Greek

New Resource for Septuagint Vocabulary

Just a brief post here to mention the publication of an excellent new resource for the Septuagint studies community. Just last month Eisenbrauns published No Stone Unturned: Greek Inscriptions and Septuagint Vocabulary (CSHB 5).

Of course, I am somewhat biased in this particular instance, as the author is my supervisor, Jim Aitken. (And no, he is not paying me to do this post). But if you are interested in LXX studies and have not seen this book, you will want to pick it up. At just $26 (here), it’s a great bargain.

Septuagint Vocabulary

I have posted a few times in the past on various matters in LXX studies that have overlapped with the issue of vocabulary. Most notably is the first two posts in my series discussing the approach of modern language translations of the Septuagint (here and here). As I mentioned, there is ongoing discussion among Septuagintalists regarding just how a LXX word is to be defined. Part of the reason that folks differ on that issue is due to differing views on what the LXX actually is (or was meant to be at first), and to what extent that influences word meaning.

Inscriptions & Lexicography

The purpose of Aitken’s new volume, however, it to draw more attention form all parties to inscriptions as a primary resource. In the discipline of Greek lexicography, there are many rooms. Some of these are very heavily trafficked. Word usage and development is extremely well documented for sources like Classical works, the New Testament and related literature (Philo, Josephus, the Fathers). Other rooms, however, are quite dark and forgotten. That is certainly the case with inscriptions, which offer a range of vocabulary and registers from a variety of regions and over may centuries.

That is why inscriptions are so important, and why it is so unfortunate that they have largely been overlooked in the lexicographical enterprise (Another reason being the relatively recent discovery of many of them). Of course, there are major difficulties in dealing with inscriptions, and those wishing to incorporate data from them into their research (such as myself) will have do much of the work de novo. Inscriptions are published in specialized and scattered volumes (with obscure commentary, often in German or Italian), are rarely translated, and employ difficult and fragmentary Greek.

Fortunately, the wonderful opportunities that these challenging primary sources offer are now somewhat more accessible with Aitken’s new book. It helpfully (and briefly!) describes recent discussions in LXX vocabulary and Greek lexicography in general, explains in detail why inscriptions are important, and then describes how to do the work of using them. Grab a copy!

The “Annoying Little Words” & Exegesis – An Interpretive Lexicon

This is the second post out of two (see the first here) describing my recent, co-authored publication An Interpretive Lexicon of New Testament Greek (here). In the first I described the “interpretive” and “lexicon” aspects of the book. Here I want to focus on what I think is the best feature of it, and why it’s an exegetical golden goose. Let me preface much of this by saying that our “Introduction” in the Lexicon covers more detailed material that will also be helpful.

This post is a bit technical and won’t have many pictures, so strap on your thinking cap.

The Significance of the “Annoying Little Words”

I began to talk about function words in the first post. These are the words that students usually think of as quite annoying. For the most part, that is correct, since these words rarely have a neat definition that can be slapped on the back of a flashcard. The reason is that their whole raison d’être is to connect larger ideas (typically clauses but also paragraphs and other larger units of text). This basically means that the annoying little words are “multivalent” or “polysemous”. That is to say, they often take one of two or more possible meanings, depending on their context. And of course, since they are “function” words after all, the meaning they take in context will greatly affect what they do. Okay, so that was abstract. Let’s get textual. Look at the fancy graphic above that I made. It shows a ‘cloud’ of the most frequently used words in the book of Romans. Notice how the obvious candidates like χάρις (‘grace’) or δικαιοσύνη (‘righteousness’) or νόμος (‘law’) are not immediately visible. The most prominent words are … you guessed it, the annoying little words. You get a gigantic καί and a δέ, a γάρ, a few definite article forms, and a few prepositions (διά, εἰς, ἐν). In fact, the one and only content word that is fairly visible is the genitive form of θεός (‘of God’).

My point is that you can only get to the “big ideas” of a book like Romans – or any text – by first going through the little words. They are absolutely indispensable to communication, slippery as they are to pin down to a single definition. Fortunately, we use function words automatically in our everyday speech and never give it a second thought. Unfortunately, this can make it all too easy to overlook their incredible importance in the task of interpretation.

Discourse Analysis

An English Example

To do some of the heavy lifting of dealing with function words in interpretation, some undertake a process that many call ‘discourse analysis,’ although it goes by other names as well (e.g. ‘text linguistics’). What this process aims to do is discern the larger structures and connectedness of a text. Remember that function words are sometimes called “connecting” words. They connect two (or more) larger chunks of text. As a result, if you want to determine the connection between Thought ‘A’ and Thought ‘B’ then you need to understand the function words that relate them.

