[B-Greek] Greek Lexicon 1st century Eng-Greek

Randall Buth ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Sat Sep 2 08:30:07 EDT 2006


George egrapsen
 >>If you really want this, it is doable with the electronic tools  
now available.  Simply acquire a copy of BDAG from Logos and enter  
the English gloss you wish to find and BDAG as the target of the  
search.>>
 >Randall Buth <randallbuth at gmail.com> wrote:
I'd love to see a fairly comprehensive English-Greek lexicon/glossary  
for
first century usage. BDAG gives zero, but might be reverse-engineerable
somewhere, and Louw-Nida is woefully inadequate.
Anyone there with time, background, and interest to do something usable?
ERRWSO>

Unfortunately, current electronic tools are not adequate.
Perhaps some expansion is necessary in order to grasp the scope of  
what is necessary.

The reason why LouwNida is inadequate is the same reason why BDAG is  
inadequate. Both lexica are artificially limited to a small  
crosssection of the living language. Because of that, they do not  
adequately represent the choices of words that were available to  
first century authors at different registers of writing. Even in the  
fields of theology, ethics, and human behavior the two mentioned  
lexica do not provide a wide-enough scope. A back-engineered access  
to the english glosses of BDAG would be downright dangerous for  
students if they thought that they were seeing a picture of the  
options available. That is exactly the problem with Louw-Nida, which  
already provides its own inadequate English-Greek index (if one goes  
to the trouble of looking up the reference numbers to the English  
index). For example, would the student be aware that the choice  
between PRAUS 'modest', EULABHS 'cautious', EUSEBHS 'reverent'  
overlaps with a word like AIDHMWN 'modest, reverent'?

There are several directions and implications for this. first, the  
dictionary should cover the language attested for the first century.  
this is quite large, and a rough and ready cut for this could be  
culled from the electronic tools, including TLG. Josephus, Philo,  
Epictetus, Dio Chrysostom, Plutarch must needs be included, for  
starts. some of this (Josephus/Philo) is already accesible in reverse- 
format. An attempt must be made to include all of the common and  
generic words, especially. Many of these are missing from the NT or  
early christian vocabulary, by accident, of course, not by design.  
XANQOS and KUANOUS/KUANEOS are  basic colors that every four-year old  
Greek kid would have within his repertoire and which would form part  
of the matrix for evaluating any color-word. Not having them in  
NouwLida skews the ability of the tool to provide the proper  
framework for interpretation. The meaning of a word in any language  
is not only itself, but also NOT being the other available options.
One method of lexicography that FORCES this issue is to require that  
the dictionary use the target language as the language of definition.  
Take the first century words and define them with first century  
words. The end result is a much more integrated knowledge base. It  
more closely approximates linguistic competence in a language user.  
Incidentally, this is taken for granted in most other fields of  
literature. French lit students have French-French dictionaries, but  
students of first century Greek have neither Greek-Greek  
dictionaries, nor even English-Greek dictionaries that even try to  
cover the reasonable bases. I would call these two items (Greek-Greek  
and English-Greek) major desiderata for the field. Their lack leaves  
the field stunted and dwarfed. The lack of recognition of the lack is  
almost scary in its implications. The ability of the field to make  
progress is a tribute to the adaptability of the human spirit.  
Mountain-climbing with a leg in a cast, racing in a wheelchair,  
Agassi in the third-round after a cortisone shot: these are a tribute  
to what people can do. We can add NT studies without adequate lexica  
and language control to this list. AND we should choose to move ahead  
and plan for a new field with new skills.
ERRWSQE
Randall Buth





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