Lexicons

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Lexicons
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Lexicons

• Lexicona dictionary, especially of Greek, Latin,
  or Hebrew
• From Gk lexikon, wordbook
• A lexicon may be described as a wordbook or
  dictionary of a specific language, or the
  vocabulary of a particular people.

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Lexicons

• A lexicon is compiled to describe in succinct
  terms the meaning(s) of a given word.
• The etymology is traced through the successive
  stages of the history of the language.

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• F. Brown, S. R. Driver and C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew
  and English Lexicon of the Old Testament
• Often referred to as BDB.
• BDB translated Thesarus philologicus-criticus
  linguae Hebraeae et Chaldaeae Veteris Testament
  (1829-1858)
• This work completed posthumously.

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• F. Brown, S. R. Driver and C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew
  and English Lexicon of the Old Testament
• Was companion volume to Wilhelm Gesenius,
  Hebraisches-deutsches Handworterbuch uber die
  Schriften des Alten Testaments (2 vols.
  1810-1812)
• BDB first appeared in 1907 and was last revised
  in 1962.

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• F. Brown, S. R. Driver and C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew
  and English Lexicon of the Old Testament
• It depended heavily on comparative linguistics
  and readily translated similar terms in a variety
  of Near Eastern languages.
• Value of BDB lies in fact editors were sensitive
  to the nuances or shades of meaning of Classical
  Hebrew.

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• F. Brown, S. R. Driver and C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew
  and English Lexicon of the Old Testament
• This gave their work an enduring quality that is
  not to be found in other, more recent, lexicons
  that lack flexibility when assigning specific
  meanings to words.

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris
  Testamenti Libros (2 vols. 1951-1953)
• Has never attained stature of BDB.
• Provided a Hebrew/Aramaic German/English
  explanation of words and their meanings and was
  based on the 3rd ed. of Rudolf Kittels Biblia
  Hebraica.

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris
  Testamenti Libros (2 vols. 1951-1953)
• The order of the words is strictly alphabetical
  and not by root as in BDB.
• Usage is also made of Ugaritic sources not
  available to BDB.
• K-B has now been revised by Baumgartner and J. J.
  Stamm, and is in the process of being translated
  and edited by M. E. J. Richardson (1994-).

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris
  Testamenti Libros (2 vols. 1951-1953)
• The new edition is being issued under the title
  Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament.
• so far, four out of five promised volumes have
  been published.
• This revision makes full use of Ugaritic
  materials and information from the Dead Sea
  Scrolls.

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris
  Testamenti Libros (2 vols. 1951-1953)
• A feature that makes this new edition more usable
  to students of Biblical Hebrew is the fact that
  words from other cognate languages are
  transliterated.
• Only Hebrew and Greek words are written in their
  own alphabets.

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris
  Testamenti Libros (2 vols. 1951-1953)
• A far as can be ascertained, this new edition of
  K-B has special value in the area of etymological
  research and in tracing hapax legomena.

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris
  Testamenti Libros (2 vols. 1951-1953)
• Though the meanings assigned different words are
  often influenced by critical considerations, the
  conclusions offered can always be checked against
  BDB.
• Advanced students will find valuable information
  in the bibliography.

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• D. J. A. Clines, Dictionary of Classical Hebrew
  (1993-)
• Scheduled for 8 vols., this lexicon is in many
  respects the first entirely new work to be
  published in many years.
• Others, such as BDB and K-B were based upon
  earlier works.
• DCH follows a strictly alphabetical order for the
  entries as they appear in sentences (as opposed
  to BDB where words are placed under the
  tri-lateral root).

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• D. J. A. Clines, Dictionary of Classical Hebrew
  (1993-)
• No cognates from other Semitic languages are
  mentioned, but inscriptional evidence down to
  A.D. 200, together with data from Qumran and Ben
  Sira, has been included.
• As a result DCH does not provide information
  about connections with other Semitic dialects and
  it does not classify usages as figurative or
  literal.

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• D. J. A. Clines, Dictionary of Classical Hebrew
  (1993-)
• Related words, synonyms, and antonyms are listed
  at the end of the treatment of a word.
• Emendations proposed by BDB and K-B are listed,
  but without any critical evaluation.

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• D. J. A. Clines, Dictionary of Classical Hebrew
  (1993-)
• DCH gives promise of being a valuable tool for
  the scholar.
• It strength lies in its semantic examination of
  each word, syntagmatic listing of every usage
  with its meaning, and paradigmatic listing of
  synonyms and antonyms.

