This volume is a collection of essays gathered from my doctoral research seminars and conference presentations – some from biblical studies, and others from linguistics and sociolinguistics, conferences – within the past several years. Four essays (chapters 1, 8, 9, and 10) have been previously published (with permission to republish from their senior editors), and have been included here for both relevance and significance to the purpose and two main subjects of this volume. My purpose in writing this volume stems from my abiding interest in using, and more importantly, introducing, sociolinguistic theories and methodologies to study of the New Testament. My task in this volume, therefore, is to demonstrate the utility of sociolinguistic theories for studying the language and the various contexts and texts of the New Testament.
Consequently, it will be noticeable that one of the two main subjects discussed in the chapters of this volume is the presentation of various sociolinguistic theories and their use or application in the New Testament. In some ways, this volume can be considered or even be used as a textbook for sociolinguistic criticism of the New Testament, a topic I will discuss in the introductory chapter. The other main subject of the chapters in this volume is of course the study of the New Testament. The content of these chapters addresses some of the lingering and debated scholarly issues and topics in New Testament studies. These include the language of the New Testament and its sociolinguistic settings; the orality-literacy dynamics and oral traditions of its speech communities; and the textual and contextual interpretations of some selected New Testament passages.
The preparation of this volume has required the involvement of some people, and more significantly, the inspiration of some circumstances and events. Let me share these circumstances and events as I thank the people who have in one way or another been involved in making this project come to fruition. First, I have been wanting to finish an envisioned co-authored book on linguistics and sociolinguistics, in which three of the essays in this volume (chapters 2, 11, and 13) were originally intended to appear, since the time I was still a doctoral student and then managing editor and lecturer at McMaster Divinity College, McMaster University (Hamilton, Canada) from 2014 to 2017. But some personal circumstances, and my work as assistant academic dean/registrar and associate professor of biblical studies at Emmanuel Bible College (Kitchener, Canada) during the past few years have halted the progress of the project. And so, my co-author for the envisioned book, Dr. Stanley Porter, has moved on with his own chapters in the book and has encouraged me to publish my chapters on my own. I therefore want to thank him not only for motivating me to publish these chapters on a book of my own, but also for suggesting several possible publishing venues. I also want to thank him for his helpful comments on the earlier draft of these three essays when we presented them as co-authors at various conferences; I am alone responsible, however, for the ideas and contents in these essays.
Second, I wish to thank the people, some of their names I do not even know or do not remember anymore, who have participated as audience and provided their comments on the earlier draft of most of the essays in this volume when they first appeared as conference papers at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and Evangelical Theological Society, the biennial meeting of the Forging Linguistic Identities Conference at Towson University, Maryland, U.S.A., and the First Tunisian Systemic Functional Linguistics Conference and Workshop (TSFLCW2015), Hammamet, Tunisia, through the years of 2014 to 2019. I especially want to thank the faculty (headed by Dr. Lea Ramsdell, Department Chair) of the Department of Foreign Languages at Towson University for organizing their biennial conferences which have provided me the venue for testing the validity of my sociolinguistic frameworks in analyzing a dead language, the Greek of the New Testament. Lea and her team have been excellent hosts in these linguistics/sociolinguistics conferences, always warmly welcoming us, and feeding us well!
Third, I must thank the participants in our Gospels’ Origins project at MDC, especially my co-convenors Dr. Stanley Porter and David Yoon (now Dr. David Yoon), who were involved in the project from 2013 to 2017. Their critical questions and invaluable comments have helped me arrive at the final shape of the essays in the second section of this volume.
Fourth, this volume would not have happened if not for this strange transitional time when I had to step down from my role as assistant academic dean and registrar at Emmanuel. The challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic and its concomitant effects have not spared many social institutions and organizations, including those in Christian higher education to strenuously navigate through an ill-timed season of financial crisis for most of 2020. During the months of September and October, when I was preparing the manuscript of this volume and applying for jobs at the same time, some of my friends at Emmanuel have at various times provided their prayers and support. I wish to mention a couple of them, Ruth Anne Thornton (and her husband Mark Thornton) and Helen Oviedo.
Fifth, I want to thank my long-time friend and mentor, Joel Indico (and his wife, Gloria Indico), for their prayers during this transitional time. Pastor Joel has served as the National Director of the Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) in the Philippines for many years, but his heart has always been with church planting especially among the indigenous communities in the country. The judicious advice that he generously offers in our long conversations has always emboldened me to make the decisions I often hesitated to make. It is rare to find such unselfish friendship and mentorship.
Sixth and last, but certainly not the least, I wish to thank my amazing wife, Evelyn, for her unwavering and untiring support for the work that I do and love to do, and for reminding me about my writing projects on several occasions. I have always given her a good (and valid) alibi for not being able to write, but I definitely have remembered those gentle prodding. I should also thank my children, Jotham, Jeshua, and Jemimah, for encouraging me to write, specifically about certain topics which we believe to be important truths in life and which they think I should share with others. I especially would like to thank Jotham who has proofread a few portions of this manuscript; his continual interest in writing and editing (he writes articles for his own blog now at Operation Poverty,