Black, Stephanie: Sentence Conjunctions in the Gospel of Matthew

An application of current linguistic research on discourse markers to sentence conjunctions in Matthew's Gospel. This treatment combines linguistic insights with a detailed examination of Matthew's use of kai, de and similar conjunctions in narrative passages, culminating in a verse by verse commentary on the structure of Matthew's ;miracle chapters', Matthew 8-9. Black breaks new ground in linguistic theory by modelling the interplay between features such as sentence conjunction, word order, and verb tense in the portrayal of continuity and discontinuity in Greek narrative. A volume of interest to New Testament scholars, classicists, discourse analysts and linguists alike."This work is a wealth of data, analysis, and examples that are quite helpful to one working in Matthew...She [Black] helpfully locates her work in the discussion of more comprehensive Classical and Hellenistic Greek studies and is well aware of the dangers of making decisive judgments based on such a small database, the 18,300 or so words in Matthew (103-4). Hers in a unique contribution to the much neglected field of lexico-grammatical issues in the first Gospel...[I]t is well worth the investment of time and effort on the part of the reader to mine the wealth of material provided in Black's careful study." -Review of Biblical Literature, 5/2004