• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Phil Gons

Bible & Tech

  • About
  • Contact
  • Categories
    • Audio
    • Books
    • Deals
    • Exegesis
    • Meditations
    • Miscellany
    • Reviews
    • Technology
    • Theology
    • Videos
  • Resources
    • Bibliographies
    • Book Reviews
    • Files
    • Messages
    • Other Works
    • Publications
    • Union with Christ
You are here: Home / Archives for grammar

grammar

The Passive Voice Should Be Avoided, Right?

April 11, 2009 by Phil Gons

The Elements of StyleLike most of you who have taken classes with teachers who provided grammatical and stylistic critiques of your papers, I was told to avoid the passive voice as much as possible. Yet I was never really completely convinced of the notion. The Greek New Testament is full of passives, I rebutted, and a grammatical active may be a semantic passive (yet these, strangely, never got marked as improper). I just never felt like the case against passives was convincing. It was more of an unquestionable rule of proper writing style.

But not everyone is afraid to question this prevailing notion. I just read a scathing (understatement!) review of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style that addresses the issue of passives, among other things. It was written by Geoffrey K. Pullum, who is the head of linguistics and English language at the University of Edinburgh.

[Read more…] about The Passive Voice Should Be Avoided, Right?

Filed Under: Books, Reviews Tagged With: E. B. White, grammar, style, William Strunk, writing

Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek by Constantine R. Campbell

November 9, 2008 by Phil Gons

About two months ago, I happened to catch a Zondervan blog post that mentioned that they were giving away 20 review copies of Constantine Campbell’s Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek. I enjoy studying Greek, needed to learn more about the verbal aspect theory, and like free books, so I sent off my email and managed to snag a copy.

I got a friendly email yesterday reminding me that I still needed to write my review and mentioning the week-long series of blog posts on verbal aspect from the book’s author next week at the Zondervan Koinonia blog. It appears that I’m not alone as I’ve seen several other reviews coming out today.

[Read more…] about Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek by Constantine R. Campbell

Filed Under: Books, Reviews Tagged With: Constantine Campbell, grammar, Greek, verbal aspect, WordPress

What Does “No More Sea” in Revelation 21:1 Mean?

August 25, 2007 by Phil Gons

Revelation 21:1 reads,

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

Does this text teach that the new earth will not have large bodies of water (θαλάσσας)—no more lakes, seas, or oceans? Most think so.

The “sea” . . . must disappear before the eternity of joy can begin.1

The first hint of what the new heaven and new earth will be like comes in John’s observation that there will no longer be any sea. That will be a startling change from the present earth, nearly three-fourths of which is covered by water.2

Why would this be? Most argue that the sea symbolizes evil (or death or disorder), and thus the eradication of evil necessitates the removal of the sea.

[Read more…] about What Does “No More Sea” in Revelation 21:1 Mean?
  1. Grant R. Osborne, Revelation, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 743. [↩]
  2. John MacArthur, Revelation 12–22 (Chicago: Moody, 2000), 263. [↩]

Filed Under: Exegesis, Theology Tagged With: ESV, grammar, Greek, interpretation, lakes, Libronix, oceans, Revelation, seas, translation, water

Footer

Popular Posts

  • One God in Three Persons: Unity of Essence, Distinction of Persons, Implications for Life
  • Rob Bell and Andrew Wilson Discuss Homosexuality and the Bible
  • Did John Use Bad Grammar to Teach the Holy Spirit’s Personality?
  • Free Download of R. C. Sproul’s The Truth of the Cross
  • The Doctrine of the Trinity in Five Theses
  • Warfield, Vos, and Van Til: Is God One Person?
  • John Murray on Union with Christ
  • Is Google Keep Better Than Evernote?
  • The Best Google Reader Replacement

About Me

I’m a Christ-follower and the Chief Product Officer at Logos. I’m happily married to my best friend and the father of five wonderful children. I enjoy studying the Bible and playing outside with my kids. More about me . . .

Subscribe

Receive posts via email

Join 3,932 other subscribers

Random Posts

  • More Than One Third of the Internet Is Porn
  • Xobni for Outlook
  • What to Do When a Baseball Is Thrown a Foot from Your Head
  • Free Download: Life in a Risen Saviour by Robert Candlish
  • Barth on the Son’s Subordination to the Father
  • Dave Wike’s New CD: “Still Waters”
  • Edwards on Faith and Works in Justification
  • Responding to Cancer
  • Save $60 a Year on Your Internet

Copyright © 2025 · Infinity Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in