[B-Greek] TDNT: Cautionary Notes?

George F Somsel gfsomsel at juno.com
Wed Jan 4 16:17:51 EST 2006


On Wed, 04 Jan 2006 20:29:45 +0000 "Stephen Baldwin"
<stbaldwi at hotmail.com> writes:
> Ladies and Gentlemen:
> Another recent acquisition of mine is Kittel / Theological 
> Dictionary of the 
> NT (10 vols).
> It seems like a goldmine of information but is also somewhat dated 
> and I 
> presume does not contain the fruits of later research.
> I was wondering, would any of the seasoned campaigners know: Are 
> there any 
> major "gotchas" in it that the novice should be aware of, any 
> cautionary 
> tales to tell?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Stephen Baldwin
> stbaldwi at hotmail.com
______________

There has been knowledge of the fact that Gerhard Kittle who edited these
volumes held anti-semitic views.  The following was taken from a site
which I don't fully trust, but I believe the information to be correct

"Gerhard Kittle, a world-renowned scholar of the New Testament confessed
his political guilt as he insisted that a "Christian anti-Judaism" which
he found in the New Testament and in the tradition of the Christian
church determined his attitude toward the Jewish question during the
Third Reich.[Wollenberg, p. 76] On March 1946, in a lecture in Zurich,
Martin Niemöller declared: "Christianity in Germany bears a greater
responsibility before God than the National Socialists, the SS and the
Gestapo." [Goldhagen, p.114]"  http://www.nobeliefs.com/ChurchesWWII.htm

That said, so long as one is aware of possible bias (as one should be
continually regarding all works), it is an admirable and valuable work. 
It is important, however, that a fixed view of a word's significance not
be imposed upon a passage without consideration of how the author may be
using it in that particular context.  Words are funny things -- sometimes
they are even used in a sense precisely opposite from their normal
meaning.

george
gfsomsel
___________


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