Book Notice: Interpretive Lexicon of New Testament Greek

G.K. Beale, Daniel J. Brendsel, and William A. Ross (eds.)

An Interpretive Lexicon of New Testament Greek: An Analysis of Prepositions, Adverbs, Particles, Relative Pronouns, and Conjunctions
Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014.
Available at Amazon.com

This volume provides a mostly helpful analysis of the prepositions, adverbs, particles, and conjunctions in the Greek NT. In a nutshell, the purpose of this miniature lexicon is to provide “an aid for discerning the logical relationships between prepositions in order to enhance exegesis” (p. 6). It examines and categorizes words found in the Greek NT that indicate relationships between clauses that are integral to the overall unit of discourse (pp. 6-7). Basically the book lists prepositions and conjunctions and gives a breakdown summary of BDAG with supplements from Dan Wallace’s GGBB, and Murray Harris on prepositions and theology in the Greek NT. The study is informed by semantics, discourse analysis, and the editors recognize that lexicography is an act of interpretation, and is thus selective in its decisions. As someone who has just written a commentary, I wish I had this volume nearby, as it would have provided a good resource for dealing with linking words that begin paragraphs like dio (“therefore”) and hosper (“just as”).

I really like the idea behind this book. I think what the editors have done is create a useful resource for those who want a quick lexical aid on linking words and words that link ideas together. That said I do have several big reservations about this little lexicons.

First, it could have been a lot more user friendly. Rather than write “p. 250, p. 198″ with the italics representing BAGD and no-italics BDAG, why not just write: “BAGD 198; BDAG250.” Also, you have to learn a whole bunch of symbols and abbreviations to make sense of the lexicon, which is why I think it would be so much easier just to write stuff in full like “inference,” “cause-effect,” or “condition,” “Question-Answer,” or “Temporal,” etc.

Second, and quite significantly, the book does not recognize the major criticisms lodged against the lexicography of BDAG and the criticism that Murray Harris’s lexicon of propositions does have a tendency to over theologize prepositions. For case in point, read the history of lexicography by John A. L. Lee, A History of New Testament Lexicography (Studies in Biblical Greek 8; New York: Peter Lang, 2003) to know what I’m talking about. See the compilation of resources about BDAG including appreciation and critiques here. See also Dave Matthewson’s review of Harris on prepositions too. These sources should have been critically sifted before being incorporated into this lexicon.

Third, I cannot for the life of me figure out why the editors ignore Stanley Porter’s intermediate grammar Idioms of the Greek New Testament and Louw & Nida’s lexicon based on semantic domains. In fact, verbal aspect is completely ignored as far as I can tell. This is a major failing in my mind and really left me shaking my head in disbelief.

In sum, this interpretive lexicon a good idea, there is some good stuff here, but it could have been so so much better!