[B-Greek] Lexica, Dictionaries, Glossaries and Worth/Utility (long ...)

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Jul 18 09:28:36 EDT 2008


I've had my "ad nauseam" say on the use of lexical resources in the  
process of reading Biblical and other ancient Greek texts; what I have  
particularly emphasized is the importance of STUDYING an entry for a  
word that is clearly important in what  you're reading -- ascertaining  
how the lexicographer has understood the radical meaning(s) of a word  
and related the extended or metaphorical senses to the radical  
meaning(s), and noting the examples of usage cited for the meanings  
offered with a critical eye -- STUDYING an entry rather than doing a  
cursory search for a gloss that will work in the text one is currently  
reading and moving straight on to the next word that one will need a  
gloss for. That second process of quick-gloss-search is one that is  
facilitated especially in the new "reader's edition" GNTs, e.g. The  
UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition edited by none other than  
Barclay Newman (who in 1971 published the "Concise Greek-English  
Dictionary of the NT that is available as a separate little volume or  
bound together with the UBS GNT); the Review of Biblical Literature  
has just put up a review page of this with a review that can be  
downloaded as a PDF or read on line at http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6215 
  -- I haven't pursued the matter closely, but it looks like the  
glosses accessible in the footnotes of this "reader's edition" are  
pretty much the same as what's to be found in the "Concise  
Dictionary"). Eddie Mishoe and Wieland Willker from their vantage  
points miles apart from each other have both informed us in this forum  
that this "reader's edition" is good bedtime reading and will quickly  
bring on drowsiness.

At any rate, since much has been said -- from widely variant  
viewpoints -- about the worth of accessible lexical resources for  
study of the GNT, I thought it might be helpful to clarify some points  
of difference between these resources.

"Worth" is a somewhat ambivalent term (TIMH in Greek may mean a number  
of things -- depending on which lexical resource you consult --  
including "price," "value," "honor," and even "punishment." Socrates  
was asked in his trial for impiety, to propose an alternative TIMH to  
the prosecutor's demand for his execution by hemlock poisoning for his  
"impiety" and suggested that the TIMH he deserved was maintenance in  
the prytaneion with meals at public expense as a citizen providing the  
most valuable service to the polis).

Some might suppose that a lexical resource is worth the most if you  
have to use it least: if you can quickly glean from a short-list the  
right gloss for the word in the context in which you've confronted it  
just now (e.g. "head" for KEFALH). Or it might also be a matter of  
price of a printed edition -- the best is the cheapest: there's a  
considerable difference between a Thayer  that can be gotten for less  
than $15 and a BDAG for which you are urged by some to sell your first- 
born child to acquire. Moreover, although it's nice to have a print  
edition, many of us find a digitized resource far easier to consult,  
especially if it is properly hyper-texted. BDAG is available in  
commercial Bible software programs, but it's not really cheaper than  
the print edition. LSJ is available in some commercial software  
programs but it's also (the 1940 edition) accessible online and can  
even be downloaded to one's own hard drive in the free Diogenes  
program (for all platforms).
My own criterion for usefulness/value of a lexical resource -- and I  
hardly expect perfection in any one of them -- has more to do with the  
care with which the semantic range of meanings is expounded, the  
extent of coverage of data for the period with which one is concerned  
and with the documentation for the lexical entries: citation of  
sources, not just by reference but by significant textual snippets  
that one can check at the source if one chooses to do so. Novelty is  
hardly a desideratum: if a lexical work is based upon the work of many  
generations of earlier scholars, I hardly see that as a reason for  
complaint -- provided that errors of previous scholars have been  
corrected where they can be shown to be errors. Does anyone honestly  
think we should chuck all our lexica and embark upon a new process  
like the monumental effort that went into the preparation of the  
Oxford English Dictionary? I don't -- but I do think that whatever new  
information can be brought to bear upon our understanding of Greek  
word-usage from the study of papyri and the coming to light of "new"--  
hitherto unknown or uncataloged -- inscriptions should be weighed in  
an ongoing process of revision. I know that Fred Danker sought out  
resources: I met him once by appointment at the Washington University  
library where he persuaded me to urge the library to acquire a missing  
volume of Greek inscriptions from Pergamum that he wanted to check.  
That's also why I think it's worth having the latest print edition of  
LSJ  (A Greek-English Lexicon, Ninth Edition with a Revised Supplement  
by Roderick McKenzie, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, and Henry  
Stuart Jones (Hardcover - Dec 7, 1995) -- this has the supplement  
prepared by Glare, offering additional information and corrections to  
entries in the main body).

