DeMoss - Pocket Dictionary for the Study of New Testament Greek

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001. – 138 p.

ISBN: 978-0-8308-6711-0 (digital)

ISBN: 978-0-8308-1464-0 (print)

 

Those who undertake to study the New Testament in its original language, and engage others who are likewise involved in the interpretive task, enter a labyrinth of methods, concepts and terminology. This book is about the terminology. It is primarily for students—a companion volume to help them use the standard tools, understand the jargon and survive academic life.

 

The majority of the entries pertain to language study: some are terms from traditional grammar and literary analysis; others are peculiar to learning Koine; still others are derived from modern linguistic studies. This book also contains a corpus of terms pertaining to textual criticism. Not only are these two areas—learning the language (as well as the metalanguage) and establishing the text—foundational for biblical study, they are fertile ground for troublesome words. Originally the draft for this book contained only these two entry-types; however, in the writing process I realized the advantage for the student of including terms from other subfields, such as Gospel studies, which are also difficult and forbidding to newcomers.

 

Exegesis of the Greek New Testament is part of a larger constellation of disciplines. I readily acknowledge there is an enormous body of terminology, vital to trafficking in the literature and studying the New Testament, which for one reason or another exceeds the scope of this book. This includes biographical and geographical terms, often the mainstay of handbooks and Bible dictionaries. Likewise words related to all aspects of background (social, cultural, historical, religious, political and so on), including extracanonical writings, are not attended to. These words and the complex themes associated with them deserve, and indeed have been given (repeatedly), their own treatment elsewhere. Furthermore, there is little in this book from theology and biblical studies generally, although there is a handful of words pertaining to hermeneutics. A number of specialized tools already in print deal particularly with these subjects.

 

Moreover, I have chosen not to include bibliographic data. Not only would the work have increased in size considerably, I would have had to choose between, on the one hand, steering the reader to a small strand of the literature, or on the other hand, providing a kind of rambling historical overview. For some terminology (e.g., form-critical categories) it would be natural to trace chronologically how authors have used certain words; but in terms of pedagogy, I question the value of such a “definition” for the new student. No doubt if I had chosen such a presentation, I would be more likely to concur with Renaissance scholar J. J. Scaliger, who said that “the worst criminals should be neither executed nor sentenced to forced labor, but should be con-demned to compile dictionaries, because all the tortures are included in the work.”1 In order to provide succinct, readable definitions, such as you would find in a standard desk dictionary, I have avoided historical/ bibliographical entries.

 

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Q

n. A hypothetical sayings source, discussed in the search for a solution to the *synoptic problem, thought by many to have been used by Matthew and Luke (Germ. Quelle, “source”). This involves material common to Matthew and Luke and not found in Mark; Q being the putative source of that sayings material. A Q hypothesis helps to explain strong verbal agreement between these two Gospels. Likewise it can refer to material that is common to Matthew and Luke without comment on the viability of a Q hypothesis. See also Two-Source and Four-Source hypotheses.

 

redaction criticism

n. The discipline that seeks to recognize the alterations made by the *Evangelists to the written sources they possessed as well as the theological perspective that was driving their composition. In addition, a redaction critic may propose a setting for the emergence of the Evangelist’s own views. The term translates the German Redaktionsgeschichte. Sometimes referred to as composition criticism (Germ. Kompositionsgeschichte), a term that emphasizes the Evangelist as author and not mere redactor.

 

rhetorical criticism

n. The discipline concerned with the interpretation of the biblical text from the perspective of classical *rhetoric, using the technical terms related to methods of argumentation, *figures of speech and *tropes. Frequently six Latin terms denoting the parts of a typical rhetorical composition or speech are listed: *exordium, *narratio, *partitio (or propositio), *probatio, *exhortatio and *peroratio. The term can also be used more broadly of any interpretive approach that emphasizes rhetorical and literary theory, including the interpretation of literary units by recognizing characteristics of *genre, structural patterns, rhetorical devices and stylistic features.