Take the previous sentence for instance. It is made up of two main clauses:

1) you want to determine …

and

2) you need to understand …

Somehow, the two actions – 1. determining and 2. understanding – are related logically in that sentence. And the way they are related is by the two function words if and then. The first clause (wanting to determine) is conditional upon the second clause (needing to understand). This may seem obvious, but the point is that the words ‘if’ and ‘then’ manifest the conditional relationship between these two clauses, and therefore help the reader or listener ‘exegete’ this bit of communication.

But there is another important part of that sentence: The very first part, “As a result …” What we have here is a phrase – a syntactical construction – that serves as a road sign to the logic of the larger text. Linguists sometimes call this a ‘discourse marker’ (among other things). What the ‘as a result‘ phrase does is link that sentence to the one that precedes it logically. In essence, the idea is “A is such, therefore B is such.” The ‘B’ aspect is a result of the A aspect.

Getting Greeky

Let’s have a look at Romans 11:23:

“And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again” (NASB).

κἀκεῖνοι δέ, ἐὰν μὴ ἐπιμένωσιν τῇ ἀπιστίᾳ, ἐγκεντρισθήσονται· δυνατὸς γάρ ἐστιν ὁ θεὸς πάλιν ἐγκεντρίσαι αὐτούς.

I have boldfaced the (main) function words in the sentence. Note that the first one, ‘and’ is a conjunction that ties this sentence to the one that precedes as a coordinate idea. Then there is a(n implicit) conditional clause with the ‘if’ statement, so that the notion is ‘if they do not continue in their unbelief, then they will be grafted in.’ Finally, the rationale that grounds this statement is provided in the next clause and introduced by the word for: “for God is able …”

The Logical Main Point

All of this may seem pedantic. But there is a payoff. Language has what scholars call ‘semantic structure.’ That is to say, there is an ‘architecture,’ to so speak, of any communication (written or otherwise) that makes it understandable. As with a building, a well-constructed piece of writing or speech has a solid frame. Instead of steel beams, however, language uses what we might call semantic logic. It is important to realize that the presence of function words like ‘because’ or ‘therefore’ does not produce logical structure, but manifests it. In other words, the connecting words are there because language has semantic structure, not the other way around.

Here’s proof. In the Rom. 11:23 example above I mentioned that there was an implicit conditional clause. That is because the “second half” of a conditional – the word then – does not actually appear in the text. It is implied. And yet as readers or hearers the conditional sense is understood nevertheless. This applies to other logical relationships as well. For example, I can say “I’m not going outside. It’s cold” and you understand perfectly that the second statement is the reason for the first, and could be connected by the word because for the same effect. The logical structure is there whether or not the words are there to point to them. (Also note that one could not put a ‘therefore’ between those two clauses without producing nonsense; only some logical relationships are possible in a given context).

The Interpretive of the Lexicon (Again)

Bringing this all the way back around to the Interpretive Lexicon, as I alluded to in my first post, we use a system of letters and symbols to key the reader into the logical relationship – the discourse-level function – of the word being discussed. Again, these words are often multivalent and can be taken in several ways depending on context. That is where our lexicon comes in, to help the reader swiftly narrow down the possible logical relationships of a word (or phrase) in Greek, and therefore to better (and more quickly) understand the text.

To conclude, here is the set of our relationships included in the Lexicon. We also include an extended section carefully defining each one and providing an example. We have also aligned our own logical relationships with those used at John Piper’s online site BibleArc.com in order to maximize their compatibility. It is our great hope that it can be used to help pastors, students, and scholars as well as each one reads and interprets the Greek scriptures.

abbrev

G. K. Beale, Daniel J. Brendsel, and William A. Ross, An Interpretive Lexicon of New Testament Greek (Zondervan, 2014), 23.

 

 

 

 

 

The Little Words: Greek Grammar, Discourse, and Interpretation

Here’s the short version of this post: I helped write a book on Greek and biblical interpretation and it’s coming out soon. Also, you should buy it.

I have mentioned this project once or twice before, but I thought it would be sensible to bring it up again, as the book will be released soon. “What is an ‘interpretive lexicon,’ anyway?” This has been a fairly common question in my life for the past several years. Generally the question comes from family and friends who ask “what I’m up to these days.” Needless to say, “Writing a book on Greek” does not usually help explain myself.

