BDAG - where are *-*?

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Sep 15 16:43:05 EDT 2002


At 1:09 PM -0400 9/15/02, Jim West wrote:
>At 12:33 PM 9/15/02 -0400, you wrote:
>
>
>>Jim is certainly entitled to his opinion, but I disagree heartily (rather
>>than cordially!) with that opinion: (a) I suppose he's referring to the LSJ
>>lexicon available on the Perseus web-site: that is a very good and very
>>important lexicon, but it is fundamentally a classical Greek lexicon; BDAG
>>(Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich, 3d ed.) is a specialized dictionary of New
>>Testament and related Hellenistic Greek Patristic and other early Christian
>>texts;
>
>this is precisely the problem i have with "specialized" lexica.  it almost
>sounds as if there is some special christian lingo to be found amongst the
>literary remains we call the new testament- when in fact they used the same
>koine that their neighbors in the market used.  i remember the so called
>"holy ghost greek" discussions of years gone by- discussions which suggested
>that the nt was written in a language completely disconnected from its
>historical context.  i cordially disagree with that notion.

And so do I--heartily!

>it includes considerable information not to be found in LSJ; if
>>one's special concern is the NT, I would urge one to have BDAG rather than
>>LSJ; the more serious student might well want to have both; for my part,
>>I'm glad that I have not only BDAG but also the Glare-revised edition of
>>LSJ in hard copy.
>
>why though?  if one has the oxford english dictionary does one need
>webster's new collegiate?

You seem to imply that BDAG is like a little Liddell in comparison to LSJ;
I don't buy the analogy. Nor have I ever supposed that oranges would
readily substitute for apples in an apple pie.
-- 

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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