Bowden
abowden@uni-mainz.de

Martin M. Culy - Mikeal C. Parsons, - Josiah D. Hall, *Acts 1-14, vol I; Acts 15-28, vol. II. A Handbook on the Greek Text*. Second Edition. Revised and Expanded. (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2022). Volume I: ISBN 978-1481313247, Volume II: ISBN 978-1481313254.

The two volumes under review, *Acts 1–14* and *Acts 15–28: A Handbook on the Greek Text*, constitute a thoroughly revised and expanded version of the earlier one-volume edition by Mikeal C. Parsons and Martin M. Culy (*Acts: A Handbook on the Greek Text* BHGNT Series, 2003), and are edited by the same editors, now together with Josiah D. Hall. They are part of the *Baylor Handbook on the Greek New Testament* series—a series dedicated to providing a grammatical analysis of books of the New Testament. The series already includes the Gospels (Matthew 1–14; 15–28 [2019]; Mark [2 vols., 2014]; Luke [2010]; John [2 vols., 2020]), Pauline Epistles (Romans [2023]; 1 Corinthians [2 vols, 2016]; 2 Corinthians [2015]; Galatians [2014]; Ephesians [2009]; Philippians [2020]; Colossians and Philemon [2013]), General Epistles (James [2013]; 1 Peter [2010]; 2 Peter and Jude [2011]; 1–3 John [2004]), Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy, Titus [2017]), and Revelation ([2016]).

The re-issue in two parts follows the natural division of the Acts narrative (chapters 1–14 and 15–28) and provides a verse-by-verse grammatical analysis of the Greek text, making it especially useful for students and readers seeking close linguistic engagement with a book that contains approximately 2,000 non-classical vocabulary items and poses significant syntactic challenges.

Each of the two volumes begins with a substantial introduction, duplicated
in each—a defensible editorial decision for readers consulting a single volume,
though somewhat redundant for those engaging with the full set. This intro-
duction opens with a five-page note by the series editors (Martin Culy and
Lidija Novakovic), followed by a two-page acknowledgements section and a
list of grammatical abbreviations. It is followed by a 15-page essay introducing the two-volume work (pp. xxi-xxxv). The main content presents the English text in segments (e.g., Acts 1:1-14, 1:15-26, etc.), followed by the Greek text arranged verse by verse and, accompanied by a full grammatical analysis of virtually every word. The volume concludes with several helpful reference tools: a glossary of grammatical terms (pp. 379-387), a works cited list (pp. 389-404), an author index (pp. 405-411), and a comprehensive and remarkably detailed grammar index (pp. 413-438).

The primary aim of the volumes is to provide a comprehensive grammatical guide to the Greek of Acts. Although decidedly not a commentary, the work offers essential linguistic insights that can substantially assist in the composition of exegetical or interpretive work. In most instances, the analyses reiterate information available through standard morphologically tagged digital tools such as www.stepbible.com. Nevertheless, the authors add value through their attention to the distinctive characteristics of Lukan style and Greek grammar, particularly those related conjunctions, discourse markers, and syntactic functions.

A key feature of the handbook is its detailed explanation of the base text adopted. The Acts of the Apostles, as is well known, presents significant textual-critical challenges due to its complex transmission history. The longer, so-called 'Western' text (also referred to as the D-text) and the shorter Alexandrian text (or B-text) have long been the focus of competing reconstructions. The authors adopt the *Editio Critica Maior* (ECM)—available for Acts since 2017—as their base text, which makes use of the computer-assisted Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (CBGM) for evaluating variant readings.

This is of particular interest since the ECM will serve as a foundational reference for the forthcoming NA29 (p. xxi). While the text largely aligns with NA28, the handbook highlights 52 textual divergences (p. xxii), notably where the ECM removes NA28's square brackets—often inserted to mark editorial uncertainty—because CBGM focuses on genealogical relationships between readings and witnesses, rather than attempting to weigh internal and external evidence in the traditional sense.

The introduction provides helpful clarifications on CBGM-specific terminology such as 'text', 'witness', 'ancestor', 'descendant', 'coherence', 'textual flow', and 'transcriptional probability' and the like. Additionally, it explains the ECM's distinctive category of 'A-related witnesses', referring to manuscripts that are genealogically close to the presumed initial text of Acts. These include the majuscules A, B, C, D, and '08' (oddly referred to by its Gregory-Aland number rather than the usual siglum 'E' for Codex Laudianus), as well as the papyri P45 and P74 and key minuscules (33, 81, 181, 307, 623, 1175, 1409, 1642, 1739). Although the CBGM offers innovative ways to visualise textual relationships, its atomistic method—focusing on readings in isolation, often at the level of single words—remains a significant limitation: the global context of discourse and sentence-level coherence tends to be lost, which highlights a broader methodological tension between traditional textual criticism and algorithmic models.
On the grammatical level, the handbook places considerable emphasis on a pedagogically effective functional approach. Technical terms such as ‘dative of advantage’ (where the action benefits the dative noun) and ‘subjective genitive’ (where the genitive noun functions as the subject of an implied verbal idea) are used informatively but without unnecessary formalism. The authors also draw significantly on Stephen Levinsohn’s work on discourse analysis, offering comments on phenomena such as the pragmatic use of δέ as a marker of further development in the discourse, rather than merely as an alternative to καί, the importance of pre-verbal position for emphasis, and other discourse structuring devices. This grammatical sensitivity represents a notable strength of the volume, as it moves beyond the mechanical repetition of morphological data to foreground features such as word order, conjunctions and verbal aspect—elements often overlooked in discussions of the Greek text of New Testament books.

This two-volume edition stands out as a valuable tool for engaging directly with the Greek text of Acts. Its strength lies not merely in the accumulation of grammatical data, but in the way it draws attention to the distinctive linguistic texture of Luke’s writing according to the eclectic edition of his text. The editors succeed in balancing detailed morphological analysis with functional grammar and discourse features—such as word order, connective usage, and pragmatic structuring—offering readers insight into how meaning is shaped at both the sentence and discourse levels. Their sensitivity to stylistic nuance, combined with a clear pedagogical orientation, makes the work especially useful for those seeking to move beyond surface-level parsing. Furthermore, by grounding their textual base in the *Editio Critica Maior* and incorporating the CBGM, they provide students and scholars with access to the most up-to-date textual foundation for studying Acts critically and contextually. In this respect, the handbook could also serve as a useful companion to works that foreground the D-text, such as the four-volume *The Message of Acts in Codex Bezae: A Comparison with the Alexandrian Tradition*, edited by Jenny Read-Heimerdinger and Josep Rius-Camps (LNTS 236, 257, 302, 365; London – New York: T. & T. Clark, 2004–2009), previously reviewed in *Filología Neotestamentaria* 25 (2012) 164–184, which offers an alternative perspective rooted in the Bezan text of Acts.

Laurent Pinchard
lpinchard@uco.fr

Stanley E. Porter, and Ron C. Fay (eds). *The Gospel of John in Modern Interpretation*. Milestones in New Testament Scholarship (Grand Rapids, 2018). ISBN 978-0825445101.

Stanley E. Porter (McMaster Divinity College) and Ron C. Fay (Liberty University) serves as editors of the Milestones in New Testament Scholarship