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Lexicons (Hebrew)

• D. J. A. Clines, Dictionary of Classical Hebrew
  (1993-)
• It concludes with an English-Hebrew index, and an
  English translation of every Hebrew word or
  phrase.
• Though avant-garde and highly commendable, its
  projected size and cost will place it beyond the
  reach of the average student of the biblical
  languages.
• It is unlikely, therefore, to replace BDB for
  practical usefulness.

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Lexicons

• Walter Bauer, Greek-English Lexicon of the New
  Testament and Other Early Christian Literature
  (translated and edited by W. F. Arndt and F. W.
  Gingrich 1957-1958, and revised and augmented
  by F. W. Gingrich and F. W. Danker 1979).
• At one time referred to as Arndt and Gingrich,
  Bs lexicon is based upon an extensive
  examination of Greek literature, including NT
  words still in use in Byzantine times.

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Lexicons

• Bauer
• A vast amount of material was mastered and then
  reduced to succinct, descriptive statements
  defining the usage of each word and giving its
  meaning during different eras of Greek literary
  history.
• True value of the work can only be appreciated
  when one reads through the prefatory material,
  and particularly the introduction by Bauer.

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Lexicons

• Bauer
• Excellent coverage
• Meanings given are judicious
• Grammatical hints are significant
• References to literature outside the NT have been
  well-chosen and are representative of the usage
  of the same word in other sources.
• The volume is indispensable.

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Lexicons

• J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, Vocabulary of the
  Greek Testament, Illustrated from the Papyri and
  Other Non-literary Sources (1929)
• Important source of philological illumination
  comes from papyri discovered in Egypt.
• The terminology found in papyrus fragments,
  letters and ostraka, parallels the Greek of the
  NT.
• Thus, much of it may be used to add new insights
  into meanings of words employed by writers of the
  NT.

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Lexicons

• M-M
• This work is based upon articles published in The
  Expositor (1908-1911).
• Following Moultons death in 1917, Milligan
  carried on the work alone, finally finishing in
  1929.
• Contains numerous parallels to the terminology of
  the NT.
• Investigation of the source material offered in
  the concise format of M-M will not only enrich
  study but also provide many illustrations of word
  usage in the language of the people of the NT
  period.

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Lexicons

• G. H. W. Lampe, Patristic Greek Lexicon (1961)
• Work based on the material contained in Mignes
  Patrologia Graeca.
• Object is to make available the theological and
  ecclesiastical vocabulary of the Greek Christian
  authors from Clement of Rome to Theodore of
  Stadium, so that researchers can trace easily and
  efficiently the development of Christian thought.
• Informative coverage is given terms like
  apostolos, episkopos, presbuteros, .

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Lexicons

• G. H. W. Lampe, Patristic Greek Lexicon (1961)
• Values of such a lexicon are many.
• 1) As far as the development of doctrine is
  concerned, we can trace by e.g. as well as
  precept either the early churchs adherence to
  sound doctrine or its departure from it.
• The reasons for the latter frequently parallel
  trends in our own time.
• Human nature remains the same.

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Lexicons

• G. H. W. Lampe, Patristic Greek Lexicon (1961)
• Values of such a lexicon are many.
• 2) In the course of history, changes in the usage
  of words and their meaning were inevitable.
• Disciple in the Gospels used of one who had
  counted the cost of following Christ.
• In the era of the early church it came to be
  applied to those whose manner of life would
  permit this term to be connected with their name.

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Lexicons

• G. H. W. Lampe, Patristic Greek Lexicon (1961)
• Values of such a lexicon are many.
• Often death by martyrdom was regarded as the
  criterion for calling one a disciple.
• Lampe begins with a list of authors and their
  writings.
• Each of the references can be traced to the Loeb
  Classical Library.

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Lexicons

• H. C. Liddell and R. Scott, Greek-English Lexicon
  (1897/1996)
• A revised and updated edition was prepared for
  publication by H. S. Jones with the assistance of
  R. McKenzie (1940) and a Supplement by E. A.
  Barber was issued in 1968.
• Provides access to the classical period of Greek
  literature.
• An index to Greek authors and their works is
  found in the introductory materials.

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Lexicons

• H. C. Liddell and R. Scott, Greek-English Lexicon
  (1897/1996)
• While this work is of value primarily for the
  access it provides to the classical period,
  literature is also cited through to the 6th c.
  A.D. (including the Septuagint and Apocrypha).
• Obviously, the closer the reference is to the NT
  era, the greater will be its bearing on the
  meaning of the word in the language of the NT.

