BDAG - where are *-*?

Jonathan Robie jonathan.robie at datadirect-technologies.com
Sun Sep 15 20:01:57 EDT 2002


At 01:09 PM 9/15/2002 -0400, Jim West wrote:
>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.

The Liddell-Scott-Jones lexicon found on Perseus covers a very broad range 
of time (5-6000 years, maybe?) and a very broad geographical area. For any 
given word, the number of citations listed from literature of the New 
Testament period is small.

The BDAG lexicon gives many more citations from the New Testament period. 
Sometimes it really is useful to focus on the way a language was used 
during several hundred years, in a narrower geographical region, if you 
want to know how the language was used in that time and place.

And BDAG is *wonderfully* easy to use compared to either the older BADG or 
LSJ. The definitions are now easy to follow, the formatting gives a good 
overview. I hate to say this, but it's well worth the rather high price.

Jonathan




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