Customer Reviews

Novum Testamentum Graece

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This small book is nevertheless very well designed. First, the print is large and very readable. No question about whether you're looking at rough or a smooth breathing marks, for example.

Second, the textual apparatus is rather daunting but fascinating. It really lets you see why certain words are included or excluded from certain translations based on the original text. It also has a good intro listing the various sources used in the apparatus; to those who have little or no background in textual criticism this is invaluable to understanding what you're looking at and, in general, the unprecedented range of manuscript evidence for the New Testament. If you think the New Testament is the product of the fourth century church, you'll think again after reading through the apparatus (which is why no reputable scholar holds that opinion).

Finally, the dictionary in the back is quite good for its small size, separately listing many of the principal parts of verbs. One of the toughest parts of reading the Greek NT (especially for a student of Greek like myself) has to be parsing verbs you don't recognize, and this makes the task much easier.

Postscript: There has been a review that says that this is "really" the NA27. Well, it's not. There are two distinct common versions of the Greek NT: NA27 and UBS4. This book is the latter. The actual text is identical: the difference is in the critical apparatus. Which is better? It depends on your purposes. If you are doing detailed historical studies where you need to know the maximum amount about the various manuscripts of the NT, then buy the NA27. It has a wealth of information on each page that covers virtually every existing variant.

But for most of us, who primarily want the text and would like to understand the most significant variants, buy this edition. I have found the text of this UBS4 version easier to read, and the apparatus MUCH easier to read. The arcane coding system used by the NA27, while necessary to fit so much information into a manageable size, makes it much harder to use for the average user.

A good edition for those interested in reading the new testament in the original Greek. Other options:

The Greek New Testament from United Bible Society now in 4th edition

Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine (same as this but together with Latin Vulgate)

The difference between the one offered by UBS and this one is that this has more footnotes on differences between manuscripts. In this newest edition, the actual textual decisions between the two are the same. The UBS is better for those who want to use the text for translation, and this one is better for those who are interested in studying textual critical issues.

Also keep in mind there are many interlinear Bibles out there that are probably better for those whose knowledge of Greek is limited. Take care, however, to distinguish between those which are based on Stephen's 1550 Textus Receptus and those which give a complete apparatus for comparing many manuscripts. Most biblical scholars feel the Textus Receptus was flawed in many ways.

I own both the UBS text and the Nestle Aland text. As noted by the previous reviewer, there are some differences in how the UBS text notes variant readings. I find the UBS method to be both more complete and easier to read. (See below on the commentary available). I also find the text to be easier to read (slightly larger print, and I think the style of print is easier to read too).

A point of clarification, though, regarding the basic Greek Text. My understanding is that there is very little if any difference IN THE GREEK TEXT between these two editions. They BOTH rely and build upon the work of Wescott and Hort in textual criticism, and reach very similar conclusions about the "best readings" for any given variant.

The companion volume (A Textual Commentary) also published by UBS is a GREAT addition. It helps you understand why the committee reached the conclusions they did about which reading may be the best reading. Note; whenever a variant reading exists in the extensive library of ancient manuscripts, it is noted in the footnotes (Critical Apparatus). There is also a note as to how comfortable the committee was about their selection of the best text. An "A" rating means that there is no question in their minds. A "D" rating might mean that the selected reading is only very slightly more likely to be the original reading than one of the other variants. (I hope that is clear). In some cases I have taken exception with their decision on "D" readings, and it helps to know that they were not completely comfortable with the choice they had made.

One advantage of the Nestle text is that it is just slightly smaller and easier to carry (a vest pocket edition. (As noted above, you pay for the size in it being not as easy to read.) My copy of Nestle is cloth bound while the UBS text is bound in vinyl/plastic. My UBS text has proven to be very durable. A word of caution... don't leave it on the dashboard or seat of your car on a hot day. The heat WILL damage the binding.

This Greek New Testament (UBS4) uses the same text as the earlier 3rd edition (1975, corr. ed. 1983). The presentation of this text differs in two respects, neither of which is unambiguously an improvement:

1. A different font is used for the text itself. Not just a different font, but a repellently ugly font that has not much resemblance to any font with which a quality edition of a Greek text has ever been published before. Yes, ever. The geniuses at the United Bible Societies are the first people (going back to Erasmus' publication of a NT edition in 1516) who thought that a hideous, spindly, faux-italic computer font would be a better choice than ANY of the established Greek fonts that heretofore have been used in the printing of ancient texts. I hope you'll forgive my emotion on this point, but, as a scholar of (Classical) Greek with a library full of Greek texts published by Oxford, Teubner, etc., I am just flabbergasted to see such disregard for tradition as this. The UBS4 font choice is analogous to printing an English Bible in one of those goofy "Calypso" or "Horror Movie" fonts that come with Windows. The UBS3 (1975) and its corrected edition (1983) are both presented in an attractive, standard typeface that would be suitable for a printed edition of any ancient text.