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Lexicons

• H. C. Liddell and R. Scott, Greek-English Lexicon
  (1897/1996)
• Note of caution
• Do not buy an abridged edition.
• An abridgement is valuable only to the student of
  classical Greek.
• An abridgement is valueless for NT study.

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Lexicons

• Joseph Henry Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon (1886)
• A translation of Wilke-Grimms 2nd ed. (1879).
• A corrected edition appeared in 1889 and made
  Thayer a standard name in the English speaking
  theological world until 1957.
• Followed the comparative philology school with
  its proportionately greater emphasis on etymology
  as compared with more recent approaches.

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Lexicons

• Joseph Henry Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon (1886)

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Use of Lexicons

• Primary purposeto bring together within
  convenient range the evidence for making a
  judgment concerning the precise meaning of a
  term.
• What types of evidence can be found in a lexicon?
• 1) Identification of word forms
• 2) Etymology
• 3) Classification of usage
• 4) Discrimination of synonyms

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Use of Lexicons

• 1) Identification of Word Forms
• One of first tests of the beginner in learning a
  new language is his ability to identify word
  forms correctly.
• Whenever one encounters new or unfamiliar words,
  recourse to the lexicon is necessary.
• While the structural form of words is treated by
  a grammar, the lexicon provides a useful index to
  word forms.

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Use of Lexicons

• 1) Identification of Word Forms
• Since most irregularities occur in the verb, the
  lexicon provides clues to such irregular forms by
  citing the principal parts of the most important,
  or the most irregular, verbs these forms are
  usually supplied at the head of the particular
  article being consulted.

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Use of Lexicons

• 1) Identification of Word Forms
• Once the correct form has been identified, it
  remains to complete the process of analysis of
  the function of the verb in a particular
  instance several factors assist in the analysis.
• 1) The verb root this will indicate the meaning
  of the verbal idea.
• 2) Tense force this will identify the kind of
  action involved, whether durative, punctiliar, or
  completed.

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Use of Lexicons

• 1) Identification of Word Forms
• 3) The relation of the verb to the context, that
  is, the connection between the verb and the other
  parts of the sentence.

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Use of Lexicons

• 2) Etymology
• Word roots have the power to create pictures in
  the mind and so to vivify the reading of the Gk
  NT.
• The lexicon shows, for instance, that the word
  translated to fear comes from a root meaning
  to run the word soul stems from a root
  meaning to breathe the root meaning of the
  word for life (zoe) is reflected in our Eng.
  word vitality.

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Use of Lexicons

• 2) Etymology
• Words are not like disconnected atoms they grow
  from roots and they form clusters in families.
• So, words, like people, have ancestors and
  display family relationships.
• The lexicon serves as an index to derivation by
  enabling the reader to trace family relationships
  to their source wherever possible.

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Use of Lexicons

• 3) Classification of usage
• Since one word may be used in a variety of ways,
  the NT lexicon offers an attempted classification
  of usage.
• Here the lexicographer must play the role of an
  interpreter and state what appears to him to be
  the specific meaning of the word in a given
  passage
• He then cites other instances of identical or
  similar usage under a single heading.

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Use of Lexicons

• 3) Classification of usage
• The student must learn always to exercise the
  greatest care and not to infer without
  examination that all the passages cited are
  exactly similar.
• He should regard what the lexicon presents as an
  index to evidence, and the classification of
  usage as one specialists opinion based upon that
  evidence.

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Use of Lexicons

• 3) Classification of usage
• He must then weigh this evidence for himself in
  the light of the specific contexts where the word
  occurs.

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Use of Lexicons

• 4) Discrimination of synonyms
• One of the most rewarding uses of the NT lexicon
  is the discrimination of those words which
  occasionally may be used interchangeably.
• The lexicon shows why in certain cases one would
  be appropriate and the other not.
• For e.g., a person can be tested or tried in many
  ways.

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Use of Lexicons

• 4) Discrimination of synonyms
• James (112) declares that the man who endures
  temptation is blessed, for when he is tried, he
  shall receive the crown of life.
• Temptation and tried cannot be interchanged
  here without doing violence to James meaning.
• The fine shades of meaning inherent in Greek
  synonyms are not always made explicit in English
  translations.

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Use of Lexicons

• 4) Discrimination of synonyms
• In Eng., one word sometimes is used to translate
  several words in Greek.
• Typical examples of such words in NT vocabulary
  are love, fear, labor, power, know,
  send, ask, tempt, gift, and so on.
• Lexicons may attempt to provide a basis for
  distinction by means of special notes at the ends
  of articles.

