Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (1957) (pp. 117-19) BAGD W. I have included a list of commentaries on individual Bible books in earlier editions of this work.
CONCORDANCES OF THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT
Even greater opportunities beyond those available in Aland's VKGNT for the study of linguistic data in the New Testament are made possible by the Analytical Concordance of the Greek New Testament (ACGNT), ed. For details on the history of computer use in creating concordances, see ACGNT, xiv n.
CONCORDANCES OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE
In The Eerdmans Analytical Concordance to the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Bible science and computer science have reached a new high. One of the many possible lines of exploration one can make through this concordance is the use of inclusive language in the NRSV.
USE OF CONCORDANCES
In 1966, The Greek New Testament of the United Bible Societies (UBSGNT) appeared with the special feature that would become its distinguishing feature: a four-level (A, B, C, D) grading system for readings. Anyone engaged in critical commentary on the Greek text of the New Testament should refer to this work.
THE APPARATUS
It further aims to help develop an awareness of the critical issues suggested by the Nestle content. Some of the major uncials do not include xai X~UJ~V, but the word has catholic support.
THE MARGINS
In the passage from Revelation, the white robe is identified with the righteous deeds of the saints. 103:12 (LXX), all of which speak of the Gentiles' rush toward salvation in the Messianic era.
OTHER EDITIONS
SYNOPSES
Synopsis of the first three Gospels with the addition of the] oannine Parallels, 13th ed. Funk promotes the emphasis on literary appreciation of the Gospels that has developed in biblical academia.
THE MASORETES
20:37 the word '17'D~ is found and appears to be derived from the verb 7~8, "to bind", but the apparatus in BHS suggests that 1Qp with the LXX and one manuscript of the Old Latin be replaced. In the interest of preserving the traditional reading of the text without disturbing its sacred consonants, they invented an elaborate pointing system.
THE MASORAH
56 Multipurpose Bible Study Tools Hebrew Old Testament 57 is the middle verse of the Pentateuch. The first to record chapter numbers in the margin of the Hebrew text was Solomon ben Ishmael, c.
THE CRITICAL APPARATUS IN BHS
One could with little effort produce many more examples and illustrations of the type of material found in a critical edition of the Hebrew Bible. But enough avenues of exploration are outlined here to help make the study of the Hebrew text of the Holy Scriptures a rewarding pilgrimage.
THE LETTER OF ARISTEAS
Demetrius then summoned all the Jews to the island to hear the reading of the translation. To help with the disputes with the Christians, Aquila published his extremely literal Greek version of the Hebrew Bible.
THE SEMUAGINT AND OTHER GREEK VERSIONS
One of the earliest recognizable attempts to reconcile the LXX with the Hebrew text was made by Aquila in the second century AD. Origen found the textual tradition of the Greek text of the Old Testament very confusing.
MANUSCRIPTS AND PRINTED EDITIONS OF THE SEPTUAGINT
The name polyglot comes from the place where it appeared, Complutum (Latin for Alcala). The popularity of the work is evident from the number of printings it went through.
OTHER SEPTUAGINTAL RESOURCES
See also Peter Katz, The Text of the Septuagint: Its Corruptions and Their Emendation, ed. The major differences between the divisions of the LXX and MT are found in the Psalms and Jeremiah.
TEXTUAL CRITICISM
80 Multipurpose Bible Study Tools Using the Septuagint 81 The NRSV includes the phrase "and the Egyptians oppressed them." The user of the LXX undoubtedly knows the additional words that the translators translated: xai &a&voaEv aljzo35 Ai' yuxro~.
THEOLOGICAL CONCERNS
Using the Septuagint 83. The text and the middle column offer two possible interpretations of Deut. The RSV was on the right track with the transliteration 'pim' referring to a medium of exchange, which the NRSV translated using the LXXs.
INTERPRETING THE NEW TESTAMENT
In place of the MT's "Are the consolations of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you?". The Masoretes suggest that instead of the unusual formation 7~7, the phrase 14 M?, "prosperity comes" (qere), is read.
