New review of BDAG ...

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Jun 14 05:45:40 EDT 2002


At 1:15 AM -0400 6/14/02, Eric S. Weiss wrote:
>> "These comments in no way lessen the value of this resource; rather, they
>> should simply encourage us to read lexica as we do other texts, both
>> ancient and modern: critically, carefully, and comparatively. Furthermore,
>> a close reading of a lexicon can remind us of the complex theoretical and
>> practical problems involved in the act of ascribing meaning to words, to
>> phrases, and to texts. BDAG will remain the standard reference tool for
>> students and scholars of the New Testament and other early Christian
>> literature for the foreseeable future."
>
>(sigh!) For those of use who don't have the time, access, expertise,
>exposure, etc., to comparatively read lexica to the necessary extent, it
>is disheartening to read the reviewer's comments about BDAG's definitions
>for, e.g., "Ioudaios" -- which does seem, from the review, to be based on
>a desire to be "politically correct" more than based on proof that it
>refers primarily to residents of Judea. (Versus Galileans -- or what? I
>think Hugh Schonfield made a similar argument in his controversial
>PASSOVER PLOT). Paul's statements about the Jews' rejection of Jesus does
>seem to encompass the people as a whole, vs. EQNOS; PERITOMH vs.
>AKROBUSTIA; etc. But this is moving beyond Greek grammar. Thanks for the
>link -- I haven't yet spent my $125 on the volume.

I would suggest looking at BDAG's entry on IOUDAIOS itself, rather than
taking seriously this notion that Danker is trying to be "politically
correct" with his definition. For my part, I find pretty reasonable the
opening statement (prior to differentiation into the different ways in
which IOUDAIOS is used in the early Christian literature (not just the GNT)
pretty reasonable: "Gener. as description of 'one who identifies with
beliefs, rites, and customs of adherents of Israel's Mosaic and prohetic
tradition' (the standard term in the Mishnah is 'Israelite'). (Since the
term 'Judaism' suggests a monolithic entity that fails to take account of
the many varieties of thought and social expression associated with such
adherents, the calque or loanword 'Judean' is used in this and oher entries
where IOUDAIOS is treated. Complicating the semantic problem is the
existence side by side of persons who had genealogy on their side and those
who became proselytes ...; also of adherents of Moses who recognized Jesus
as Messiah ... and those who did not do so. Incalculable harm has been
caused by simply glossing IOUDAIOS with 'Jew', for many readers or auditors
of Bible tgranslation do not practice the historical judgment necessary to
distinguish between circumstances and events of the ancient time and
contemporary ethnic-religious-social realities , with the result that
anti-Judaism in the modern sense of the term is needlessly fostered through
Biblical texts."

So I would urge that one do at least a little more "comparative reading" of
reviews before deciding on the basis of Haines-Eitzen's review just
published to forego updating from the older edition of the lexicon. Take a
look, at least, at the fuller review in BMCR done a year ago:

	http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2001/2001-06-01.html

For my part, I am very grateful that BDAG is out; I did indeed lay out the
$80 to get it at pre-publication rate at Barnes&Noble when it appeared in
November of 2000. Grateful as I continue to be for Eric Weiss' gift of a
used BAGD 2nd ed. to replace my bizarre-accidentally-lost copy, I'm glad to
have the newer BDAG--and have also shelled out the cost for an electronic
copy to work my Accordance Biblical software.

On the other hand, I found myself in ancient culture classes spending an
inordinate amount of time "correcting" students who wanted to refer to
pre-exilic Israelites as "Israelis" and warning that one shouldn't speak of
"Jews" unless referring to people from Judah or in the post-exilic
community. And I found I had to keep warning students to get clear the
distinction between "Hellenic" and "Hellenistic"; I see the BDAG statement
not as an assimilation of modern views of "Jew" but as an attempt to be
cautious enough to avoid glib generalization about what IOUDAIOS means in
any and every instance when one comes to it in the GNT.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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