NIDNTTE for non-Evangelicals?

Ben

It’s quite the deal on the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis. However, I’m not Evangelical, and wondering how theologically... influenced it is. I lean pretty strongly to the New Perspective on Paul. I happily read works from a variety of theological perspectives, but I prefer my lexical studies to be more neutral. I’m also much weaker in Greek than I am in Semitics, and so less able to identify where the authors are “stretching.”

Thoughts?

Dan Francis

I would definitely say the theological leanings of the authors influenced them but not to such a point of being unusable by those of us in a different theological camp. I do like to let people sort of make up their own minds and will share a TNDT NIDNTE side by side to compare, of course I am  going to perhaps choose a word harder to determine because I want to grab a smaller entry. Off the top of my head I am going for ἀρχηγός   archēgos.

ἀρχηγός.1

a. The “hero” of a city, who founded it, often gave it his name and became its guardian, as, e.g., Athene for Athens Ditt. Syll.3, 400, 16 (ἀρχηγέτις). This gives us already b. the “originator” or “author” (Zeus ἀρχηγὸς φύσεως, Cleanthes Fr., 537, 2 [I, 121, 35, v. Arnim]). It is then found in application to philosophy (Aristot. Metaph., I, 3, p. 983b, 20 f.) and the cultus in the widest sense (Apollo ἀρχηγὸς τῆς εὐσεβείας, Ditt. Syll.3, 711, L 13)2 and in even looser usage. On the other hand, the hero-ἀρχηγός concept also has the subsidiary sense of c. “captain.” All three variations come together again in the NT. In Philo the term ἀρχηγέτης is mostly used for the patriarchs or Adam or Noah (a.). With special pride he calls Abraham the ἀρχηγέτης of the Jews (Abr., 9, 276; Vit. Mos., I, 7). On one occasion, however, he uses the word in a bold metaphor for God as the Creator and Father of all things (Ebr., 42).
In the LXX the ἀρχηγός is usually the political or military “leader” of the whole people, or of a part of it. It is usually the equivalent of רֹאשׁ, שַׂר, or נָשִׂיא; or of the קָצִין elected in time of emergency. In the Chronicler it is also used for רֹאשׁ as the “head” of the clan. It is used more figuratively only in 5 places: Mi. 1:13 (corr. to 1 Macc. 9:61): ἀρχηγὸς τῆς ἁμαρτίας (ἀρχηγοὶ τῆς κακίας): the ἀρχηγός is the leader and example in an action, who stirs others to follow. The superiority of the ἀρχηγός emerges in 1 Macc. 10:47, where only by his εἰρηνεύειν is it made possible for weaker parties to act at all. Cf. also Jer. 3:4; Lam. 2:10.

In the NT Christ is the ἀρχηγός. The term does not seem to be used as in Mi. 1:13. Yet it is thus that Christians, whose πολίτευμα is not of this world, answer the question of their eponymous hero (Plat. Tim., 21e). Because they bear His name, they may be certain not merely that He regards their affairs as His but also that He gives them a share in His power and glory. It is in this sense that Christ is the ἀρχηγὸς καὶ σωτήρ (Ac. 5:31). In the par. saying which is part of the evangelistic preaching of Peter in 3:15 He is particularly the ἀρχηγὸς τῆς ζωῆς. By His resurrection Christians have the pledge that they will share the destiny of their Hero and Saviour.
The concept is more deeply rooted in the circle of specific Christian thinking at Hb. 2:10. Christ is the ἀρχηγὸς τῆς σωτηρίας. He leads many brethren to the honour or glory3 which is the end of σωτηρία. By His suffering He accomplishes His work as the “Author” of salvation. In 12:2 He is similarly called the “Author” and “Founder” of Christian faith (ἀρχηγὸς τῆς πίστεως), and more particularly, according to the context, of the resultant moral consequences. Yet Jesus is also ἀρχηγὸς τῆς πίστεως in the sense that as the first man He gave an example of faith in God, that by His death He “fulfilled” this faith in God’s unconditional love and its overcoming of the barrier of sin, and that He thereby gave this love concrete and once-for-all actualisation in the history of salvation.4

Gerhard Delling, “Ἄρχω, Ἀρχή, Ἀπαρχή, Ἀρχαῖος, Ἀρχηγός, Ἄρχων,” ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 487–488.

4 Finally, the noun ἀρχηγός occurs 4x, twice in Acts and twice in Hebrews, and is applied only to Jesus. The sense “ruler, leader, prince” is likely in Acts 5:31 (where Jesus is also called σωτήρ G5400, “savior”) and poss. in 3:15. In the latter passage, however, Peter makes the paradoxical statement that his hearers killed τὸν ἀρχηγὸν τῆς ζωῆς (KJV, “the Prince of life”), and many believe that here the term is used with its orig. meaning of “beginning,” i.e., in a sense such as “founder, originator, source, author.” If so, the idea is that Jesus brings people to life (cf. John 1:4). The sense “author” seems esp. appropriate in Hebrews, which speaks of Christ as τὸν ἀρχηγὸν τῆς σωτηρίας αὐτῶν, i.e., the one who brought about the salvation of human beings (Heb 2:10 [KJV, “captain”]; cf. αἴτιος G165 in 5:9). And because Christ has himself reached the goal, he is not only the author but also the perfecter of our faith (12:2). In both of these passages, some prefer the transl. “pioneer” (cf. NRSV and NIV 2011 [but NIV 1984, “author”]; for further discussion see E. Käsemann, The Wandering People of God [1984], 128–33 et passim).

The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, s.v. “ἀρχή ἄρχω ἐνάρχομαι προενάρχομαι ἄρχων ἀρχηγός ἀρχαῖος,” 1:418.

Both of these entries feel somewhat cheated taking them out of the larger section context of discusion but I had hoped to show while there may be minor bias, nothing that renders them unusable in a wider field of study in my mind (albeit I am not an in-depth scholar).

-dan