I wrote a post a couple weeks ago soliciting opinions about whether I should change my blog’s name (“kata ton biblon”) to something else. I had discovered that it was grammatically incorrect. My intention was for the title to mean “according to the book,” referring to interpretation of biblical texts and also those who live their lives “according to the book.” Biblon is the accusative form of “biblos,” which is one of those funky second declension feminine nouns. I accidentally used a neuter article. It took me many months to realize my error. There is also another word for book: biblion, which is neuter but spelled differently.

I received many thoughtful responses to my post. Most of them seemed to either outright state that I should change it, or imply such. One person, Matt Barnes, suggested that I keep it because it’s part of the identity of the blog. I like that reasoning. I began this blog, not knowing really what blogging was and gradually learned more about what I’d like to do with it. All the while, my blog’s name has stayed the same. It’s nice to have a constant. On the other hand, I’d like to think that this is only the beginning of my blog’s life and that not that much time has really passed. And I don’t want to get five years down the line and have to keep explaining why its name is wrong.

Carl W. Conrad, Associate Professor Emeritus of Greek and Latin Poetry and Biblical Literature at Washington University at St. Louis, suggested (and Stephen C. Carlson agreed) that I use the plural of biblion, so: kata ta biblia. I looked things up in a few sources and decided that it doesn’t make too much difference whether it is singular or plural, biblon or biblion, since it seems it was used to refer to sacred literature (even the Bible itself) as any combination of those (see the Lampe entries below). Dr. Conrad’s suggestion, however, (and he should know more than me!) appears to be the most common way that the phrase is communicated in the literature. Also, it rhymes. I think it’s nice to have a blog name that sounds good.

So I’m changing my blog’s name to kata ta biblia. It can still mean “according to the book,” taking book in the collective sense. I like how the plural seems to imply many voices gathered together in one collection. I suppose the plural could also refer to other sacred books or various scholarly books. Of course, people don’t live their lives “according to various scholarly books” (I hope), so that sense of meaning is out. I do hope to continue my concentration on biblical studies, particularly New Testament, from an Anabaptist perspective. But I am also interested in leaving my blog a little open-ended to generally focus on the interpretation of texts, be they sacred, scholarly, or popular.

Below are the entries for biblion and biblos in G. W. H. Lampe’s A Patristic Greek Lexicon. I found them helpful and thought you might like to take a peek.