Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Chapter One. Creation Language in Romans 8: A Survey of Interpretation and Method -- Interpretations of Creation Language in Rom 8.18-23 -- Among the Fathers and Reformers -- Ktisis in Anthropological and Cosmological Perspective -- Contemporary Consensus in the ktisis Debate -- Voices of Dissent and Viable Alternatives -- Conclusion -- Evaluating Interpretive Methods and the Problem of Word Studies -- Common Approaches -- Lexical Meaning and Lexical Function -- Conclusion -- Is There a Way Forward? -- Selecting an Approach -- Procedure and Thesis -- Chapter Two. Systemic Functional Monosemy: A Theory of Lexical Meaning and Function -- Introducing Linguistic Semantics -- Terms and Concepts -- Cognitive Polysemy -- Conclusion -- Traditional Approaches in Biblical Lexical Semantics -- The Gloss and Translational Approaches -- Theological Lexicography -- Contextual Approaches -- Conclusion -- Monosemy in Cognitive and Systemic Functional Perspective -- Cognitive Beginnings in the Work of Charles Ruhl -- Lexical Semantics from a SFL Perspective -- Some Key Details in a Proposed Model -- Moving from Cognitive to Functional Monosemy -- Conclusion -- Chapter Three. Corpus Linguistics: Lexicographical Data Collection, Theory, and Analysis -- Introducing Corpus Linguistics: General Principles and Goals -- Establishing a Representative Corpus of Hellenistic Greek -- The Nature of the Greek of the New Testament -- Representing Meaningful Patterns in Hellenistic Greek -- Conclusion -- Corpus Theory and the Analysis of Data -- The Phenomenon of Collocation -- Distinguishing Qualitative and Quantitative Measures -- Collocation and Other Quantitative Phenomena -- Qualitative Measures in Corpus Analysis -- Conclusion -- Corpus Linguistics and Systemic Functional Monosemy.

Lexicogrammatical Patterning and Polysemy -- Lexicogrammatical Patterning and Monosemy -- Conclusion -- Chapter Four. Modeling Lexicogrammatical Metaphor -- Traditional Approaches to Metaphor -- Systemic Functional Approaches to Metaphor -- Essential Principles of Grammatical Metaphor -- Metaphorical Construals and Motivational Factors -- Conclusion -- Lexicogrammatical Metaphor -- Metaphor as Lexical and Grammatical -- Ideational and Interpersonal Implications of Lexicogrammatical Metaphor -- A Taxonomy of Lexicogrammatical Metaphor -- Conclusion -- A Model for the Analysis of Lexicogrammatical Metaphor -- Lexicogrammatical Metaphor in Binocular Perspective -- The Role of the Corpus in the Binocular Perspective -- Identifying Metaphorical Expressions -- Conclusion -- A Procedure for Analyzing the Metafunctional Contribution of Lexicogrammatical Metaphorical Extension -- Chapter Five. Corpus Insights into Creation Language in Hellenistic Greek -- Corpus Analyses and Source Criticism -- Qualitative Data -- Frequency of the Lexeme -- Distribution of the Various Inflections -- Lexical Patterning: Collocations and Semantic Associations -- Basic Collocation Patterns -- Collocations Indicating Spatio/Temporal Reference -- Creation and the Cosmos -- Creation Language and the Founding of Cities -- Creation in Theological Discourse -- Qualitative Data -- ktisis as Nominalization -- Patterns of Transitivity -- Textual Patterning -- Creation and Ad Hoc Domains -- Semantic Chaining and the Founding of Rome -- Semantic Chaining and the Eucharist -- The Functions of ktisis in the Corpus and the Meaning of ktisis -- Chapter Six. The Contribution of ktisis in the Textual Organization of Romans 8.18-25 -- Semantic Chaining in Romans 8 -- Preliminary Observations regarding the CREATION Chain -- Creation and Adoption -- Creation and Redemption.

Creation and Expectation -- Conjunctive Systems in Romans 8 -- The Role of the Simple Conjunctive Systems -- The Role of the ou monon de, alla kai Complex -- Conclusion -- Chapter Seven. The Role of ktisis in Discourse Transitivity -- Initial Observations -- Transitivity of Rom 8.19 -- Transitivity of Rom 8.20 -- Transitivity of Rom 8.21 -- Transitivity of Rom 8.22 -- Transitivity of Rom 8.23 -- Lexical Choice and Its Exegetical Implications -- Conclusion -- Chapter Eight. Conclusions and Results -- Evaluating Theory and Method in Greek Lexical Studies -- The Function of ktisis in Rom 8.18--23 -- Implications and Directions for Further Study -- Appendix One. Outline of Specialized Corpus -- Appendix Two. Collocation Charts for ktisis -- Appendix Three. Concordance Chart for ktisis -- Bibliography -- Index of Ancient Sources -- Index of Modern Authors.