[B-Greek] Preferred Lexicon

Dr. Don Wilkins drdwilkins at verizon.net
Mon Dec 31 15:05:41 EST 2007


Agreed. Danker's work really made the difference. It's hard to  
believe, though, that the reviewer has an adequate understanding of  
lexicography. He's completely missed the point for his first two  
points. The LSJ definitions were never meant to cover the spectrum of  
meaning, but only to give a good starting point and generalization  
that is usually inadequate for any one occurrence. The real value is  
in the citations, which you are supposed to read if you want to gain  
a good understanding of a word. The reviewer's point three is closer  
to the target, provided that a sufficient number of citations for a  
given word are listed by LSJ.

However, the reviewer's comment on memorization raises an issue. The  
shorter the definition and the fewer the alternatives, the easier it  
is to "memorize" a word, so beginners and their teachers tend to use  
word lists. But most people want to do exegesis of passages, and word- 
list definitions are seldom if ever adequate for the purpose. The  
likelihood of such a definition's being so is about the same as a  
broken watch's giving the correct time of day (only twice in 24  
hours). Since we now have technology that simplifies (or can  
simplify) the process of finding a valid definition for a word in  
context, perhaps it's time to jettison word lists as we know them and  
stop pretending that we have memorized x-number of words because we  
could pass a word-list quiz. In my library, I have a venerable spot  
for Metzger's Lexical Aids, where it appropriately serves as a dust- 
collector.

Don Wilkins

On Dec 29, 2007, at 7:20 PM, George F Somsel wrote:

> I will repeat what I have said before:  If you do not have BDAG, go  
> sell your first-born child and buy it.  If you made a good deal and  
> have money left over then buy LSJ.
>
> george
> gfsomsel
>
> Therefore, O faithful Christian, search for truth, hear truth,
> learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth,
> defend the truth till death.
>
> - Jan Hus
> _________
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Hugh Donohoe Jr. <justusjcmylord at yahoo.com>
> To: blist greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 8:25:11 PM
> Subject: [B-Greek] Preferred Lexicon
>
> I found this comment by a professor on a review of
> BDAG. I was just wondering if others shared his
> opinion?
>
> "As far as how this lexicon competes with others, I
> offer this opinion. The classical lexicon by Liddell
> and Scott remains the best lexicon even for New
> Testament. My reasons are as follows. First, the
> definitions offered in Liddell/Scott are so precise
> that I have never found them to be wrong and seldom
> found them inadequate. The men who put it together had
> a masterful knowledge of Greek. Second, Liddell/Scott
> gives words definitions that the student can memorize,
> unlike Danker, which still provides too wide a range
> of semantic possibilities (often entrees are clouded
> with dozens of possible meanings, none of which are
> truly necessary if a student has a basic definition
> with which to work). Third, with Liddell/Scott, one
> can see what the word meant in classical writers and
> can see how it developed in the Hellenistic period."
>
>
>        
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