(As an aside: the Nestle-Aland "Novum Testamentum Graece," in some ways the more conventional current scholarly edition of the NT, is also marred by its odd, cramped way of indicating textual variations. Again, Nestle and Aland's innovation of intruding a million squiggles, squares, circles, etc., into a text, is not an improvement over the traditional apparatus criticus--it's just an awkward space-saver. This is a major reason why anyone who wants a clean, accurate, up-to-date Greek text of the NT may want to choose UBS3 over Nestle-Aland.)

2. The other difference is in the selection and presentation of material in the critical apparatus. Here, I'm sure there were sound scholarly reasons. Note that in the UBS Greek Bibles (as opposed to the Nestle-Aland "Novum Testamentum Graece") the point of the apparatus criticus is not to present the larger manuscript tradition and variations synoptically, but to focus in on only those textual variations that might affect the translation of a passage. For these passages, the apparatus indicates a committee's judgment (indicated with a letter scale: A, B, C, D) on the different possible readings and punctuations. Unfortunately, here too the revisions are not definitely an improvement. As Edward Hobbs, a distinguished Professor of Religion at Wellesley College, wrote on a popular Biblical Greek email list, "I also prefer UBS3 or UBS3c, since the evaluations have not undergone the 'grade-inflation' of UBS4. (Slightly different method used to describe the A,B,C,D grades, but the committee membership changed over the years to a more-traditional-in-some-ways and more-clones-of-Aland-in-other-ways group.)" The upshot of this is, the range of information and opinion you get from the apparatus in UBS3 is not obsolete and not inferior to what UBS4 offers.

This is a review of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, editione vicesima septima revisa (revised twenty-seventh edition), edited by B. and K. Aland, Karavidopoulos, Martini, and Metzger. The standard abbreviation for the work is NA27.

Other reviewers who know more Greek than I do have already dealt with the edition itself; here I only want to sort out a confusion of ISBN numbers.

NA27, in blue vinyl boards, without a dictionary, is ISBN 9783438051004. If you search for that ISBN on Amazon, you turn up an edition priced at $39.99. But Hendrickson Publishers has collaborated with the German Bible Society to release copies of their critical editions to the United States at lower prices; hence an Amazon search for ISBN 978-1598561722 leads to yet another product page for NA27 in blue vinyl boards without a dictionary, but this time priced at $25.05. Let me say it clearly: ISBN 9783438051004 and ISBN 9781598561722 refer to exactly the same volume: there is absolutely no difference between them whatsoever, except price. I know this because I ordered ISBN 9781598561722, the edition distributed by Hendrickson, and received an immaculate copy of NA27, which had ISBN 9783438051004 printed on it. Why Hendrickson created an ISBN which does not appear on the printed book, I don't know. I imagine because they wanted to distinguish the copies which they distribute from the copies which the Bible Societies distribute.

To summarize:

NA27 without dictionary distributed by American Bible Society: ISBN 9783438051004, $39.99.

NA27 without dictionary distributed by Hendrickson Publishers: ISBN 9781598561722, $25.05.

The price is the only difference; you get the same book.

Two other ISBNs deserve mention: ISBN 9783438051073 is NA27 with a German dictionary, and ISBN 9873438051158 is NA27 with an English dictionary. I believe Hendrickson distributes NA27 with the English dictionary as well, under a different ISBN and at a lower price, but I do not have the ISBN.

The authoritative Greek text used by most Bible translators, scholars, and seminaries is the Nestle-Aland text, which is used in the United Bible Society's Greek New Testament, 4th edition, as well as the Nestle-Aland 27th edition. These two editions use the same text, but have different approaches to listing the variant readings found in the manuscripts. For more reviews of Greek New Testaments, lexicons, grammars, etc. see "http://www.mindspring.com/~jwrobie/littleGreek.html".