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Use of Lexicons

• 4) Discrimination of synonyms
• The notes may indicate the most important
  contexts in which the synonyms occur together.
• When these passages have been located, insights
  into their meanings may be provided by observing
  instances of their use in classical and
  Septuagint Greek as well as in Koine, and by
  considering other NT contexts in which they occur.

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Use of Lexicons

• Old Friends (known words)
• Every beginning Gk student knows onoma, name
  why bother to use the lexicon.
• The big lexicon sketches the vivid associations
  made by the ancients between the name and the
  qualities possessed by a person or thing.
• It details the implications of all phrases
  involving the name of God and Christ.

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Use of Lexicons

• Old Friends (known words)
• The word onoma, does not itself mean all the
  things suggested.
• But the lexicon invites consideration of contexts
  in which the word takes on meaning beyond the its
  mere dictionary meaning.

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Use of Lexicons

• Old Friends (known words)
• Almost everyone associates the expression wait
  on tables (Acts 62) with food.
• A look at BAGD under tra,peza raises the very
  strong possibility that the apostles were
  entangling themselves in time-consuming
  bookkeeping.
• The apostles are then rejecting their role of
  bankers and not simply that of butlers.

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Use of Lexicons

• Local Color (understanding the environment of
  words)
• One ought not only remain open to new and
  increased appreciation of old friends.
• It is equally rewarding to understand their
  environment.

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Use of Lexicons

• Local Color (understanding the environment of
  words)
• It is also rewarding to understand the
  environment of words.
• The primary function of Moulton-Milligan is to
  recreate the world in which the NT vocabulary was
  employed.
• M-M is not a comprehensive lexicon a
  discriminating selection of words that shed fresh
  light on the NT.

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Use of Lexicons

• Local Color (understanding the environment of
  words)
• In Acts 2030 Paul views with concern the
  inevitable arrival of false teachers.
• The word avpospaw, translated entice is found
  in a papyrus of the 3rd c. B.C.
• You wrote me not to withdraw the gang (of
  workmen engaged in the copper mines) from
  Philoteris before they had finished their work.

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Use of Lexicons

• Local Color (understanding the environment of
  words)
• Withdraw in the sense of breach of contract
  is found in numerous formal documents.
• Between the lines of Acts 2030 we may find the
  suggestion that the disciples were under contract
  to serve the Lord and that false teachers will
  urge them to break the contract.

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Use of Lexicons

• Local Color (understanding the environment of
  words)
• No new definition is attached to the word, but
  the word undergoes rejuvenation and suggests to
  the expositor an appropriate contemporary legal
  illustration.

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Use of Lexicons

• Local Color (understanding the environment of
  words)
• In Rom. 1528 Paul tells the Romans that he
  intends to complete the collection he has
  undertaken and will stop by on his way to Spain
  after he has made delivery to the saints in
  Jerusalem.
• The word here used for making delivery is
  sfragi,zw..

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Use of Lexicons

• Local Color (understanding the environment of
  words)
• The papyri suggest customs similar to the sealing
  of railroad boxcars.
• In one papyrus a shipmaster is instructed to
  write a receipt for grain shipped on a government
  transport, and he is to seal a sample to
  prevent the grain from being tampered with during
  transit.

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Use of Lexicons

• Local Color (understanding the environment of
  words)
• In another a merchant writes If you come, take
  out six artabae of vegetable seed, sealing it in
  the sacks in order that they may be ready.
• Paul will take all steps to ensure proper
  delivery of the collection and eliminate any
  cause for scandal.

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Use of Lexicons

• Local Color (understanding the environment of
  words)
• The problem of disorderly people or loafers in
  the Thessalonian congregations is sharpened by
  the material under avtakte,w in M-M.
• In a papyrus dated A.D. 66 a contract of
  apprenticeship stipulates that the father must
  make good any days during which his son plays
  truant or fails to attend.

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Use of Lexicons

• Local Color (understanding the environment of
  words)
• Similarly a weavers apprentice must make up any
  days he is absent owing to idleness or ill health
  beyond the 3-week vacation and sick leave allowed
  during the year.
• These papyri parallels to 2 Thess. 311 suggest
  that some Thessalonian employers were fuming at a
  message which in their judgment was capsizing the
  economic order.

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Use of Lexicons

• Local Color (understanding the environment of
  words)
• Primary function of Moulton Milligan, The
  Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, illustrated
  from the Papyri and Other Non-Literary Sources,
  is to recreate the world in which the NT
  vocabulary was employed is not a comprehensive
  lexicon but a selective list of words that shed
  fresh light on the NT.

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Use of Lexicons

• Local Color (understanding the environment of
  words)
• MM attempts to make the world of the NT come
  alivethe world of shopkeepers, of lonely widows,
  of traveling salespeople, of the lovelorn, of
  bankers, of merchants, of politicians.

