By now, many have heard the exciting announcement that Greg Lanier (RTS Charlotte class of 2013) has been appointed as the Assistant Professor of New Testament at RTS Orlando. You can read more about that announcement here.
It has been a joy to watch Greg’s academic career since he was here at RTS Charlotte (and was my TA), and is now finishing up his PhD under Simon Gathercole at Cambridge. For those who know Simon, it won’t be a surprise that Greg is doing his thesis in the area of Christology. His topic is Christology in the Gospel of Luke through the Use of Metaphors.
I also noticed that he had an article published in the most recent issue of JBL: “The Curious Case of צמח and ἀνατολή: An Inquiry Into Septuagint Translation Patterns” (vol 134, pp. 505-527). Here is the abstract:
Two main arguments have been proposed to explain the peculiar LXX use of the typically light-related ἀνατολή to render the familiar messianic צמח of Jer 23:5, Zech 3:8, and Zech 6:12. (1) The translators simply made a mistake or switched metaphors, or (2) the translators were using ἀνατολή to highlight the “glow” half of the alleged “glow/grow” semantic field of צמח. This article argues against both views by undertaking a comprehensive semantic analysis of both the Hebrew and the Greek lexical groups, paying particular attention to their literal and metaphorical uses across a broad range of Jewish literature. The analysis demonstrates that the translators’ use of ἀνατολή is a semantically appropriate gloss that captures the underlying sense of the metaphor: the emergence or arising of a deliverer figure.
Well done Greg!