EXEGETICAL PROBLEMS
A study of John 6:1-13 indicates that the author of the fourth Gospel was steeped in the LXX. The period of the Jewish grammarians extends roughly from the ninth to the sixteenth century.
THE CHRISTIAN ERA
His work was overshadowed by the prince of the Jewish grammarians, David ben Joseph Kimhi, whose Sefer Miklol (grammar) and Sefer ha-Shorashim ('Book of the Roots', a lexicon), originally two volumes of a single work, helped prepare the way for historical and critical study of the Hebrew language. His brother's name, Moses ben Joseph Kimhi, is mostly remembered for his introduction of the word 'r?D instead of 5YC as a paradigm of the regular verb.
COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY
More practically oriented than the first is the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT), ed. Dean Forbes, The Vocabulary of the Old Testament (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1989), “the student of Scripture often wants to know which vocabulary occurs where.
PRE-DEISSMANN LEXICOGRAPHY
Robinson's own A Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament appeared in 1836 (Boston: Cracker and Brewster), was published the following year in London and Edinburgh, and was largely rewritten as a new edition (New York: Harper, 1850). . Karl Ludwig Wilibald Grimm used it as the basis for his Lexicon Graeco-Lutinum in libros Novi Testamenti (Leipzig, 1862, et al.), the first New Testament.
PRE-DEISSMANN GRAMMAR
110 Multipurpose Tools for Bible Studies New Testament Greek Grammar and Lexicon 111 made the case for biblical lexicography with the pars prima of his Clavis. By using the index of Greek words continued from previous editions, the reader can find each New Testament word with a fair degree of ease.
POSTDEISSMANN GRAMMAR
But the first to make serious use of papyri for the study of the Greek language were G. His translation, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), BDF, does not include only Debrun - ner's proposed revisions, but also the benefits of his own research.
POSTDEISSMANN LEXICOGRAPHY
Hickie (New York, 1893) and has since been reprinted and periodically included in the Westcott-Hort edition of the text of the New Testament. Among those who have served tens of thousands of New Testament readers are H.
THE LEXICON
And the present that is our concern in this chapter is the Hellenized world of the New Testament. Selwyn, who rarely leaves anything worth saying unsaid, omits discussion of the word in his commentary.
THE GRAMMAR
138 Multi-Purpose Tools for Bible Study Using Grammars and Dictionaries 139 Northern Controversies vs. Southern Galatian Controversies, see literature below. The entire structure of Mark's Gospel is jeopardized by the view taken of the anarthous~ in Mark 15:39.
Some will question the conclusion (see the debate recorded in BAGD, S.V. &yarc&o and cp&w), but it is the judgment of this writer that the purpose of the ward in John 21:15-17 is lost if the verbs &yazhw and cptXko sacrifice identity in a semantic union . The third time, Jesus asks the question differently: "Do you consider me a friend?" The statement made by Jesus in John 16:17 seems to have been suspended.
A CRITICAL EYE
Instead of seeking shelter in the overcrowded large upstairs room, they preferred the privacy of the downstairs quarters. In short, no pastor's library (private or church) should be without one of the three.
ONE-VOLUME DICTIONARIES
ENCYCLOPEDIC WORKS
A certain indication of the scope, as well as of the undiminished Teutonic sense of endless prose, is the fact that the so-called Reprinting began in Paris in 1909, and fifteen volumes of the text were published until 1950.
WORDBOOKS
Abbreviated EncRel, this work deals with almost every imaginable topic related to the world's religions and should be consulted on important theological biblical terminology. This work contains all the proper names to be found in the Old and New Testaments of the Jerusalem Bible (original 1966 edition), in almost 4,000 entries.
CLASSICAL AND OTHER ANTIQUITIES
Developed especially in the interest of the useful proclamation of biblical thought is Theologisches Begrifelexikon zum Neuen Testament, published by R. Seguineau, Dictionnaire des noms propres de la Bible (Paris: Cerf, 1978)=Dictionary of Proper Ems and Places in the Bible, trans. .
