With the death of W. F. Howard in 1952, responsibility to continue Moulton’s grammar fell to Nigel Turner. A careful and cogent addition, Turner’s Syntax continues the preceding volumes’ legacy of exceptional scholarship, with one difference. Turner’s analysis suggests that “Biblical Greek is a unique language with a unity and character of its own.” Unlike Moulton, Turner emphasizes the originality of the language found in the Greek of the New Testament. The differing viewpoint allows the reader a second look at Biblical Greek, widening the scope of their study.
Though edifying to any student of Greek, Syntax is specially designed for three classes of reader: first, the teacher with an interest in exegesis, or the Bible translator who wishes to know the exact significance of every construction; second, the textual critic for whom characteristic differences in the author's style may help to decide between variants; and lastly, the student of comparative philology concerned with the relationship of Biblical Greek to classical and Hellenistic. The volume is constructed according to the building up of the Greek sentence. It begins with word-material for sentence-building, moves on through the analysis of word-groups defining nouns or adjectives to word-material defining the verb. The second part of the grammar concerns the complete sentence and its syntax. It features sections on the ordinary simple sentence and its construction and on different types of sentences and their varying structures.
Additional resources include an abundance of examples, information about the frequency of the occurrence of certain usages, and other fruits of wide reading and research make Syntax ideal for teachers and students of varying interests and requirements.
James Hope Moulton (1863–1917) was born in Richmond, Surrey. A Wesleyan minister, Moulton held various academic appointments. The most important of which was Greenwood professor of Hellenistic Greek and Indo–European philology at the University of Manchester. He was awarded a number of honorary degrees by leading British and German universities, and published many books and papers on Zoroastrianism and the Greek texts that the Bible is derived from. His main writings are An Introduction to the Study of New Testament Greek, The Science of Language and the Study of the New Testament , Grammar of New Testament Greek Vol. 1, Early Religious Poetry of Persia, Early Zoroastrianism, Religions and Religion, From Egyptian Rubbish Heaps, British and German Scholarship, The Treasure of the Magi, A Neglected Sacrament and Other Studies and Addresses, and The Christian Religion in the Study and the Street. He died of exposure after the ship on which he was returning from a tour of India was torpedoed and sunk.
Nigel Turner (1916- ) was Reader in Theology at the University of Rhodesia. He helped translate the New English Bible. He is also the author of Christian Words, The Art of the Greek Orthodox Church, and contributed to An Index to Aquila, Greek-Hebrew, Hebrew-Greek, Latin-Hebrew, with the Syriac and Armenian Evidence.