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For about a year we have been discussing whether to make New Testament Greek on-topic. One of the arguments against this was the on-going Greek proposal, which covered all eras of the Greek language. Unfortunately, this proposal failed. A new one has taken its place, yet the prospects are bleak considering the track record for Greek language proposals.

Do you think it's time to make New Testament Greek admissible on this site? It could provide an influx of new questions, which could be very helpful considering our poor question per day ratio.

I have added two answers, below, to gauge the interests of the community. Please upvote which of the two choices agrees with you. Also, please don't cast any downvotes. The decision will be based on upvotes; downvotes have no effect. My vote is for including NT Greek.

At the time of recording, the policy proposal of permitting NT Greek questions has won, with a score of 10 upvotes for and 1 upvote against.

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    There has actually been a number of Greek proposals on Area 51, none if which took off. Unless a completely new approach is taken, a Greek site seems unlikely in the foreseeable future. I wouldn't count on such a site coming along, although I would be happy to see it happen. – Joonas Ilmavirta♦ Jul 5 '18 at 22:16
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Yes, we should allow NT Greek. It will allow many members of this site to put their Greek knowledge to use, as well as provide us with an influx of new questions. If the Greek language proposal ever succeeds then we can change our policy in the future.

NT Greek is intimately tied to Latin translations of the New Testament, which are very much on topic anyway. It would be silly to exclude a topic so relevant to an important aspect of Latin.

  • +1. If some kind of Greek is on-topic, it makes sense that NTG is, too. Since the community has decided to allow older Greek, I am not opposed to including NTG. I have a slight preference not to allow Greek at all, but that is another discussion (which I believe would leave me in the minority). – Joonas Ilmavirta♦ Jul 5 '18 at 22:22
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I'd like to offer a third answer for those who might think differently. The New Testament is generally not part of the (core) curriculum of classics; classicists generally do not read it at university, at least not in my experience at three different universities. It mostly/partly a text from a very different culture, whereas the cultures of classical Rome and Greece were entwined for a millennium or more.

This could be a reason to set the limit outside the New Testament and ask those questions on e.g. the Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange, which would seem a more appropriate recipient at a glance.

In fact, Biblical Hermeutics already has a tag with lots of questions about translation and interpretion. Why not ask there? Should we split such questions between two different Stack Exchanges? An example:

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And, as you can see, it got a fairly good number of views.

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    I would argue that our site isn't restricted to classics anyway, as all eras of Latin are included. The scoping with New Testament Greek should be careful: NTG grammar and the like sounds fine to me, but translation and interpretation of NT should be taken elsewhere. The two may overlap, of course; one should pick the SE site that has the more appropriate focus. – Joonas Ilmavirta♦ Jul 6 '18 at 1:46
  • @JoonasIlmavirta♦: The difference is that later Latin is based on classical Latin and its culture, including e.g. various church fathers. One cannot read Augustine without having read Cicero! But the Bible is separate. For example, at my university, I also followed the Latinistics programme, which involved the Latin from late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. – Cerberus♦ Jul 6 '18 at 1:52
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    BH limits itself to Greek questions specifically related to a particular biblical text – it doesn't allow for generic questions about the structure or usage of Koine Greek. See: Are questions about the languages themselves (without referencing a specific text) on topic? – Nathaniel is protesting Jul 6 '18 at 21:06
  • @Nathaniel♦: Right! I suppose that makes sense. But how many questions are really about Biblical Greek but without a specific context? I don't remember seeing any such questions, but I would find them interesting. – Cerberus♦ Jul 6 '18 at 23:22
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No, we should not expand to New Testament Greek.

There are many possible reasons for this:

  • The site should focus on Latin, not expand to more kinds of Greek. (This question is only about the New Testament, so if you are opposed to Greek in general, this is still your question. Whether classical Greek is included should be discussed separately.)
  • New Testament, whether Greek or Latin, is not part of Classics. (Although arguably our site is not restricted to Classics anyway, as all eras of Latin are on topic.)

Feel free to add other reasons!

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