The utility of the "middle Liddell" has been defended on grounds that  
it is more manageable (undeniable!) and that the arrangement of  
entries by lemmata inclusive of irregular forms such as GEGAA from  
GI(G)NOMAI is perspicuous -- you don't have to hunt through a dozen or  
more words in a single paragraph covering words beginning with, e.g.,  
KAQUPER-. That's true, certainly, of the 1995 9th edition, but think  
how many more hundreds of pages the print edition would have to  
include and how much more costly the volume (or multiple volumes)  
would have to be. BUT: the online LSJ, does have the lemmata separated  
out -- it's the 1940 Jones revision of L&S -- and, like the "middle  
Liddell," shows those irregular forms such as GEGAA and EMOLON (from  
BLWSKW). The online LSJ: Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek- 
English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart  
Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon  
Press. 1940. ISBN: 0198642261
The Perseus LSJ is now best accessible at:
http://archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/pollux/
(this site will also display entries  from several other important  
dictionaries and lexica)

The real problem with the "Middle Liddell" is that, although published  
more recently (1945) than the 1940 LSJ, it is based on the 1889 7th  
edition of L&S. So it's not so much that it is not a "useful" lexicon  
or a "bad" lexicon -- I used it myself as an undergraduate in the  
early 1950's; it's just that one can do so much BETTER.

And that's the problem with Thayer's lexicon as well; although re- 
issued by Hendrickson in 1996 and coded with Strong's Concordance  
numbers, it is nevertheless the same work that was originally  
published in 1886 and revised in 1889. Inexpensive it is - I found it  
on sale at one source for $13.36 (not including shipping, of course).  
The Wikipedia  article on Thayer 1828-1901 (pooh-pooh it if you will)  
notes: "Thayer's translation of Grimm's Wilke's Clavis Novi Testamenti  
(1886; revised 1889) as A Greek-English Lexicon of the New  
Testament ... Rather unfortunately, Thayer's Lexicon became obsolete  
quickly as Gustav Adolf Deissmann's work with the Egyptian papyri was  
soon to revolutionize New Testament and Koine Greek Lexicography with  
the publication of his Bible Studies: Contributions Chiefly from  
Papyri and Inscriptions to the History of the Language, the  
Literature, and the Religion of Hellenistic Judaism and Primitive  
Christianity, published in 1901 (2nd edition 1909) and also Light from  
the Ancient East the New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered  
Texts of the Graeco-Roman World London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1910.  
These books and similar ones that followed helped confirm and  
sometimes correct inadequate definitions of many words in the Greek  
New Testament. With this new and valuable information for studying the  
Greek of the New Testament, Thayer's Lexicon became a victim of  
history, being published less than a decade before this papyri  
revolution.

Over the "Middle Liddell" as a concise but really useful ancient Greek  
lexicon I would recommend seeking out (I don't think it's in print,  
but there are lots of used copies around): the Langenscheidt Pocket  
Dictionary Greek\English (Classical) (Paperback)ISBN:  
9780887290817Publisher: Langenscheidt Publishers Publish Date: 6/1/1985


Regarding BDAG, I VERY HIGHLY recommend Rod Decker’s very thorough  
page on BDAG at his NT Resources site:
http://www.ntresources.com/bdag.html — it references all reviews and  
provides a wealth of material on the history of the successive  
editions of Bauer’s Griechisch-deutsches Worterbuch zu den Schriften  
des Neuen Testaments und der fruhchristlichen Literatur,  even a page  
listing BDAG Errata.


To illustrate the difference between these resources, let me cite  
entries for a relatively simple word, TECNH:

UBS Dictionary (Barclay Newman): τέχνη, ης f craft, trade;  
artistic ability, craftsmanship

BDAG: τέχνη, ης, ἡ (Hom.+; loanw. in rabb.) skill, trade Ac  
17:29; Rv 18:22. Pl. Dg 2:3. σκηνοποιὸς τῇ τ. α σκ.  
by trade Ac 18:3. τέχνην ἔχειν have and practice a skill  
or trade (Eur., Suppl. 381; X., Mem. 3, 10, 1 al.) Hs 9, 9, 2; D 12:4. 
—JKube, ΤΕΧΝΗ und ΑΡΕΤΗ ’69.—DELG. M-M. Sv.

