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Liddell & Scott -Middle vs Complete ?


Drew_A

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Hello,

 

As I do have BDAG now, would having the "middle" version be a better compliment than the complete as a newer student to Greek? One review said that the complete was 'worth it in the long run' but it seems to offer (like BDAG ) an exhaustive overview which might be overkill.

 

If not LS for a complement to BDAG, any other essential Lexicons?

 

Thanks,

Drew

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The key factors to remember is that Liddell & Scott is more of a classical Greek Lexicon than a Koine Greek Lexicon. This does limit its usefulness when discussing Koine (Biblical Greek). With that said, most lexicons on Koine do only focus on Greek words in the New Testament, so if you need something that branches out, you may want to invest in Liddell and Scott. The intermediate Greek Lexicon may provide some use, but I would suggest getting other resources instead. Cost always being a factor, I would say while learning Greek, you don't really need a lexicon and if you do get one, I would recommend The Concise Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament by Frederick Danker. (Though I don't think it is available for Accordance, but it is basically an abridged treatment of BDAG.

 

 

I think that the Mounce Study Bungle for use with the Biblical Greek Primer may be of more use as well as any of the Analytical Lexicons, the Morphology of Biblical Greek. Since you already have BDAG, I would I think, concentrate on other resources to help with Greek. 

 

 Eventually getting the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis would be worth investing in. 

 

I think there are better Greek resources than the abridged LIddell and Scott. and I would look around and see what there is. Most importantly since you already own BDAG, many of the Greek Lexicons are sufficient.

Edited by SimpleTheist
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A lot depends on how far you are going to go with your Greek, what your goal is in studying Greek, and what the school you attend does past the two years required by most seminaries.  

 

I have audited 3rd year Greek, and then sat in on 3rd year Greek twice more.  The school I attended likes to get the student out of the NT so that he's not relying on his memory.  We translated church fathers & apologists, including selections from Justin Martyr (that was probably the toughest).  We also translated some of the gospel of Peter (very weird indeed) and parts of Alexander the False Prophet (non-Christian satire by Lucian).  That was pretty bad, too.  We needed LSJ.  I have BDAG, Louw & Nida, & Middle Liddell.  There were words that could not be found anywhere but in Big Liddell.  If you're going to stick to the NT, what you have is fine.  If you're going to study the LXX, Fathers, Apologists, & more, you may want another lexicon or two.  But you might want to wait until you are more sure of your needs.  Lexicons are not cheap.  

 

If you're mostly doing NT at this point, I'd consider Louw & Nida.

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Yep to above.

You can get a very long way with just BDAG. 

L&N is interesting because it's not a strict lexicon but groups lexemes according to semantic domain.

LSJ is something I look at to think about possibilities related to later usage. There's a fairly complicated-to-navigate online version if you want to look at what it offers - it's 1000x more useful as an Accordance module, but you can look there to see the sort of information offered. (search for Perseus)

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Thank you all for such great suggestions.

 

I'm about to start intermediate Greek in a few weeks along with exegesis. Having some additional resources will help I'm certain.

Drew

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Thank you all for such great suggestions.

 

I'm about to start intermediate Greek in a few weeks along with exegesis. Having some additional resources will help I'm certain.

Drew

Awesome, and good luck with that. Personally I would say that you are better off to invest your money in other helps (and any books that may be required for the class.) than purchasing either Liddell and Scott volume. If you want to take advantage of Accordance's 20% off sell, check which books will be required for that class and consider investing in those in accordance, provided accordance has them available.

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Simple Theist is right.  If you already have the books required by your professor, I think what would be more helpful than another lexicon is another grammar!  The larger 'reference' grammars are very helpful.  We continue to collect them here.  My husband is taking intermediate Greek, too, using Wallace's The Basics of New Testament Syntax.  We have Wallace's full grammar in Accordance and in print.  

 

But if the money is tight, wait.  There is a lot of great stuff out there, but most of us don't need to have it all at once! 

Edited by Julia Falling
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Also, lexicons aren't everything. So people may enjoy something like Con Campbell's Paul and Union with Christ which looks at every occurrence of 'in Christ'.

So when you come across 'in Christ', you can look in a lexicon or grammar (such as Wallace) for the 50 options of εν+dative, or you could look up this sort of a book which is able to focus on a specialised grammatical question. Food for thought!

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