A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith) - Hardcover

Bauer, Walter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226039331 ISBN 13: 9780226039336

Verlag: University of Chicago Press, 2001

Inhaltsangabe

Described as an "invaluable reference work" (Classical Philology) and "a tool indispensable for the study of early Christian literature" (Religious Studies Review) in its previous edition, this new updated American edition of Walter Bauer's Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments builds on its predecessor's staggering deposit of extraordinary erudition relating to Greek literature from all periods. Including entries for many more words, the new edition also lists more than 25,000 additional references to classical, intertestamental, Early Christian, and modern literature. In this edition, Frederick W. Danker's broad knowledge of Greco-Roman literature, as well as papyri and epigraphs, provides a more panoramic view of the world of Jesus and the New Testament. Danker has also introduced a more consistent mode of reference citation, and has provided a composite list of abbreviations to facilitate easy access to this wealth of information. Perhaps the single most important lexical innovation of Danker's edition is its inclusion of extended definitions for Greek terms. For instance, a key meaning of "episkopos" was defined in the second American edition as overseer; Danker defines it as "one who has the responsibility of safeguarding or seeing to it that something is done in the correct way, guardian." Such extended definitions give a fuller sense of the word in question, which will help avoid both anachronisms and confusion among users of the lexicon who may not be native speakers of English. Danker's edition of Bauer's Wörterbuch will be an indispensable guide for Biblical and classical scholars, ministers, seminarians, and translators.

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Charlotte y Peter Fiell son dos autoridades en historia, teoría y crítica del diseño y han escrito más de sesenta libros sobre la materia, muchos de los cuales se han convertido en éxitos de ventas. También han impartido conferencias y cursos como profesores invitados, han comisariado exposiciones y asesorado a fabricantes, museos, salas de subastas y grandes coleccionistas privados de todo el mundo. Los Fiell han escrito numerosos libros para TASCHEN, entre los que se incluyen 1000 Chairs, Diseño del siglo XX, El diseño industrial de la A a la Z, Scandinavian Design y Diseño del siglo XXI.

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A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature

The University of Chicago Press

Copyright © 2000 The University of Chicago
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-03933-6

Foreword

Foreword to the Revised Edition

Much of the historical material in forewords to the earlier editions of this lexicon is here included in condensed form.

The history of dictionaries specifically designed for the Greek New Testament opens with a Greek-Latin glossary of seventy-five unnumbered pages in the first volume of the Complutensian Polyglot of 1522, including the words of the New Testament, Ecclesiasticus, and the Wisdom of Solomon. The incompleteness, inaccuracy, and elementary character of this glossary reflect the low state of Greek studies at the time it was published, but it was the first in a long and useful succession of New Testament lexical works.

More in keeping with scholarly demands was the Lexicon Graeco-Latinum in Novum Domini nostri Jesu Christi Testamentum by Georg Pasor, published in 1619 at Herborn in Nassau. Pasor listed words alphabetically according to their roots, a procedure also adopted by Francis Brown, Samuel R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs in their Hebrew-Aramaic lexicon of 1907. In 1640 (Basel), Ludovicus Lucius put out his Dictionarium Novi Testamenti with words arranged for the first time in strict alphabetic order instead of by word-roots.

Many faults of contemporary NT lexicons were pointed out by Johann F. Fischer in his Prolusiones de vitiis lexicorum Novi Testamenti (Leipzig, 1791). Among these defects were neglect of the smaller words, whose frequent use makes them extremely difficult to analyze and classify, and insufficient attention to the background of New Testament words in Hebrew, the LXX, and general Greek literature.

Among the works that showed the effect of Fischer's criticism was Christian A.Wahl's Greek- Latin lexicon of 1822 (Leipzig). This was translated into English in 1825 by Edward Robinson, an eminent American biblical scholar. Robinson brought out his own Greek-English dictionary of the NT in 1836 (Boston).

Up to this time it was customary for dictionaries intended for scholars to provide definitions in Latin, though Edward Leigh in his Critica Sacra (London, 1639) had made a partial and apologetic attempt to give them in English, and John Parkhurst had published a Greek-English lexicon in 1769.

Karl Ludwig Wilibald Grimm published in 1868 (Leipzig) a thorough revision of Christian G. Wilke's Greek-Latin Clavis Novi Testamenti philologica (1839; 2d ed. 1851). Four years earlier, through special arrangement with Grimm's publisher, Joseph H. Thayer of Harvard University began the augmented translation of Grimm's book, published in 1886 as Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (New York and Edinburgh).

The first dictionary to appear after the epoch-making discoveries (especially of papyri) near the end of the nineteenth century was Erwin Preuschen's Greek-German lexicon of 1910. Unfortunately, it failed to make much use of the newfound material, which was of little interest to some scholars because of its documentary banality compared to the purity of Plato's tongue. But Preuschen's work did include for the first time the words of the Apostolic Fathers.

