It’s been 3,040 days since my last post. I interrupt the blog’s 3,040-day hibernation to introduce a new resource for people who want to learn New Testament Greek. In Japanese, of course.

The book is:
『古代ギリシャ語の歩き方[初級]使徒パウロとめぐる新約聖書の世界【コリント篇】』 (Kodai Girishago no Arukikata [Shokyū]: Shito Pauro to Meguru Shin’yaku Seisho no Sekai [Korinto-hen])

In English, that would be: A Beginner’s Guide to Ancient Greek: The World of the New Testament with the Apostle Paul [Corinthians Edition]



This new introductory textbook is co-authored by Atsuhiro Asano and Cana Kanda.

Why I Recommend This Book

Reason #1. My daughter is one of the co-authors. Enough said.

Reason #2. Let me let Deepl.com translate part of the publisher’s description for reason #2:

Ancient Greek, which developed alongside Latin as a universal language in the ancient Mediterranean world. This book uses the timeless bestseller, the New Testament, as its setting to teach Koine Greek, the language in which it was written. Your guide is the Apostle Paul, who appears in the New Testament. Designed for leisurely study at a pace of one page per day, it allows you to master the fundamentals of beginner-level grammar in about three months, as if journeying through Corinth in the Mediterranean, a place connected to Paul. Numerous columns and photographs provide breaks from vocabulary and grammar study.

Reason #3. It comes with audio support, also by my daughter. You can listen to the lessons on this YouTube channel.

About the Authors

Atsuhiro Asano is a New Testament scholar who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford and is currently a professor at Kwansei Gakuin University.

Cana Kanda holds master’s degrees in early Christian Studies and Classics from the University of Notre Dame. She is a Greek instructor at Ochanomizu Bible Institute (OBI).

Enjoy.

Before I move on to other things, I’d like to introduce one more biblical studies related article from the Journal of the Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions.

Volume 10 (2015) includes an article about Leviathan in Jewish and Christian interpretation by Danielle Gurevich, Associate Dean at the Faculty of Humanities, Bar-Ilan University (Israel).

Here are the links and bibliographic information. Continue Reading…

Volume 9 of Journal of the Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions (2014) features three articles on the theme:

Monotheism and the Redefinition of Divinity in Ancient Israel

特集 古代イスラエルにおける一神教と神の再定義

Once again, I simply wish to draw these articles to your attention and provide easy access to them, so I have pulled together information and links for the introduction and each of the three articles.  Continue Reading…

Volume 6 of Journal of the Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions (2010) features four articles on the theme:

The philosophy of Martin Buber and His Biblical Hermeneutics: Between Germanness and Jewishness

特集 マルティン・ブーバーの思想とその聖書解釈の可能性: ドイツとユダヤの間で

It turns out that all of the articles of this journal appear in both English and Japanese. Thank you, JISMOR editors and authors!

Through digging around, I found the following information and links for each article. Continue Reading…

Before I turn my attention elsewhere, I’d like to introduce a few more “biblical studies” articles in past issues of the Journal of the Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions (JISMOR), published by Doshisha University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions.

* * *

This time, I’d like to introduce a contribution to JISMOR by Job Y. Jindo, a former classmate at Harvard. I think that both Japanese and English readers will be happy to know that Jindo’s Japanese article in JISMOR has been revised and published in English as well.

Below, I have included bibliographic information and links for both articles, as well as a few additional links that may be of interest. Continue Reading…