THE USE OF BIBLE DICTIONARIES
Intensified study of comparative philology and of the growing body of literature reflecting ancient accounts has immeasurably enlightened biblical scholars by providing supporting evidence and parallel linguistic phenomena. To appreciate this shift in attitude among textual critics and to use these tools with skill, the student cannot avoid inquiry into the history of ancient versions and careful analysis of their relative merits.
ANCIENT BIBLE VERSIONS
The text of the New Testament of this edition is used in the diglot edition of Nestle26. A linguistic key to some of the vocabulary in the Nag Hammadi literature is presented by F.
ENGLISH VERSIONS
This edition of the Revised Version became known as the American Standard Version. A revision was approved in 1937, and in 1946 the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the New Testament was published.
OTHER ENGLISH-LANGUAGE VERSIONS
A revision of the Challoner-Rheims version of the New Testament was published in 1941 in Paterson, NJ. The translation of the entire Bible, complete with the Apocrypha, and with a limited revision of the New Testament, appeared in 1970.
GRAMMAR
Record any variations in these versions above the word or phrase in your translation, clearly indicating the source of the version with abbreviations of your choice, Gd (good speed), etc. In other cases, you'll need to research a word or phrase you've taken for granted for years.
LINGUISTIC AID
MODERN BIBLE VERSIONS are particularly useful as an aid to interpretation because of the precision required by the discipline. A convenient way to systematically use modern versions of the Bible is to first write your translation of a given passage, leaving perhaps three or more lines of space between each line of translation.
PUNCTUATION
EXEGESIS
The RSV, again following Moffatt here, states in the margin that the Hebrew term is "Sheshach," a cipher or cryptogram for "Babylon." The NRSV, following a policy of returning to the RSV's translation of surnames, reverts to the KJV's transliteration. Goodspeed's geography is much clearer: "When he reached Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem and paid his respects to the church, and then proceeded to Antioch." The NRSV likewise does well not to shy away from transegesis in this case.
THEOLOGY
REB interprets: “rejoices at my misfortune.” What is the social history of the paralinguistic gesture. One would hardly guess that the various interpretative translations rest only on a preposition in the original.
CRITICAL METHODOLOGY
The history of Israel in the lands of its dispersion is the history of a nation that painfully grew up as "the people of the Book." The first volume adds a very detailed sketch of "the historical development of the Jewish people in Egypt during the Hellenistic-Roman-Byzantine era" ("Prolegomena quoted from p. 1) to papyri relating to Jews and Jewish affairs during the Ptolemaic period.
THE INTERTESTAMENTAL PERIOD
The second volume contains relevant papyri from the early Roman period; the third presents documents from the late Roman and Byzantine periods, but without the expected papyri magici. George Foot Moore3 relies heavily on Schurer in his documentation of Pharisaic Judaism, Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era, 3 ~01s.
APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA
Oesterley, An Introduction to the Books of the Apocrypha (New York: Macmillan 1935), en Charles C. 6 Sien ook Nikolaus Walter, "Jewish-Greek literature of the Greek period:' in The Cambridge History ofJudaism, vol.
THE RABBINIC PERIOD
Somewhat closer to the New Testament in time (about 450 AD) is the formation of the Palestinian Talmud. In The Messianic Idea in Israel: From Its Beginning to the Completing of the Mishnah, trans.
INTERPRETIVE VALUES
Archaeology
In Part I we examine tools for studying archeology related to the lands of the Bible. Since all ancient documents are artefacts, the second part of Part II deals with advances in the sociological study of such productions, with some attention to applications of literary-critical theory to the understanding of more formal literary pieces.
ROLL CALL
MODERN DEVELOPMENTS
In the statement of purpose appear the words: “for the illustration and defense of the Bible.”9. This book appears in the Anchor Bible Reference Library, a third section of the.
THE LAND
Baly's Geographical Companion to the Bible (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963) shows how geography influenced the lives of the people portrayed in the biblical record. Monson, et al., Student's Map Manual: The Historical Geography of Biblical Lands (Jerusalem/Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979).
