Thoughts on Abridged NIDNTT

[JonathanHuber]

Can anyone comment on the differences between the full NIDNTT set and the cheaper abridged version? What was taken out?

 

Thanks,

Jonathan

[Helen Brown]

The organization is different. NIDNTT groups words of similar meaning together under a set of English words, NIDNTT-A lists each Greek word alphabetically. The content has been edited down somewhat as you can see in the below examples, and the bibiography is omitted.

NIDNTT

Good, Beautiful, Kind

Just as the concept evil can have different, distinct shades of meaning, the ideas contained in the concept good are expressed in NT Gk. by three word-groups, each with its own separate emphasis. agathos is used generally for what is good and useful, especially moral goodness in relation to God who is perfect. kalos can be used as a synonym, but in comparison with the ethical and religious emphasis of agathos, it stresses more the aesthetic aspect, and stands for beautiful, fine, free from defects. When applied to acts, it means noble, praiseworthy. For Plato the kalon is the realization of the agathon in the sphere of objects. chrēstos expresses the material usefulness of things with regard to their goodness, pleasantness and softness.

 

καλός G2819 (kalos), good, beautiful, noble; καλοποιέω G2818 (kalopoieō), do good.

 

CL 1 kalos (cf. Sanskrit kalya, healthy, strong, excellent) has as its basic meaning: organically fit, suitable, useful, sound, e.g. a suitable harbour (Homer); a healthy body (Plato); pure, genuine gold (Theognis); an unblemished sacrifice (Xenophon). Aesthetic judgments were very early attached to the concept of the fit and organically sound. kalos then also came to mean the aesthetically beautiful. Finally the concept was broadened again and gained the additional sense of morally good (Sophocles, Pindar and others). Thus, in the course of the history of Greek thought, the concept kalos achieved an inclusive meaning, linked with taxis (order) and symmetria (symmetry). In this context kalos came to mean

[JonathanHuber]

Thanks for providing the examples! This was helpful.

 

Jonathan