[B-Greek] biblical Greek dictionaries

George F Somsel gfsomsel at juno.com
Thu Dec 29 22:06:26 EST 2005


On Thu, 29 Dec 2005 21:24:27 -0500 (EST) "Chet A. Creider"
<creider at uwo.ca> writes:
> Although I agree that BDAG is well worth owning and using, it is not 
> a
> convenient dictionary to use because it is so large and heavy.  It 
> is
> also useful to have smaller dictionaries at hand just as one will 
> for
> most purposes find the Concise Oxford Dictionary (or whatever its
> American equivalent is) suffices and reserve the heavy and 
> cumbersome
> OED or Webster for special occasions.  As a good medium-size 
> dictionary
> (i.e. comparable to the COD), I recommend Abbott-Smith's _Manual 
> Greek
> Lexicon of the New Testament_.  It is still in print and has a 
> number
> of useful features in its entries plus a couple of useful 
> appendices
> for irregular aorists and the like.  As a pocket dictionary to have
> while travelling or even for very simple ordinary usage, I 
> recommend
> Alexander Souter's _A Pocket Lexicon to the Greek New Testament_.
> Published by Oxford University Press and reprinted many times, I 
> don't
> think it is in print any longer, but used copies are easy to come 
> by.
> I like it because the definitions are very precise and vivid -- 
> Souter
> was exceptionally talented in this regard.  Be warned, however, 
> that
> the book contains next to nothing regarding morphology so it is not
> really a beginner's dictionary (for that I would recommend Newman's
> little dictionary).
> 
> Although I own BDAG and have used it many times, it is the other 
> two
> dictionaries that I use on a daily basis.  Souter is very 
> inexpensive
> (I remember because I recently bought a second copy), but I can't
> remember the price of Abbott-Smith.  I suspect it is not cheap
> new, but if you can't afford it, a used copy should be relatively
> easy to find.
> 
> Chet Creider
___________

I ran a check on Abbott-Smith with www.addall.com and found that it can
be had for $20- $30 used.  I can't believe I did this, but I found a copy
ex libris Bruce Metzger and decided to buy simply because of that.

george
gfsomsel
___________



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