Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: kenns@prism.cs.orst.edu (Kenn R. Stump) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Greek and Hewbrew study guides Message-ID: Date: 1 Apr 91 09:56:51 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Oregon State University, Computer Science Dept Lines: 84 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In NU169273@vm1.nodak.edu writes: >Hi Jim, > Glad you want to know more about the Bible, God's word. > If you want to learn Greek and English side by side purchase > a King James Version: INTERLINEAR GREEK-ENGLISH NEW TESTAMENT > with a greek-english lexicon and new testament synonyms by > George Ricker Berry. The publisher is Baker Book House: Grand Rapids, > Michigan. [description dropped] > I would also recommend a Strong's concordance again in the > King James Version. [If possible, try to find a more complete FULL-scale GREEK dictionary. The Strong's concordance is good, but lacks many greek words. 8-(. . . Anybody know of a *good* greek dictionary? Something about 30 inches thick would be neat! ;-) I have no idea where to start in trying to find one, and I want one badly. The Strong's is good, and has aided me muchly. Also, references to a good Hebrew dictionary would be highly valued... Jim, you should consider a "Bible Hand-book" for the historical backgrounds it will contain. Beware though, Bible hand-books are usually written by theologians, and (no offense theologians) the hair-splitting that they sometimes do can miss the spiritual side of the issue completely. One good example of what my handbook has helped me with is where Paul in first or second Corinthians addresses the issue of hair length. I got some extremely useful backgroud info on what was happening in Corinth at the time and suggestions as to why Paul would have said something that, from outward appearances looks like a sexist-pig statement when it wasn't. There are MANY of these handbooks around, so I assume that the knowledge in them is common with all theologians. so one may be as good as another authority-wise.] > I would not recommend those so called bibles that take the blood > of Christ out of their verses. Write me and I will tell you what > I mean here. Amen! Preach it! ;-) > Your truly, > Kevin Paulson, 222 Stockbridge Hall, N. D. S. U., Fargo, ND 58105 - kenns@jacobs.cs.orst.edu [Some standard works that I know of are Arndt and Gingrich, "A Greek-English Lexicon of the NT and other Early Christian Literature", and "the Theological Dictionary of the NT", edited by Kittel. I don't have either (they're too large and expensive), but have abridged versions of both. I find the abridged Kittel great for dealing with the kinds of issues that typically come up in this group. The first is more a dictionary. It gives citations from non-Biblical works, which often help illuminate the meaning of the words, and goes into great detail. The second is far more intensive about each word. It contains discussions of the theological background and implications of the words. It lists the Hebrew equivalents, and how the Greek word is used both in Jewish and Greek literature of the period. The unabridged version apparently has a lot of archaeological details and every other conceivable kind of background information. It includes only words of "theological significance". So you'll need a traditional dictionary if you really want to do a complete translation from Greek. It's a matter of what you want. If you are a practicing translator, you'll need both kinds of work, I suspect. If you are trying to understand passages using an interlinear, which is more likely, I think you'll probably find the one-volume abridgement of Kittel just the right thing. It has just the right kind of background to help you understand the words that matter. However it is not a concordance. I.e. it does not list every occurence of the word in the NT and classify which meaning applies. I believe Arndt and Gingrich do. If you wanted to do your own word studies, you'd need something that listed every passage in which a word appears. These days I'd be inclined to suggest using a computer concordance if you want to do word studies, rather than tracking things down by hand from a listing of passage in a book. (In fact the newest edition of Quick Verse, complete with Greek and Hebrew support, is probably no more expensive than Arndt and Gingrich.) One wierdness about the abridge Kittel: I uses only the Roman alphabet. Greek and Hebrew are transliterated. However it lists the words in Greek alphabetical order. I should note that it's been about 20 years since I looked at dictinoaries, so there may be something better than Arndt and Gingrich these days. --clh]