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Use of Lexicons

• Local Color (understanding the environment of
  words)
• And because it is the same workaday world as that
  of our own century, with names and places
  changed, MM is a volume that more effectively
  than many others can bridge the chasm between
  pulpit and pew.

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Use of Lexicons

• Pedigree (word families)
• Words are like people to know them well one must
  meet them on their own level, in their own
  environment in different circumstances they
  react differently like a face they take on
  varying expressions.
• Some of them move from place to place some never
  return to their earlier surroundings.

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Use of Lexicons

• Pedigree (word families)
• But to know their past is to know a little better
  what makes them act as they do in the present.
• BAGD is not intended to be a historical survey of
  NT Greek.
• MM deals only with the papyri, and to some extent
  with inscriptions.

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Use of Lexicons

• Pedigree (word families)
• To see the family portrait one can go to the
  Liddell-Scott, Greek-English Lexicon (LSJM), a
  lexicon of classical Gk literature.

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Use of Lexicons

• Pedigree (word families)
• Some understanding of LSs usefulness may be
  gained from the study of a word such as
  kakoh,qeia,.
• Paul uses the word in a catalog of sins in Rom.
  129.
• BAGD offers the glosses malice, malignity,
  craftiness.
• BAGD offers Aristotles definition, ___ means
  always to assume the worst.

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Use of Lexicons

• Pedigree (word families)
• But LS under the adjective form notes that it is
  especially used in the sense of thinking evil,
  prone to put the worst construction on
  everything.
• Would this not be more helpful than malignity
  in Moffatt and the RSV, or craftiness in the
  NRSV?

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Use of Lexicons

• Pedigree (word families)
• Common word amartano (sin) provides an example.
• In the Iliad 5.287 is used of a spear missing its
  mark in general it is used of failure to achieve
  ones purpose.
• The concept of actual wrongdoing and
  indiscretions committed against the gods appears
  in the Iliad 9.501.

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Use of Lexicons

• Pedigree (word families)
• In Biblical documents the implications of sin
  are more clearly defined, but the original idea
  of failure to achieve ones purpose sharpens the
  contrast between moral expectations and actual
  achievements.

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Use of Lexicons

• Pedigree (word families)
• Amartano by itself does not mean all these
  things, and there is nothing specifically
  theological about the term.
• But when a given context indicates awareness of
  divine interests, the student searches for
  resources in the receptor language that will
  express the meaning in a specific passage.

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Use of Lexicons

• Pedigree (word families)
• That the word parrasia (boldness) is composed of
  two words, pas and rasis and literally means
  saying everything might not be recognized
  without the help of LSJM (the components are
  entered in parentheses).
• The references to Athenian love of free speech
  help accent the type of fearlessness displayed by
  the apostles in Acts 4.

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Use of Lexicons

• A Notable Asterisk
• The more comprehensive a lexicon becomes, the
  more complete is its listing of words.
• Koehler-Baumgartner signals the occurrences of
  certain words and forms with numbers in
  parentheses.
• BAGD simply places a single asterisk at the end
  of articles in which all occurrences in the NT
  and apostolic fathers has been noted and a double
  asterisk when only the NT passages are listed in
  full.

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Use of Lexicons

• A Notable Asterisk
• So the student is spared the need for checking in
  an additional tool, in this case a concordance.
• For e.g., one can see at a glance that mathetria
  occurs only once in the NT (Acts 96).
• No other woman in the NT is described by this
  term.

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Use of Lexicons

• Reference and Resource Material
• One of the most valuable incidental features of
  BAGD is the bibliographical data found at the end
  of many of the articles.
• If you were writing a paper, would find a
  bibliography of journal articles, books, chapters
  in books, etc.

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Use of Lexicons

• Practical Note
• Special signs and abbreviations are necessary
  (for saving space) to a lexicons system of
  communication.
• Some time spent pondering the introductory pages
  will save the user time and frustration.
• Same advice holds for use of other reference
  tools as well.

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Use of Lexicons

• A study of material referred to in a concordance
  precedes the consultation of a lexicon.
• After tracing the sources mentioned in a
  concordance and studying the usage of the word in
  light of the context, a lexicon can be consulted
  to either validate or correct the work you have
  done.

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Use of Lexicons

• Because lexicons synthesize material, you may
  uncover something passed over by the editors due
  to the fact that they were dealing with broader
  issues then the one you have been researching.
• A knowledge of the use of concordances and
  lexicons will prepare you for engaging in one of
  the most exciting of biblical pursuitsword
  studies.