But I should clarify. Most of my work – and that of my co-authors – was closer to compiling than writing. Although there is an introduction that explains the purpose of the book and how to use it, the vast majority of the book is a reiteration of other books.

Now, paradoxically, that is precisely the value of this lexicon. Students of biblical studies, pastors, and professors well know the vast array of resources available when it comes to studying the Greek text of the New Testament. So the point of our work in this lexicon is to condense a handful of the key texts and present them succinctly. In essence, our hope is that this lexicon is a simple but powerful exegetical tool; the fulcrum, so to speak, for the interpretive lever.

So let me attempt to answer the question by addressing the two aspects of the book: 1) the Lexicon and 2) the Interpretive.

The “Lexicon”

There are three major resources condensed into this slim volume (~96pg). They are the following:

  1. BDAG (and BAGD) – Anyone familiar with New Testament Greek will know the Walter Bauer’s Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der übrigen urchristlichen Literatur. Okay, you may not know it by that name. But that is where this work started before Wilbur Gingrich translated and adapted it with the help of William F. Arndt in 1949. In a second edition in 1979, known as “BAGD,” Frederick W. Danker replaced Arndt to expand the work. The most recent edition in 2000 added still more material and was coined BDAG (i.e. Bauer, Danker, Arndt, Gingrich).

In our Interpretive Lexicon the word entries provide glosses keyed to both BDAG (’00) and to BAGD (’79), since they differ from one another often, so that when you go to look up a word you see a succinct chunk of information along with the page and section references to both versions of Bauer. The idea is that our entry provides the essential lexical information, with a quick link to the definitive NT lexicon should the exegete need greater detail. Naturally, this may be a frequent need, which is why we have so tenaciously included information from and about BDAG/BAGD. We encourage careful cross-referencing.

 The “Interpretive”

Thus far the “Lexicon.” Now for the “Interpretive.” As indicated by the subtitle of the book, it is focused on what linguists often call “function words.” In my experience, students usually think of these as the “annoying little words,” since there are so many of them and they are so difficult to define strictly. Unlike the more easily definable (and memorizable) “content words,” such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives, “function words” are what fall in between, namely prepositions, adverbs, particles, relative pronouns, and conjunctions.

Another way to think about function words is as “connecting words,” since their job is to indicate the ways that ideas are connected in  the flow of thought of a text (spoken or written). And it is for that exact reason that these “annoying little words” are in fact stupendously important for interpreting scripture. If we are serious about understanding scripture, then we must understand how the flow of thought progresses. This is one of the tasks of interpretation, and function words are at the heart of it all. That is the rationale behind the other two resources included in our Interpretive Lexicon.

2.  Wallace’s Greek Grammar – Students of NT Greek will also well know Wallace’s Greek Grammar, a heavy-weight text that is rightly considered a standard in exegetical work. In this Grammar, Wallace focuses on syntax, which makes it perfectly suited to our lexicon, not to mention the fact that it is also published by Zondervan. For every word that we treat in the Interpretive Lexicon, if there is any discussion by Wallace we cite every page reference at the end of our entry. Again, the idea is that wherever the exegete is in need of greater detail, he or she has quick access to the industrial strength resources.

3.  Harris’s Prepositions and Theology – Finally, for even greater accuracy with one of the most significant Greek parts of speech – prepositions – we have also included Murray J. Harris’s work. In my experience, this resource is not as well known as it should be, so hopefully our lexicon will bring it to attention. Essentially, Harris discusses each Greek preposition (and even “improper” prepositions) in detail. As the book’s title implies, the meaning of a preposition can and does have profound impact upon theology. Consider, for example,  the importance of the preposition ὑπέρ (hyper), which in the genitive case connotes “for, on behalf of,” to discussions of atonement.

Discourse Matters & A Sample Entry

To give an idea of what an entry looks like, here is a sample. You may notice the boldfaced letters and symbols that occur in each numbered category. garThese boldfaced symbols and letters are extremely significant and form the backbone of the lexicon’s functionality. Some of you will be familiar with discourse analysis. Perhaps more of you will have heard of John Piper’s “Bible Arcing” (see BibleArc).

I only want to mention this here as a primer for another post coming up. There I will discuss more about discourse analysis (which goes by many names), how function words fit into it, and what the bold letters and symbols mean in our entries. Stay tuned!