[B-Greek] On Thayer and BDAG
James Ernest
j.d.ernest at bc.edu
Fri Jul 18 22:55:54 EDT 2008
On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 11:35 PM, Mark Lightman <lightmanmark at yahoo.com>
wrote:
> BDAG gives one defintion of
> KEPHALH as "the part of the body that contains the brain." I
> prefer Thayer's gloss: "head."
Ha! This cracked me up.
Seriously, though "contains the brain"? Why not eyes and ears? Did the
ancients know there were brains in their heads (in the sense of knowing what
that stuff was good for)? Even if they did, sounds to me like a definition
written from a modern perspective, which is an interesting point.
But onward:
> Can anyone show me one clear thing wrong in Thayer that BDAG corrects?
Sooner or later someone is going to have to actually dredge out an example
of a word that was understood more clearly after the discovery of the
papyri. Shouldn't be all that hard, eh?
How about this: When Jesus sends out his disciples, he tells them not to
take a PHRA.
Thayer says: "*a wallet *(a leathern sack, in which travellers and shepherds
carried their provisions)."
BDAG starts with essentially this same definition, but then: "But perhaps
this instruction has in mind the more specialized meaning *beggar's bag* . .
." and then goes on for over a dozen lines with illustrative supporting
material.
It's a significant difference. By Thayer's definition, the disciples are
simply being told not to take a bag of provisions with them. BDAG adds quite
another level: maybe they're being told not to take equipment for begging
like Cynic preachers or the beggar-priests of pagan cults.
I found this example by opening Deissmann, *Light from the Ancient East, *to
a section headed "meanings of words" in a chapter illustrating the language
of the NT from the "new texts" (inscriptions and papyri). I just pulled out
my copy of Moulton-Milligan (from 1984, inscribed by Gordon Fee and
autographed by Fee, Royce Gruenler, Meredith G. Kline, Jeffrey Neihaus, Aida
Spencer, and Douglas Stuart, and no, it's definitely not for sale). M-M
serves up Deissmann's findings on this word in a nice little package.
That's just one little example. A few days of reading around in Deissmann,
or M-M, or Spicq, or NewDocs would turn up quite a few additional examples
of words understood more clearly since the discovery of the papyri. I expect
in nearly every case you'd find BDAG covers the newly discovered nuances and
Thayer does not.
If BDAG is too expensive, maybe try shopping around for Deissman, M-M, etc?
There's probably much to be learned from these and other older books. BDAG
will give you a lot of it in one handy package.
James Ernest
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