[b-greek] Re: Fwd: Re: Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sat Dec 22 2001 - 07:54:36 EST


At 6:15 AM -0500 12/22/01, Harry W. Jones wrote:
>Dear Paul,
>
>I appreciate everone's help on my question. And all
>I'm trying to do is find out if anyones knows of
>any "main" definition of Thayer's being incorrect
>due to any discoveries of papyri after Thayer's
>lexicon was published? So far, it looks like according
>to the current consensus that no "main" definition of
>Thayer's is incorrect.

Harry, I'm sorry you're finding what people have said in response to your
query "helpful" but fundamentally unresponsive to what you seem to want to
know. I really thought Paul Wendland's response hit a lot of nails on the
head--at least with regard to what I would be looking for in a lexicon. I
can't judge what it is that you're really after here, only
speculating--that you want to be assured that Thayer's is "perfectly
adequate" to your needs in studying the GNT. I thought Paul responded to
that too, saying:

>Does Thayer err? Well, let's put it this way: if you don't have BAGD or
>BDAG, you won't be aware of some possible meanings that are out there.
>And you might, at times, be led into believing something wonderful about a
>word through Thayer's etymologizing, which nevertheless might not be true.
>Still, it all depends what you want from a dictionary, and how precise and
>complete you want it to be. My guess is that 99 times out of a 100,
>Thayer will be just fine. And if Thayer is all you have, and you like him
>(familiarity with a dictionary is also no mean thing), well then: use him
>with joy.

I think it really depends upon what YOUR "needs in studying the GNT"
actually are. Is what has been learned from epigraphical and papyrological
and straightforward philological research in the past century negligible? I
for one would want to know all that can be known about words used in the
GNT, particularly words used less frequently or even very rarely. You'd
need to do some comparison of information offered on some particular words,
e.g. hARPAGMOS, a word found only once in the GNT at Phil 2:6; it's not a
common word in extant extra-biblical literature, but where found it seems
to mean "rape" or "robbery", yet in Phil 2:6 it is argued that it's
equivalent to hARPAGMA, which also tends to mean violent seizure but may
mean, judging from the scant evidence available, "prize catch." I think you
might compare what Thayer's has on hARPAGMA with what you'll find in BDAG
and in Louw & Nida. Or you might take a word like LOGOS and compare entries
in Thayer's, BDAG, L&S, and Louw & Nida.

Perhaps this is a matter of tastes, or perhaps it is a matter of judgment.
For my part and my needs with regard to studying the GNT, I wouldn't want
to be without BDAG, L&N, and LSJ, and I would really like to be able to
consult the Diccionario Griego-Espanol which has reached its 5th volume
and is not yet halfway through the Greek alphabet. I certainly wouldn't
want to rely upon a dictionary that hasn't been revised for nearly a
century. But one must decide for oneself what one's needs are; certainly
one needs to be careful with reference works upon which one hopes to rely.
But when you ask questions like the current one, you're not really asking
for "the truth" so much as advice and opinions, and I think the responses
you've gotten ought to be sufficient to help you reach your own conclusions.
--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University (Emeritus)
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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