Faculty and Administration

Francis joined the faculty at McMaster Divinity College in 2016 after teaching Biblical Greek at MDC since 2014. Francis has a keen interest in the language and texts of the New Testament. His research focuses on the verbal system of Hellenistic Greek and in particular how lexical semantics is related to Greek verbal aspect. He serves as an associate editor for Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics. Francis is also interested in the synoptic gospels and the historical development of eschatological thoughts in the early church. He has published several articles on the Greek verbal system and a monograph entitled Revisiting Aspect and Aktionsart: A Corpus Approach to Koine Greek Event Typology.

Practical Ministry Experience:
Francis has taught previously in Toronto at the Alliance Bible Seminary Centre of Canada, ministering to the Chinese Christian Community in the Greater Toronto Area and Vancouver. He regularly preaches in local churches in the Greater Toronto Area.

Research Interests:
Hellenistic Greek Language, Linguistics and Exegesis
Corpus Linguistics and Greek Event Typology
New Testament Eschatology
The Synoptic Problem
Gospel of Matthew and Jewish Christianity
New Testament Lexicography (Syntax Database)
Hermeneutics
Current Projects:
Francis is currently involved in a few co-authoring projects, including a handbook on the epistle of Philippians and a book on Pauline eschatology. He is working on a textbook on New Testament eschatology with Dr. Stanley E. Porter, which offers detailed exegesis of all the major eschatological passages in the New Testament.

Francis is heavily involved in the OpenText.org 2.0 project, developing an interactive web interface and a revised annotation scheme for a Koine Greek corpus. He is also co-editing a volume on the epistle of Romans in the McMaster New Testament Studies Series (Bingham 2014). Similar projects in the works include an article on the semantic feature of the so-called Greek Achievement verbs, an article on the interpretation of Mark 13, and an article on the OpenText.org project.

Lectures and Conference Papers:
(co-presented with Christopher D. Land) “The Past, Present, and Future of the OpenText.org Greek Annotation Greek Corpus.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting (Global Education and Research Technology), San Antonio, TX, 19 November, 2016.

“Is the Delayed Parousia a Modern Invention? The Development of Eschatology in the Early Church.” Evangelical Theological Society Annual Meeting (Pauline Theology Session), San Antonio, TX, 16 November, 2016.

(co-presented with Christopher D. Land) “The Past, Present, and Future of the OpenText.org Greek Annotation Greek Corpus.” Bingham Colloquium, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton Ontario, 17 June, 2016.

“‘Even the Son Does Not Know’: Mark 13:32 as Hermeneutical Key to the Markan Olivet Discourse.” Evangelical Theological Society Annual Meeting (Mark Session), Atlanta, GA, November 2015.

“When Did the Good News Become the Gospel?” Bingham Colloquium, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, Ontario, 5 June, 2015.

“From Dissertation to Publication.” McMaster Divinity College Colloquy on Dissertation and Faculty Development, Hamilton, Ontario, 6 Feb, 2015.

“Two Kinds of Movement? An Evaluation of Recent Proposals Concerning the Classification of Movement Verbs.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting (Biblical Lexicography), San Diego, CA, November 2014.

“Perfectivity and Telicity in Koine Greek: Towards a Better Understanding of the Compositional Process of Greek Aktionsart.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting (Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics), Baltimore, MD, November 2013.

“Lexis, Aspect and Aktionsart: Towards an Empirical Approach using a Representative Corpus Sample.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting (Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics), Chicago, IL, November 2012.

“Aspect and Aktionsart Once Again: Towards a Distinction between Properties of Verb and Verb Phrase.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting (Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics), San Francisco, CA, November 2011.

Publications:
Authored Books:
Revisiting Aspect and Aktionsart: A Corpus Approach to Koine Greek Event Typology. Linguistic Biblical Studies 14. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

Pauline Eschatology, co-author with Stanley E. Porter (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, forthcoming). Under contract.

Co-Edited Volume:
Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Conference (Tentative Title), co-edited with Stanley E. Porter (New Testament Studies Series; MDC Press). Under contract.

Articles and Book Chapters:
(co-authored with Christopher D. Land) “The Past, Present, and Future of the OpenText.org Annotated Greek Corpus.” In The Language and Literature of the New Testament: Essays in Honour of Stanley E. Porter’s 60th Birthday. Edited by Lois K. Fuller Dow, Craig A. Evans, and Andrew W. Pitts. Biblical Interpretation 150. (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 69-105.

“Why We Need an Annotated Representative Corpus of Hellenistic Greek: The Compositionality of Greek Aktionsart for Movement Verbs as an Example,” in In Mari via Tua: Philological Studies in Honour of Antonio Piñero. Edited by Israel M. Gallarte and Jesús Peláez. (Córdoba: Editions el Almendro, 2016), 157-82.

“Aspect and Aktionsart Once Again,” in Stanley E. Porter, Gregory P. Fewster and Christopher D. Land, eds., Modeling Biblical Languages: Papers from the McMaster Divinity College Linguistics Circle, LBS 13. (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 48-72.

“Towards a Charismatic Theology of Luke: Some Methodological Considerations,” in Herrick P.T. Liu, ed., The Spirit and the Church: A Dialog between the Evangelicals and the Pentecostals, (HK: Alliance Bible Seminary Press, 2014). (In Chinese)

“Aktionsart and Epiphenomena: A Systemic Functional Perspective on Process Typology,” in Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta, Israel Muñoz Gallarte, eds., Greeks, Jews, and Christians: Historical, Religious and Philological Studies in Honor of Jesús Peláez del Rosal, (Córdoba, Spain: Ediciones el almendro, 2013), 449-474.

“Aspect, Aktionsart, and Abduction: Future Tense in the New Testament.” Filologia Neotestamentaria 23 (2010): 129-59.