Deissmann’s Bible Studies

This work was originally published in German as two separate works, Biblestudien (1895) and Neue Bibelstudien (1897).  The importance of this work is evident in the number of times it is cited (over 100 times in BDAG, and 150 in WBC-NT), and in the praise it has received from New Testament scholars.

In commenting upon the place of New Testament Greek within its larger linguistic context, Dan Wallace writes: “… in 1895, Adolf Deissmann published his Bibelstudien—an innocently titled work that was to revolutionize the study of the NT. In this work (later translated into English under the title Bible Studies) Deissmann showed that the Greek of the NT was not a language invented by the Holy Spirit (Hermann Cremer had called it ‘Holy Ghost Greek,’ largely because 10 percent of its vocabulary had no secular parallels).

Deissmann demonstrated that the vast bulk of NT vocabulary was to be found in the papyri. The pragmatic effect of Deissmann’s work was to render obsolete virtually all lexica and lexical commentaries written before the turn of the century.

Deissmann’s Bible Studies represents the best in the Biblical scholarship of old, with a timeless relevance for the scholar or student of Greek.

You may also be interested in Deissmann’s Light from the Ancient East.

Deissmann’s Bible Studies
Contributions Chiefly from Papyri and Inscriptions to the History of the Language, the Literature, and the Religion of Hellenistic Judaism and Primitive Christianity
• Author: G. Adolf Deissmann
• Translator: Alexander Grieve
• Text of 1901 version published by T & T Clark