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Lexical Bonanza: Greek texts 200 BC - AD 100


Enoch

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What I would like to have is the entire Greek corpus extant from 200 BC - AD 100 (+ / including the target literature of BDAG) in one searchable file. This would be a sort of ultimate Koine Greek New Testament Lexicon (meaning determined by context). You could enter a greek work or key off a NT occurrence and have displayed in concordance style all the occurrences of that word / lexeme / root in all that literature, just like you can now search a word in a Bible text and get all its occurrences listed with context.

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You can do this now by making and searching a Search All Group consisting of the Greek texts. While not complete, we have by far the largest collection of fully tagged Koine Greek texts. The Search All window does not list all the results, if there are many, but makes it easy to see all the results of an unusual word.

 

To make a single module would be extremely messy. Many of them already have book, chapter, and verse, so how could we reference them all in one corpus?

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Well, you guys are the rocket scientists, not I. LOL

 

But if a Bible of 66 books can be searchable, the entire Koine Greek literature 200 BC - 100 AD should be also. I don't think that this set of Greek books (& inscriptions) would comprise a really astronomically long corpus. I don't know that "single module" is necessary, though it would be convenient if the Bible student could treat it as one text. (Could not the computer program simulate it being one module without it being one module?) I would suggest for a (virtual?) module name: Koine Corpus.

 

I envision entering a Greek work (or keying off a NT Greek word) and bringing up all the references to that word in this Koine Greek corpus. You might start by having untagged text in some instances. You might start by adding Polybius & Diodorus Siculus. I don't recall if Accordance has Plutarch and Philo. And Certainly all the texts in the period which are in the Loeb Classics would be included. For example, one might want all the references to Antiochus Epiphanes. Instead of reading commentaries on AE, it would be much more informative to read the clips on him in the ancient literature.

 

The results of the search would use the reference system as given in the texts; like Polybius, Histories, 1.4.5.

 

Take for another example from 2 Thes 2 "ἐὰν μὴ ἔλθῃ ἡ ἀποστασία πρῶτον"

 

A literature search for all the Greek references to ἀποστασία in the time period would be of much more value to me in determining what ἀποστασία can mean (literal vs. figurative departure) than a shelf of commentaries.

 

Imagine the delight of highlighting ἀποστασία & then executing a search in the Koine Corpus!

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Enoch,

 

What you ask for is already possible vis-a-vis the Search All contextual menu, as Helen mentioned. Open your library, create a new user group, you could even call it "Koine Corpus" if you like, and populate it with the texts of your desire. You now have the capability of searching a whatever texts you place in your folder.

Edited by James Tucker
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Interesting discussion. My impression is that we do quite well on the biblical and related Greek texts, not as well on the non-biblical Greek material form the same period.

 

I recently had a request form a user that we investigate acquiring the SEG (http://www.brill.nl/publications/supplementum-epigraphicum-graecum) for Accordance, even as we have the non-biblical Semitic inscriptions.

 

I know we had a method of importing and searching the TLG for awhile, though apparently those CDs are no longer being licensed any more.

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Interesting discussion. My impression is that we do quite well on the biblical and related Greek texts, not as well on the non-biblical Greek material form the same period.

 

I recently had a request form a user that we investigate acquiring the SEG (http://www.brill.nl/...aphicum-graecum) for Accordance, even as we have the non-biblical Semitic inscriptions.

 

I know we had a method of importing and searching the TLG for awhile, though apparently those CDs are no longer being licensed any more.

 

Pretty much every Greek inscription you could ever want (including those published in SEG) are available from the PHI here. Scholars can request a CD of the PHI database that is readable in Diogenes (free and also includes LSJ 9th ed.), but I'm pretty sure the website linked to is more up-to-date, and it allows for greater flexibility in searching (i.e. region, date, etc.).

Edited by Rick Bennett
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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for the comments. James Tucker wrote:

 

"What you ask for is already possible"

 

Really? Does Accordance have all the koine Greek texts 200 BC -100 AD? I don't recall seeing Polybius.

 

Did I misunderstand the other posts? Are you not referring just to inscriptions, which of course one would not want left out, but hardly a substitute for Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, etc.

Edited by Enoch
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Thanks for the comments. James Tucker wrote:

 

"What you ask for is already possible"

 

Really? Does Accordance have all the koine Greek texts 200 BC -100 AD? I don't recall seeing Polybius.

 

Enoch,

 

My comment, if you read closely, addresses the functionality of question not the quantity of texts from this era. Your initial question is in reality two: "how can I search multiple modules within Accordance, yet treat them as one?"; and "how can I define various modules, in this case Greek texts, as one module for searching purposes?"

 

I don't know what you have as far as modules are concerned. I was merely demonstrating that the desired search capabilities are already elegantly available for you.

Edited by James Tucker
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James T said " I was merely demonstrating that the desired search capabilities are already elegantly available for you."

 

Well, James, for me it would be elegantly available if there were a text in the library that said, Koine Corpus, and if I could search that just as searching a Bible text. That is what I request Accordance add as a new feature. This corpus might start incomplete. To me it is not elegantly available if it requires that I put in lengthy study to figure out how to do it with jumping thru hoops. I had rather pay Accordance to do this for me and have it on a silver platter, user-friendly.

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