Journal: Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal
Volume: DBSJ 24:1 (NA 2019)
Article: Three Greek NT Readers A Review Article
Author: Timothy E. Miller

DBSJ 24 (2019) p. 155

Three Greek NT Readers A Review Article

Timothy E. Miller1

We truly have an embarrassment of riches in modern Christian resources. Most of the history of the church has had no Greek reader’s edition of the New Testament, but now we have at least three! Indeed, we even have a reader’s edition of the Greek Septuagint.2 This review will compare the new Tyndale Greek reader with the NT Greek readers currently in the market. And since Greek reader’s editions are naturally written for novice Greek students, I will develop this review with such students in mind. Stated differently, this review will compare the three with the following question in mind: which reader’s edition would best benefit a student who has just finished second year Greek?

Before comparing, it will be helpful to give a brief introduction to each volume. Coming first chronologically, the Zondervan Reader’s Greek New Testament (ZRE) was first introduced in 2004. It is now in its third edition (2015).3 Second, the United Bible Society released its first UBS: A Reader’s Edition (UBSRE) in 2007. When UBS went from its fourth edition to the fifth edition, a second edition of the reader was also published (2015).4 Finally, the book under direct review here, The Tyndale House Greek New Testament: Reader’s Edition (TRE), was published in November of 2018.5 The current review will evaluate the usefulness of this final resource by comparing it to those volumes which came before it.

The most significant difference amongst the volumes is the Greek text they present. It is not surprising that the UBSRE uses the text that underlies the UBS. Accordingly, there are some notable differences between the first edition of the UBSRE and the second edition, which

DBSJ 24 (2019) p. 156

mirror the differences between the UBS fourth and fifth editions.6 As for the ZRE, the Greek text is based on the Goodrick-Kohlenberger text, which is the eclectic text underpinning the New International Version. In the third edition, the ZRE notes that their text differs from the text of UBS fifth in 588 places, though many of those differences exist because the ZRE text simply removes the brackets from the UBS text. Where the ZRE differs from the most recent UBS/NA text, there is a footnote highlighting the difference.

The TRE Greek text differs from both other editions. Indeed, the Tyndale...