LSJ: techn-ê, hê, (tektôn) art, skill, cunning of hand, esp. in  
metalworking, Od.3.433, 6.234, 11.614; also of a shipwright, Il.3.61;  
of a soothsayer, A.Ag.249 (pl., lyr.), Eu.17, S.OT389, etc.; technai  
heterôn heterai Pi.N.1.25; ôpase t. pasan Id.O.7.50.
	2. craft, cunning, in bad sense, doliê t. Od.4.455, Hes.Th.160: pl.,  
arts, wiles, Od.8.327.332, Hes.Th.496,929; doliais technaisi  
chrêsamenos Pi.N.4.58; technais tinos by his arts (or simply by his  
agency), Id.O.9.52, P.3.11; technên kakên echei he has a bad trick,  
Hes.Th.770, cf. Pi.I.4(3).35(53), S Ph.88, etc.
	3. way, manner, or means whereby a thing is gained, without any  
definite sense of art or craft, mêdemiêi t. in no wise, Hdt.1.112;  
itheêi t. straightway, Id.9.57; pasêi t. by all means, Ar.Nu.1323, Th. 
65, Ec.366; pantoiai t. S.Aj.752, etc.; ouk apostêsomai ..oute t. oute  
mêchanêi oudemiai IG12.39.22; pasêi t. kai mêchanêi X.An.4.5.16;  
mête t. mête mêchanêi mêdemiai Lys.13.95.
	II. an art, craft, pasai technai brotoisin ek Promêtheôs A.Pr. 506,  
cf. IG12.678; tên t. epistasthai to know the craft, Hdt.3.130;  
phlaurôs echein tên t. ibid.; tês t. empeiros Ar.Ra.811; tautên  
technên echei he makes this his trade, Lys.1.16, cf. 6.7; en têi t.  
einai practise it, S.OT562, Pl.Prt.317c; epi technêi mathein ti to  
learn a thing professionally, opp. epi paideiai, ib.312b, cf. 315a;  
technai kai ergasiai X.Mem.3.10.1; technên to pragma pepoiêmenoi  
having made a trade of it, D.37.53; technas askein, meletan,  
ergazesthai, to practise them,X. Cyr.1.6.26,41 (Pass.), Oec.4.3;  
patrôian technan ergazesthai halieuesthai Praktika Arch. Het.1932.52  
(Dodona, iv B.C.); iatros tên t. POxy. 40.5 (ii A.D.); tetherapeukôs  
anenklêtôs têi t., of a barber, PEnteux. 47.3 (iii B.C.); paramenô  
pros hupêresian tês t. (viz. weaving) Sammelb. 7358.20 (iii A.D.);  
apo technôn trephesthai live by them, X.Lac. 7.1.
	III. an art or craft, i.e. a set of rules, system or method of making  
or doing, whether of the useful arts, or of the fine arts, Epich. 
171.11, Pl.Phdr.245a, Arist.Rh.1354a11, EN1140a8; hê empeiria technên  
epoiêsen, hê d' apeiria tuchên Polus ap. eund.Metaph. 981a4; hê  
peri tous logous t. the Art of Rhetoric, Pl.Phd.90b; hoi tas t. tôn  
logôn suntithentes systems of rhetoric, Arist.Rh.1354a12, cf. Isoc. 
13.19, Pl.Phdr.271c, Phld.Rh.2.50 S., al.; hence title of various  
treatises on Rhetoric (v. VI; but rather tricks of Rhetoric, in  
Aeschin. 1.117); technêi by rules of art, Pl.Euthd.282d; ê phusei ê  
technêi Id.R. 381b; technêi kai epistêmêi Id.Ion532c; aneu  
technês, meta technês, Id.Phd.89e: t. defined as hexis  
hodopoiêtikê, Zeno Stoic.1.20, cf. Cleanth. ib.1.110.
	IV. = technêma, work of art, handiwork, kratêres .., andros  
eucheiros technê S.OC472; hoplois .., Hêphaistou technêi Id.Fr. 156,  
cf. Str.14.1.14, PLond.3.854.4 (ii A.D.), Paus.6.25.1, al.
	V. = suntechnia, hê t. tôn lithourgôn, tôn sakkophorôn, Dumont- 
Homolle Mélanges d' archéol. et d' épigr.p.378 No.65,66 (Perinthus);  
t. burseôn, suropoiôn, IGRom.1.717,1482 (both Philippopolis); tous  
kataleipomenous apo têis t. BGU1572.12 (ii A.D.); ho chalkeus apo tês  
t. SIG 1140 (Amphipolis).
	VI. treatise on Grammar, D.T. tit., or on Rhetoric, Anaximenes  
Lampsacenus tit.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Ret)




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