.. with the many gift vouchers I've received. I have a vague memory that Narkissos mentioned a couple recently. I have not been able to find the post. Does anyone else remember?
I want to get myself a good bible lexicon...
by quietlyleaving 4 Replies latest watchtower bible
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quietlyleaving
okay I found this
Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by Holladay (Brill / Eerdmans)
was this the only one?
Is there also one for the NT?
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free2think
bttt
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moggy lover
It depends on how much you are willing to spend.
The best of the NT Greek Lexicons that you can get in a single volume is the "Bauer-Danker-Arnt-Gingrich Lexicon of the Greek NT and Early Christian Literature" [BDAG for short]. It is comprehensive, authoratative, and has all the hallmarks of expert scholarly opinion. It is also fairly expensive and, running into 900 double column pages, it comprises some half a million words of text. So it is a hefty tome.
Even more comprehensive but in two substantially large volumes is the Liddell and Scott Greek-English lexicon. It is in fact so vast in scope that its effectiveness for a NT Greek investigator becomes blunted. It incorporates much information on Greek words that are not relevant to NT Studies. You might be better advised to google "Liddell and Scott" on the web, where it has graciously been made available by a programme called Persius, so you will be able to read it online whenever you require.
Also in a multi volume edition is the "Exegetical Dictionary Of the NT" by Baltz and Schneider. It is published by Eerdmans of Grand Rapids, Michigan in an English translation. It is not as expensive but still will not be in the midium price range.
Single volume lexicons that are available and which are more accessible include: Abbott-Smith's NT Greek Lexicon, Thayer's NT Greek Lexicon, the single volume " New International Dictionary of NT Theology"* and the single volume "Theological Dictionary of the NT"** by Gerhardt Kittel.
Less expensive but probably better for the beginner in NT Greek are several English Dictionaries/Lexicons of the Greek NT. These include "Strong's" Lexicon which has recently been published in an expanded edition, which incorporates many amplified notes on several Greek NT words. When you go into your local Christian bookstore ask for: "Strongs Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words" It was published by Thomas Nelson in 2001.
Vine's is a standard and should be on every shelf of the Greek NT student. But just as good and, being more up-to-date, probably even better, are: "Renn's Expository Dictionary of Bible Words" and Mounce's "Complete Dictionary of NT Words". Zondervan Books has published a moderately priced dictionary of Bible words, called "The Encyclopedia of Bible Words". It was however published in 1991 and may be harder to secure.
Actually Zondervan's have published three separate NT Interlinears that have parallel texts such as KJV/NASB, NIV/KJV, and the NASV/NIV. The beauty of these are that they have, at the back, a substantial lexicon detailing every Greek word in the NT text.
Similar to this is "The Word Study Greek-English NT" by Prof Paul McReynolds. McReynolds is professor of NT Greek at Pacific Christian College in Fullerton, Ca, and he has arranged the text in such a way that it has: 1 A literal translation of each Greek word,
2 A coded number that corresponds to Strong's numerical system,
3 A comprehensive lexicon that explains the nuances of the word in a given context, 4 An amazingly comprehensive concordance that lists every single occurence of the word in the NT,
4 A coded reference that enables the student to tap into more comprehensive works such as BADG, Kittel and others. If one has any of these books, navigating through them could be a daunting task, so McReynolds certainly helps here.
AMG Publishers have released several comprehensive English/Greek lexicons which are the best buy for their comprehensiveness. "The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the NT" edited by Prof Spiros Zodhiates is worth its weight in gold, as are the other companion volumes, "The Word Study OT" and "The Word Study NT"
The world of Greek NT studies is expanding exponentially and probably as I speak some of the works I mentioned may have become obsolete, to be replaced by others!! [Just kidding] But the market is huge, and you would need to spend some time browsing in a Christian Bookstore near you.
As far as the OT is concerned the three standard works that I can reccomend are: Gersenius' Hebrew Lexicon, The Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon***, and the "Teological Wordbook of the OT" Harris, Archer and Waltke. This a convenient one volume edition of their larger work which was originally published in 4 volumes. This larger work is, unfortunately for copyright reasons, not available in Australia, so I cannot comment on the printed edition. However, the CD Rom version of the whole work is available through Pradis Software at a moderate price.
Hope this helps
*This work was originally published as a three volume set, but the Abridged edition is availabe in a single volume edition and is designed for the beginner. It is published by Zondervan Books.
** This work originally came out in a large 12 volume set, but is now available in a single volume edition. Again, for copyright reasons this is not available in Aussie, but if you live in the USA, it is not difficult to get.
*** The BDB Hebrew Lexicon is substantially a revision of Gesenius, and it incorporates newer information that has come to light.
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quietlyleaving
thanks moggy lover. LOts of good suggestions.
I've taken a peek at the "Bauer-Danker-Arnt-Gingrich Lexicon of the Greek NT and Early Christian Literature" [BDAG for short] on Amazon and it looks marvellous. I'm going to check it out at the library too.
I have Vine's and Thayer's. I'll check out some of the others