Upon Preuschen's untimely death in 1920, the revision of his lexicon was entrusted to Walter Bauer of Göttingen (b. 8 August 1877, d. 17 November 1960). When his revision appeared in 1928 (Giessen) as the second edition of Preuschen, it was hailed as the best thing in its field. A third edition, thoroughly revised and reset, came out in 1937 (Berlin), with Bauer's name alone on the title page.

For the fourth edition, Bauer undertook a systematic search in Greek literature down to Byzantine times for parallels to the language of the New Testament. Hans von Campenhausen acknowledged the magnitude of this task, when he reviewed its first three fascicles (TLZ 75, 1950, 349): We are here dealing with a work "which, when considered as the performance of one man, strikes one as almost fabulous. Not only was there a gigantic amount of material to be mastered, involving the most minute acquaintance with the whole body of Christian literature, but this task required at the same time the gift of combining and relating facts, and of preserving an adequate scholarly alertness which is granted to but few people; one thinks of the difficulty of immediately recognizing parallels in the respective authors and making proper use of them. This art is all the more admirable because its achievements manifest themselves only in the apparently insignificant form of articles in a lexicon, which purposely are kept as brief and factual as possible. Most of the readers will normally not become aware of what has been accomplished." F. Wilbur Gingrich echoed the accolade (NTS 9, 1962-63, 3-10).

On this fourth edition of Bauer's Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der übrigen urchristlichen Literatur (Berlin, 1949-52), William F. Arndt (b. 1 December 1880, d. 25 February 1957) and F. Wilbur Gingrich (b. 27 September 1901, d. 19 October 1993) based A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (also known as BAG, for Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich). It was not their purpose to make a literal translation, which would indeed have been impossible; and they did not hesitate to recommend recourse to Bauer's original German to determine "exactly what Bauer says about any word." Their own contribution to the work was considerable, to judge from the list of over ninety entries cited as representative of "more or less significant adaptations or additions" in their 1957 edition.

In the course of making slight adjustments in the arrangement of entries, as well as correction of typographical and other errors in the original, Arndt and Gingrich added a few new words drawn especially from Papias and the apparatus in later editions of the NT text, not to speak of an interesting conjecture, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], included for the first time in a NT lexicon. In addition to Bauer's bibliographical notices, the American team called attention to the contributions of James Hope Moulton and George Milligan's Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (M-M) and Carl D. Buck's Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages. The latter partially made up for the paucity of etymological information deplored by Bauer in the foreword to his third edition of 1937. References were likewise given to all the words treated by Edgar J. Goodspeed in his Problems of New Testament Translation, and to some from Frederick Field's Notes on the Translation of the New Testament. Frequent reference was also made to the NT grammars of James Hope Moulton (2d vol. completed byWilbert F. Howard) and Archibald T. Robertson. Still remaining to be probed in depth is the phenomenon of similar semantic transference in languages whose users are separated by centuries, but Arndt and Gingrich offered some stimulus through exploration here and there of the New (Oxford) English Dictionary.

In their preface, Arndt and Gingrich sketched a brief history of their own endeavor: "When in 1947 the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod observed its centennial, a part of the thank offering gathered was set aside as a fund for scholarly research. The Lutheran Academy of Scholarship, Dr. M. H. Scharlemann president, had a prominent part in the discussions that led to this decision. The committee, appointed by Dr. J. W. Behnken, the president of the church, to administer the fund, resolved to have Bauer's Wörterbuch done into English with such adaptations and additions as would be required. Since the University of Chicago Press had been negotiating with Dr. Bauer on this subject, the committee turned to this publishing house and enlisted its co-operation and services. The translation rights were duly obtained. Professor F. W. Gingrich of Albright College, Reading, Pa., was engaged to give his full time to the undertaking, having been granted a leave of absence in September 1949. Professor W. F. Arndt of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo., an institution of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, was appointed to be the director of the venture. The manuscript was finished in January 1955. This dictionary in its English dress constitutes a gift of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod to the English-speaking world, presented in the hope that the work may assist in the interpretation and dissemination of the Divine Word which lives and abides forever."

Yet, even as the first volumes were coming off the press, plans for a revised edition began to take shape. When the English translation of Walter Bauer's Wörterbuch was published on 29 January 1957, Prof. Bauer was completing work on the fifth edition of his book, which came out in nine fascicles during 1957 and 1958. Upon the death of Prof. Arndt, my revered teacher, I was asked to serve with Prof. Gingrich in the preparation of the new edition, which was to contain the new material in Bauer's work and a vast amount of reference to studies that postdated it. The number of such and other supplemental references to scholarly literature ran into four figures (apart from Bauer's own additions). More important, the standard ancient Greek texts, as well as papyri and inscriptions, yielded additional formal and semantic parallels, in some cases necessitating rearrangement of patterns of definition. References to the literature of Qumran and to texts of portions of the New Testament published since the first edition were frequent. Indeed, the number of new words and other variants that were incorporated reflects the contribution made especially by the Bodmer Papyri to the study of the New Testament. Without the encouragement and support of the Committee for Scholarly Research of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the project could not have been undertaken, and the editors accorded their warmest thanks to Prof. Lorman M. Petersen of Concordia Theological Seminary (located at that time in Springfield, Illinois) for providing the necessary leadership. This second edition of BAGwas published in 1979 and became known as BAGD (Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker). The present edition (BDAG: Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich) builds on traditions established in these earlier editions and the more recent publication of a sixth edition of Walter Bauer's work (Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch [Walter de Gruyter: Berlin, New York, 1988]), a "völlig neu bearbeitete Auflage" by Kurt Aland (d. 13 April 1994) and Barbara Aland, with substantial assistance from Viktor Reichmann (therefore known as BAAR). Through the guidance of Dr. Walter L. Rosin, the Committee for Scholarly Research of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has again demonstrated its fervent support of New Testament lexical study.

