Lemmas Used in John but Not in LXX

[Russ Quinn]

I am seeking to construct a query or series of queries that will return all the lemmas that are used in the Gospel of John but not in the LXX.

I was helped by the PDF from the SBL Software Shootout that showed a similar exercise with interjections but I am having some problems getting satisfactory results.

 

For my first attempt, I have run a search for all the verbs in the LXX and then for all the verbs in John minus the hits from the LXX search ([VERBS]@-[HITS LXX1]).

Of course, the problem I am having is that I am getting results on lemmas that are in both texts but have different inflected forms.

Please see the attachments that show exestin in both texts because of its different inflection (I hope these come through, this is my first post).

 

Would someone mind advising me on how to improve my query to return more accurate results? Is it possible to compare lemmas from two texts?

[David Lang]

Russ,

 

The search you performed IS comparing lemmas from the two texts. In the case of exestin, the issue is that GNT-T and LXX tag the lemma differently. GNT-T has the lemma as exestin while LXX1 has the lemma as exeimi. It looks to me like the GNT-T may need to be corrected on that point. (While we're at it, the gloss for exeimi also has a typo ("neccesary" instead of "necessary").

 

At any rate, to exclude exestin from your results, add @-exestin to the end of your GNT-T search.

 

Hope this helps.

[Russ Quinn]

Russ,

 

The search you performed IS comparing lemmas from the two texts. In the case of exestin, the issue is that GNT-T and LXX tag the lemma differently. GNT-T has the lemma as exestin while LXX1 has the lemma as exeimi. It looks to me like the GNT-T may need to be corrected on that point. (While we're at it, the gloss for exeimi also has a typo ("neccesary" instead of "necessary").

 

At any rate, to exclude exestin from your results, add @-exestin to the end of your GNT-T search.

 

Hope this helps.

 

That is very helpful. Thanks, David.

 

Quick clarification on two issues, if you don't mind.

 

First, do searches using * instead of [VERB] also compare lemmas?

Or is the best query to use [VERB] <or> [NOUN], etc.?

 

Second, I can successfully execute *@-[HITS GNT-T] in the LXX1 search box with * in the GNT-T search box.

However, if I attempt to execute *@-[HITS LXX1] in the GNT-T search box with * in the LXX1 search box, I get this error:

The HITS word list cannot include any character expression (a character immediately following ".").

[David Lang]

Russ,

 

Unlike most other programs, Accordance searches for lemmas by default, so if you enter an asterisk wildcard that represents any lemma. There's no need to OR multiple parts of speech.

 

The strange error message is a bug that was apparently introduced in Accordance 8. I reported it to the programmers yesterday when I tried to do your search. Fortunately, there is an easy workaround. Use ?* instead of just an asterisk and the search will run successfully.

 

Once you've run the search, click the Details button, then look at the Analysis tab, and select Count down from the pop-up menu. That will show you the words John uses most frequently which do not appear anywhere in the LXX. Some are quite surprising, such as μαθητής (disciple), ῥαββί (teacher), and ὀψάριον (fish).

 

Hope this helps.

[Russ Quinn]

David,

 

Worked perfectly! Very nice! Thank you for your help.

The hits graph also provides useful information in revealing that the two sections that have no words not used in the LXX are the Prologue (1:1-14) and the High Priestly Prayer (17:1-26).

 

Also, thanks for the suggestion of excluding individual words. I hadn't thought of that. That will prove helpful for further study.

[David Lang]

Russ,

 

In addition to excluding individual lemmas, you might also try excluding certain classes of lemmas. For example, if you wanted to exclude proper names, you could do:

 

*@-[HITS LXX1]@- [NOUN proper]

 

Hope this helps.

[Russ Quinn]

Russ,

 

In addition to excluding individual lemmas, you might also try excluding certain classes of lemmas. For example, if you wanted to exclude proper names, you could do:

 

*@-[HITS LXX1]@- [NOUN proper]

 

Hope this helps.

 

That is really helpful since proper names account for 38 out of the 119 results.

Thanks, again.

[Russ Quinn]

David,

I think I found a few apparent inconsistencies in labeling concerning proper nouns.

 

The query, ?* @- [HITS LXX1] @-[NOUN proper] @- [iNTERJECTION] limited to the Greek text of the Gospel of John, yields among its results:

Γαλιλαῖος Galilean = 1

Ἑλληνιστί in the Greek language = 1

Ῥωμαϊστί in the Latin language = 1

 

And yet [NOUN proper] in GNT-T yields among its results:

Ἕλλην Greek = 3

Σαμαρίτης Samaritan = 4

Σαμαρῖτις Samaritan (f) = 2

[David Lang]

Russ,

 

The words you found are proper adjectives and adverbs rather than nouns. To exclude those, just use the tag [ANY proper] instead of [NOUN proper].

 

Hope this helps.

[Russ Quinn]

Ah yes, you're right.

They are lexically listed as you have them (along with BDAG).

I was just looking at their syntax.

 

Γαλιλαῖος is the nominative plural subject in John 4:45.

John 4:45 ἐδέξαντο αὐτὸν οἱ Γαλιλαῖοι πάντα ἑωρακότες ὅσα

 

Ἕλλην is used adjectivally in John 7:35

John 7:35 τὴν διασπορὰν τῶν Ἑλλήνων

 

Σαμαρίτης is used adjectivally in John 4:39

John 4:39 πολλοὶ ἐπίστευσαν εἰς αὐτὸν τῶν Σαμαριτῶν

 

and Σαμαρῖτις used adjectivally in John 4:9

John 4:9 ἡ γυνὴ ἡ Σαμαρῖτις· πῶς σὺ πεῖν αἰτεῖς γυναικὸς Σαμαρίτιδος οὔσης;

 

Sorry about that. I should have looked closer.

 

Again, thanks for all your help.