“It is not an easy task, but it cannot be avoided”: On the Contribution of Royal Skousen

I'm a philologist at heart. It was my fondness for the peculiarities of words and the complexities of grammar those words create that led me to ditch my one-semester engagement with the accounting profession and instead turn my attention to the world of Classics through studying Greek and Latin at Brigham Young University. In addition to reading the works of Herodotus and Tacitus, I found myself really enjoying reading the New Testament in its original Greek. And as those who have spent any time with the Nestle-Aland edition of the New Testament know full well, one does not jump into reading the Greek New Testament without also having to grapple with the textual issues that surround it. Open up to any page in the Nestle-Aland edition, and you'll often find half the space devoted to the actual text of the New Testament and the other half devoted to all...