THE LITERATURE OF THE NEAR EAST
240 Multipurpose Tools for Bible Study Context 2 4 1 The general reader will appreciate Clemens Kopp, The Holy Places of the. A companion set, The Ancient Near East in Old Age Paintings (ANEP) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954; 2d ed., with supplement, 1969) contains some 750 photographs, with explanations, that reflect the world of the texts .
EVERYDAY LIFE
244 Multipurpose Tools for Contextualizing Bible Study 2 4 5. Pritchard and company do what Hugo Gressmann, Altorientalische Texte zum Alten Testament, 2 ~01s.; 2d ed. Berlin and Leipzig: de Gruyter worked for a long time for German students - providing a collection of Egyptian, Akkadian, Sumerian and Hittite texts and a representative selection of Ugaritic documents.
INTERPRETIVE VALUE
Papyri, Epigraphy,
7 to some of the most important grammatical and lexical resources for researching papyri and inscriptions. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, 4th ed.
EPIGRAPHY-
The first four volumes supplement the evidence in MM and BAGD (see ch. 7) for epigraphic and papyrological data that can be used for the interpretation of the New Testament. Regarding the important role played by papyrus in establishing the text of the New Testament, see above (ch. 2).
SOCIALSCIENTIFIC CRITICISM65
Judge's The Social Pattern of the Christian Groups in the First Century (London: Tyndale Press, 1960), a book whose brevity belies its importance. On the social setting in general, see Carolyn Osiek, What Are They Saying About the Social Setting of the New Testament.
SOCIAL WORLD
Derek Tidball raises a broader scene in The Social Context of the New Testament: A Sociological Analysis (Grand Rapids: Academic Books, 1984). Sukenik in The.Dead Sea Scrolls of the Hebrew University (Jerusalem: Hebrew University and Magnes Press, 1955) are black-and-white photographs, accompanied by transcriptions, of 1QIsab (an Isaiah scroll), 1QM (War Scroll), and 1QH (Thanksgiving Hymns).
THE SCROLLS AND
This publication from Magnes Press appeared a year earlier in a modern Hebrew edition under the auspices of the Bialik Foundation (Jerusalem, 1954). 6 Color and black-and-white photographs of the three documents published by Burrows' appeal in F.
OLD TESTAMENT TEXTUAL CRITICISM
Prussner, "Problems Ahead in Old Testament Research", Study of the Bible Today and Tomorrow, ed. Compare Gk [Greek] Tg [Targum] MT [Masoretic Text] Israelites.” MT reads ?@?p 'f, "sons of Israel." In one of the chapters of Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls, Ronald S.
THE SCROLLS AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
32:8 the RSV reads at the end of the verse "according to the number of the sons of God". The margin prompts one to compare the Greek, while the Hebrew reads "Israel". The NRSV has "according to the number of the gods," with the following marginal data: "Q MS [Qumran manuscript]. Some unscrupulous publishers also do not always inform their prospective buyers of the original date of publication of some of their reprints items do not.
MODERN COMMENTARIES
Each commentary in the series contains an introduction and notes to the text of the revised version. Distinguished in the category of the less technical series is the Handbuch zum Alten Testament (HAT), ed.
OLDER COMMENTARIES
His careful concern for the meaning of the sacred words endears his approach to many modern exegetes. 304 Multipurpose Commentary Tools for Bible Study and Their Uses 305 and greatly influenced subsequent German and English scholarship.
THE USE OF COMMENTARIES
It is wise, then, after you have made your own complete interpretations of the text with the liberal use of the tools mentioned in the preceding chapters, to check your interpretations against those of others, reevaluate if necessary, and supplement if it's possible. In general, there should be a stirring passion to hear the full accents of the sacred text as it sounded in the hour of its birth.
APPENDIX
Few can enjoy such relaxation in abundance. does not always reveal its secrets to the same degree to every generation, still less to every interpreter. I am afraid," he said, "many do this with the Scriptures, smearing the text with their own glosses, and lying on their own representations.
I NDEX OF S UBJECTS
Brenton, Lancelot Charles Lee; sien Lee-Brenton, Lancelot Charles Bridges, Ronald, 182 Brig&, Charles 'Augustus,.
