Long and Halcomb’s NT Polyglot – Keeping Language Knowledge Alive

At some point when you decide to do advanced study in the New Testament (esp at the PhD level), you realize that you have signed on to study at least half a dozen languages. Its not just Greek. It is also Hebrew (to engage with the OT and do OT/LXX comparison in questions regarding, e.g., the vorlage of a NT quotation/allusion), Latin (to work in textual criticism, history of interpretation, and to make sense of phrases like curriculum vitae and imago or missio dei), French and German, and sometimes Aramaic, Syriac, Coptic, Italian, and Spanish. How can anyone keep up?

Well, like Jenny Craig would tell you, there are no short cuts or quick solutions. It takes time, desire, and discipline. Thank goodness for the vision and work of my friends Dr. Fredrick Long and soon-to-be-doctor Michael Halcomb for their Hexapla: A Parallel & Interlinear New Testament Polyglot: Luke-Acts. Basically, it offers side-by-side six translations of Luke-Acts: Hebrew, Latin, Greek, English, German, and French. My Greek is pretty good. I can get away with my Latin. Everything else has turned to goo in my brain, so I really need to spend time in this book.

One of my favorite parts is the inclusion of Hebrew. My BHS is pretty much neglected 365 days a year. It scares me. But taking a stab at a NT text in Hebrew? That’s worth a short. Maybe it will give me the courage to reconcile with my BHS. I really do want to…

So, if you are a PhD student, a young professor, a pastor or former seminary student that wants to “brush up” on the Biblical languages, or an older professor who wants to continue to sharpen his or her language proficiency, consider checking this out. A sample can be viewed here. Yes, it is available from Amazon for a reasonable $18.00. And, yes, they do plan on producing more volumes. Scholars everywhere who want students and pastors of the NT to have better use of their Biblical and research languages are in Long and Halcomb’s debt (thanks, gentlemen!).