I'm teaching an intensive course on Mark this January (2018), and I will be focussing on narrative and performative aspects of the text. I came across the GlossaHouse Illustrated Greek-English New Testament online and asked for more information, and they sent me the book in exchange for a review.
Mark: GlossaHouse Illustrated Greek-English New Testament
(2014)
T. Michael W. Halcomb and Fredrick J. Long
This attractive, soft-cover, 8.5 x 11” book intends to
provide “an innovative resource that will allow readers of Greek to have more
embodied and engaging experience with the Greek New Testament.” While
“embodied” is an odd word choice to describe a book, this illustrated color
text certainly is “engaging.” At first glance, it looks like a comic book, but,
in contrast to the overly dramatic renderings of most comic books or the
stylized depictions of a Manga, it depicts historical settings of Jesus’ first
century, Palestine world. While I appreciate its consistency and visual appeal,
it certainly paints a more colorful world (especially in terms of dress) than was
likely. (For an example, cf. the FreeIllustratedBible
website.)
The Greek text provided is that of the Society of Biblical
Literature Greek New Testament (SBGNT). Narrative sections are placed in
rectangular yellowish boxes, direct quotations are in white speech bubbles, and
Scripture quotations are in orangish ‘parchment’ boxes. It provides a useful
visual way of seeing how the text works.
In addition to the illustrated presentation of the text, the
other most important feature is the English translation placed at the bottom of
each page (in extremely small point size that sometimes spills over into the
illustrations). There are 8 pages explaining the translation philosophy of the
GlossaHouse English Version (GEV). Here’s what they say:
This translation is fresh and fairly
literal; we have attempted to preserve word order significance and accurately
represent important features of the Greek text that are more emphasized and,
therefore, more prominent. All of this was intended for the beginning student
in mind, who may need help with Greek word meanings and understanding the
significance of special constructions, like purpose, conditionals, and
participles. In the translation work, we have applied current research on
linguistics and Greek grammar, emphasis constructions, orality, performance,
and social-cultural backgrounds. We have sought to strike a balance between
trying to translate the import (as far as we can gather) of every sentence
element but ye not “over-translating” and moving into commentary.
The rest of the introduction provides an excellent overview
of the kind of considerations involved in translating: word order, gender
inclusiveness, punctuation, treatment of particles and conjunctions, and
rendering of verb tenses in both indicative and non-indicative moods. Examples
from the text demonstrate why it is important to attend to such matters.
I find the translation to indeed be fresh and lively with a
distinct oral character that is consistent with the Greek of Mark. While there
are quibbles I have with some choices, overall I believe it accomplishes Halcomb
and Long’s intent of providing an English text with some transparency to the
original language for a student learning Greek. It also works well as a text
that could be used in the performance of the Gospel of Mark.
Other observations: There are chapter numbers set off in the
text and verse numbers within the text, but there are no chapter:verse
indicators at the top or bottom of the page, making it difficult to locate a
specific passage quickly. I was further confused by their use of Greek numbers
for the chapters, because it does not follow the standard Greek numbering system.
(The digamma is used for six as expected, but eta for eight is omitted and thus
every number thereafter is off. Iota, therefore is nine, and iota-alpha is ten,
etc…)
The majority scholarly opinion is that Mark ends at 16.8,
and the SBLGNT text continues with verse 9 in double brackets indicating that
it is probably not original. The illustration, however, makes no indication of
the distinction, nor does the GEV text at the bottom of the page.
SUMMARY: The
GlossaHouse Illustrated
Greek-English New Testament is an interesting project that uses attractive
visuals as a means for reinforcing reading of the Greek text. As significantly,
the GlossaHouse English Version text printed at the bottom of the pages is a vibrant
rendering of Mark’s Greek, and I especially commend the reflections on the principles
of their translating work described in the preface.