As already indicated, any lexicographic endeavor worth its name must evolve in a context of new discoveries and constantly changing theoretical structures. Yet the claims of tradition are strong, and some balance must be maintained between contemporary demand and vision of what the future must inevitably require. In any event, judgments relating to a variety of approaches and modes of presentation of data will inevitably differ, as the publication of any new lexicon creates a crop of instant lexicographers. And this is as it should be. "Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few." So wrote Samuel Johnson in a preface to his Dictionary.

This revision makes a primary departure in the use of bold roman typeface to highlight the meanings of words or their functional usage. Traditionally, lexicons have shown a preference for definition of a word in the source language with a corresponding word or phrase in the receptor language. A series of words or glosses is then offered to cover a variety of possibilities for translation. But these alleged meanings are for the most part mere formal equivalents, and in the case of words that occur very frequently in a language they run the hazard of being devoid of semantic value. Even worse, an unwary reader may think that a given word bears all the content expressed by a series of synonyms. Not to speak of the student whose primary language is not English and who therefore may not understand distinctions between the English synonyms that supposedly define a given Greek term. In an effort to overcome this problem, this revision builds on and expands Bauer's use of extended definition. This approach permits readers to explore the semantic structures of their own native language for adequate interpretation without the need of first deciphering the meaning of various glosses or synonyms. In this lexicon an arabic numeral at the head of a classification signifies that all the passages contained in that classification share a given meaning structure. Numerous entries therefore variously modify some older classifications that were based on mere grammatical or theological distinctions. Subsets of a meaning or collections of data relating to it-such as Bauer's valuable collections of grammatical or theological association-are indicated, as needed, through the traditional use of lettering a, b, a, ß, and [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. Some words, such as [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], do not require multiple classifications: in such instances no arabic numeral is used and any subsets follow the pattern cited above. Extended definitions are given in bold roman and may be followed by one or more formal equivalents in bold italics. The user of the lexicon can explore such equivalents for translation of passages that follow, but within the boundaries of the definition. When a formal equivalent is sufficient to convey the meaning, as marry in the entry [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], this meaning stands in bold italics without extended definition. Normal italic type is used for suggested translation equivalents. In short, pains have been taken to provide readers with ample resources to form an independent critical judgment.

One of the more noteworthy developments in biblical studies in the latter third of the twentieth century relates to appreciation of ancient documents as literary monuments in their own right, an awareness that had been exhibited by students of Homer, Plato, et al. for a far longer period of time. Such awareness, together with increased emphasis on the relevance of anthropological and sociological studies for interpretation of ancient texts, places new demands on the lexicographer, and the current revision endeavors to reflect developments in this area. Also of concern are respect for inclusiveness and tolerance. But a scientific work dare not become a reservoir for ideological pleading, and culture-bound expressions must be given their due lest history be denied its day in court. It is an undeniable fact that God is primarily viewed patriarchally in the Bible, but translation must avoid exaggeration of the datum. "Brother" is a legitimate rendering of many instances of the term [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], but when it appears that the term in the plural includes women (as in a letter to a congregation) some functional equivalent, such as "brothers and sisters", is required. A special problem relates to the use of "Jew" as a formal equivalent for [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. Much acrimonious debate has been needlessly engendered by use of an English term that bears an historical burden calculated to distort understanding of the term as used in New Testament texts. In the interest of more scientific discussion of texts, this revision resorts to the loanword "Judean" to render [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], but uses the term "Jew" in historical observations. Problems of a related nature involve terms that have experienced ecclesiastical evolution. To translate [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] respectively as "deacon" and "bishop" would contaminate the rendering of ancient texts with associations made in later periods in which the English terms have taken on a technical sense that cannot be established for the original biblical terms. Frequently time-honored expressions are therefore given parenthetical status. In a related vein, a lexicographer is not obligated to celebrate opaqueness as a virtue in translation, when such opaqueness would suggest an opaqueness not present in the original. The fact that a given word or phrase has become a subject of intense debate during centuries of special theological or dogmatic pleading ought not automatically impose a judgment of unclarity or ambiguity on the original text.

(Continues...)

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Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University of Chicago Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0226039331
• ISBN 13: 9780226039336
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Sprache: Englisch
• Auflage: 3
• Anzahl der Seiten: 1188
• Herausgeber: Danker Frederick William
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar