A Relevant Way to Read

In A Relevant Way to Read, Margaret G. Sim draws on her in-depth knowledge of New Testament Greek to forge a new exegesis of the Gospels and Paul’s letters. Locating her studies in the linguistic concept of relevance theory, which contends that all our utterances are laden with crucial yet invisible context, Sim embarks on a journey through some of the New Testament’s most troubling verses. Here she recovers lost information with a meticulous analysis that should enlighten both the experienced scholar and the novice.Whether discussing Paul’s masterful use of irony to shame the Corinthians, or introducing the ground-breaking ideas behind relevance theory into a whole new field of study, the author demonstrates her vast learning and experience while putting her complex subject into plain words for the developing student.''In contrast to many linguistics text books that are obscure and hard to follow, Margaret Sim makes excellent use of her many years of experience of both linguistics and teaching to provide a beautifully clear and helpful introduction to relevance theory and the ways in which it can be of considerable value for understanding the Bible.''--Peter Oakes, Greenwood Senior Lecturer in the New Testament, University of Manchester''Margaret Sim shows how one of the leading theories of pragmatics, relevance theory, provides a comprehensive and enlightening account of how we communicate, and applies this rigorously to the New Testament. The book is written in a clear and jargon-free manner that will make it accessible to advanced students of biblical studies and established biblical scholars with little or no prior exposure to linguistics.''--Steve Nicolle, Assistant Professor, Canada Institute of Linguistics, Trinity Western University, Canada''Arguably, contemporary linguistics has more to offer New Testament interpretation than any other ’new’ methodology. In this excellently-written and accessible book, Margaret Sim shows how insights from relevance theory, a fresh and fast-growing area of linguistics, can illuminate New Testament texts and enhance our understanding of them. I highly recommend it to serious students of the New Testament.''--Edward Adams, Professor of New Testament Studies, King’s College LondonMargaret G. Sim is a linguist and biblical scholar who lectured for many years in Biblical Studies and Translation at Africa International University. She now works as a translation consultant for Wycliffe Bible Translators. Her other works include Marking Thought and Talk in New Testament Greek: New Light from Linguistics on the Particles ἵνα and ὅτι (2011).