`It was Winer who in 1822 made a new epoch in New Testament grammatical

study by his Neutestamentliches Sprachidiom.  It is hardly possible for

the student of the present day to enter into sympathy with the

inanities and sinuosities that characterized the previous treatises on

the New Testament idiom ... as a University tutor Winer combated this

absurd system of interpretation.

`It must be said, however, that great as was the service of Winer to

this science, he did not at all points carry out consistently his own

principles, for he often explained one tense as used for another ... in

a true sense he was a path -finder.  But none the less his work has

been an epoch -making one for New Testament study'.

The reader may be asking, who is this commentator upon Winer?  Surely

he will have something interesting to say himself, on the matter of Greek

grammar?  He has.  The words we have just quoted are taken from the

introduction to:

A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the light of historical

research, by A. T. Robertson, M.A., D.D., LL.D.

Robertson has made abundant use of the papyri discovered by Flinders -

Petrie, Grenfell and Hunt, and others.  Moulton, quoting Bishop Lightfoot,

said in his Prologomena:

`I will go further and say that if we could only recover letters that

ordinary people wrote to each other without being literary, we should

have the greatest possible help for the understanding of the language

of the New Testament generally', and Robertson adds `If Lightfoot only

lived now!'

The reader must know that in the providence of God, Lightfoot's desire

is an accomplished fact, and in our next section we will speak more

particularly of books that throw light upon the Papyri and their usefulness.

For the moment we are dealing with Robertson's Grammar.  In case the reader

should visualize this grammar as a thin wisp of a book, we mention that it is

almost exactly the same size as Young's Analytical Concordance, having, to be

exact, 1,454 pages.

Ingenuity is taxed to the limit to attempt a digest of such a volume on

such a subject within the bounds of a paragraph.  The table of contents

occupies thirty -one pages alone!  The work is liberally indexed, and can

only be appreciated upon actual handling and use.

The references made to the discovery of ancient papyri and its bearing

upon New Testament Greek, make an acquaintance with some of the outstanding

features of this discovery very essential to the earnest student.  Foremost

among the books that will open the door into this new field of research is:

Light from the Ancient East, by Adolf Deissman, D.D., translated by

Lionel R.  M. Strachan, M.A.

This work of over 500 pages is illustrated with sixty -eight

photographs and drawings, and is not likely to be obtained second-hand for