This by far is my favorite Greek New Testament. The binding works great for laying the NT on a desk. The pages are great for writing on or highlighting. The letters are easy to read and spaced evenly to help the reader read better and still leaves enough room to write on the page if necessary. The dictionary is sufficient for study although I recommend a Lexicon to go with this Greek NT.

Overall I would highly recommend this edition of the Greek New Testament!

I think I own all the major versions of the Greek NT. This one is my favorite because I like the fonts better. The UBS version is harder on the eyes and I just don't like to read it as much as this one.

The technical apparatus is superior to the 3rd edition with many changes and improvements. Still, it's tough to decipher the apparatus unless you spend a lot of time learning how to interpret it...or you are really sharp. To make better sense out of the apparatus, one needs Metzger's Textual Commentary as a companion. It looks and feels like this version of the NT...so there's some emotional pay off if you care about that sort of thing.

The cross references are also nice if you are doing sermon exegesis...usually there are some great passages to tie into a point hidden in those little cross references and they are worth looking up. That's not really new though since the 2nd and 3rd editions had the same benefit. Some scholars like the cross references in the UBS version better. I have not seen a lot of difference...but I'm no scholar either.

The best Greek NT I have overall is the Novum Testamentum Graece published by Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. It has the most helpful cross references, although I don't like the fonts on it as much as this one.

So it may be useful to have that edition for that purpose.

Overall I'm very glad that I bought this one. (...)

Martin Luther said the following on the importance of the original languages: "Without languages we could not have received the gospel. Languages are the scabbard that contains the sword of the Spirit; they are the casket which contains the priceless jewels of antique thought; they are the vessel that holds the wine; and as the gospel says, they are the baskets in which the loaves and fishes are kept to feed the multitude." If the languages do not remain then the Gospel will perish!

It is necessary to learn the original languages of the Old and New Testaments. This Fourth edition of the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament is the tool, which pastors and students need to learn and maintain competency in Koine Greek. It is an excellent edition of the Greek New Testament, which allows for exegetical study of the New Testament.

The introduction is a helpful foundation for using this text. It provides a brief overview of the manuscripts used, abbreviations, and a select bibliography for further research. The textual apparatus (stuff at the bottom of the page) is not as detailed as the NA27 (Nestle-Aland 27th edition), but it is generally enough for the beginning-intermediate student and the pastor. Variant readings, punctuation apparatus, and cross-references are all included in the apparatus at the bottom of the page. The Synoptic Gospels have parallel segments listed above each section and there are subject titles, which seek to divide the passage into various trains of thought.

In the back there is an index of quotations, an index of allusions and verbal parallels, and a list of the principal manuscripts cited in the textual apparatus. There is also a map index provided for the color map displayed on the very last two pages. Make sure to buy the edition, which includes Barclay Newman's A Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament in the back. This dictionary can also be purchased separately but it is helpful to have at hand all in one book.

Overall this is a good edition to keep close at hand. However it is a tool, which again is rendered ineffective unless it is used. May such tools provide the foundation for our understanding of the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is his word to us. It is the message of hope and life - it is the wisdom of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May we seek to study it, to understand it, and to hide it in our hearts that we may glorify him.

I know, I know, you are thinking, "Of _course_ it isn't English! It's Greek".

That's not what I mean, though.

Several of the different bindings of the Greek New Testament all share the same set of reviews on the amazon.com web page, but they are not all the same book. For example, the "hardcover" binding that I ordered, if you look very carefully at the image of the front page, has the sub-title "con Introduccion en Castellano" and "DICCIONARIO". Unfortunately, what this means is, I received the Greek text I expected, but the preface at the beginning has been translated into Spanish, and the dictionary in the back is a Greek-Spanish dictionary, not a Greek-English dictionary. However, much of the other material does contain a curious mix of English and Spanish. The maps are English, the indexes are English, and the footnotes are English.

So look carefully at the sample pages from the book you want to order. I noticed that there were some other ones that were German. There is nothing other than the sample pages to indicate that these are foreign-language books.

On the other hand, I concur with all of the other folks that this is a nice Greek edition. I particularly like the sturdy binding, and the fact that the book lays open very easily without the slightest tendency to close itself. The book has a nice weight to it, too, and the pages turn easily. (Sometimes with Bible texts I have particular difficulty getting ahold of individual pages.) The size is just right for me, too. Bigger than pocket or palm sized, but not so large that it is a burden. The Greek text is perfectly readable, not at all too small.