I'm a bit puzzled about Logos' excitement about restarting an effort to add Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. As it says on the Logos product page:The publication of the revised edition of Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon in 1889 represents a watershed event in nineteenth-century Greek lexicography, and it remains an important tool for students and scholars of the Greek New Testament more than a century after its first appearance.
Okay, my goal is not to criticize Logos, and $25 for a pre-pub price is certainly reasonable, but I'm thinking... Why? I consult Thayer occasionally, but the only reason I do so is because it comes standard with BibleWorks and shows up with all my other lexical resources. (It also is included with most Accordance Scholar libraries.) The best aspect about it is that it includes some helpful information regarding the use of Greek terms in the Septuagint in relation to the underlying Hebrew text. Still... an awful lot has happened in our understanding of Koine Greek since 1889, and if wasn't included, I probably wouldn't bother.
If asked, I guess I would tell my students that it is helpful if used judiciously, but they would be better off saving up their money to get BDAG or the Exegetical Dictionary of the NT.
Am I missing something here? Have I underestimated the value and importance of Thayer?
What do you think?
Friday, October 2, 2009
Thayer's Lexicon for Logos
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I'd say that it's indispensible is you're doing serious lexicographical work, though I wouldn't say it's needed for exegesis.
ReplyDeleteThe greatest appeal, in my mind, is that it can be incredibly helpful for understanding word meaning via comparative work - i.e. comparing lexical entries from BDAG, BAGD, LSJ, & Thayer all together.
I think there is a loyal following that uses this classic resource, much in the same way some people still prefer Strong's and the KJV. Things have moved on substantially, but the fact that there is still a strong following for some of these resources is a tribute to them.
ReplyDeleteI'm rather baffled as to the "excitement" to which you refer as well as the value placed on it by some people. It reflects an old view of language and most critically it was written "pre-papyri." Thayer was published about the time that the first papyri studies began to be published and became essentially outdated as soon as it was published as a result.
ReplyDeleteAnother relevant issue here is that it's already freely available on archive.org in a pretty high quality scan, http://www.archive.org/details/greekenglishlexi00grimuoft
ReplyDelete@Mark:
ReplyDeleteAnd google books.
Marketing hype makes anything sound good. It's what marketing is supposed to do. Others who probably don't know enough about it probably just parroting the hype.
ReplyDeleteThis is Logos' copy on it: Joseph Henry Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament is one of the greatest achievements in biblical scholarship at the turn of the last century. As the culmination of nearly three decades of work, it contains more than 5,000 entries, references to hundreds of grammatical and exegetical works, detailed etymology, and complete summaries of both biblical and extra-biblical word usage. The publication of the revised edition of Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon in 1889 represents a watershed event in nineteenth-century Greek lexicography, and it remains an important tool for students and scholars of the Greek New Testament more than a century after its first appearance.
So yes, this lexicon is a watershed event for NINETEENTH-CENTURY (BIBLICAL) Greek lexicography (though I think even this is questionable, it's not like it's more complete than LSJ). But I think it is downright dishonest to add the next sentence "it remains an important tool." It is what it is, an old lexicon, important in its day, but far-surpassed in many and various ways. But then again, I'm not the guy in their marketing chair.
There are some decidedly Unitarian leanings on some of his work. I used it heavily in college and once I found out where some of those leanings were I just went on with something else!
ReplyDeleteProbably because there is a difference between the original unabridged Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon, and the abridged Thayer's Greek Definitions (TGD), which is available for free almost everywhere.
ReplyDeletehttp://hil001.blogspot.com/2012/08/thayers-greek-english-lexicon-of-new.html