Good morning,
Noticed on the Home Page this morning a reminder that the sale price (coupon code) on this 3 volume set is over shortly. While opinions vary, the following is a review from BibSac [153:610] (by Dr. Bock) for your consideration of adding these volumes to your library. - Brian
"In the last decade or so several lexical works have been translated into English. These have served to supplement Gerhard Kittel’s exhaustive ten volumes (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–1976]) as attention in lexical studies has turned from the individual terms to more semantically sensitive groupings. So Colin Brown’s four-volume collection (New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975, 1986]) works by concept and it groups related terms together. Balz and Schneider (Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990]) have tried to update and correct imbalances in Kittel while moving in a more synchronic direction. Both of these newer studies have generally paid less attention to evidence from the papyri, which is harder for the average student to locate and has not been significantly updated in a summary volume since James Hope Moulton and George Milligan’s work The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1930). This kind of lexical evidence, however, is often significant, since it reflects the everyday use of koine Greek.
Now comes the translation of the work, Notes de lexicographie néo-testamentaire by the French biblical scholar, Céslas Spicq. This study of theological words draws richly from the papyri, giving a flavor of the way key words were used in everyday life, the type of information that, judiciously used, can be of great value to pastors for illustrative material.
Spicq’s selective word studies cover terms he believes have theological value. Each word study usually discusses Septuagint material, Philo, Josephus, major Hellenistic writers, and the papyri before considering New Testament uses. The articles run from two to ten or so pages, easily manageable for those with limited time. For those who want more detail, the notes often not only note the citation but also give its gist in the original. In short, much information is packed into a short space. One regret is that certain key terms are not present. For example Spicq does not include the crucial Johannine term μένω ("to abide"). A discussion of blasphemy is found tucked away and treated briefly in a section that deals with "reproach." Though the English word index indicates its presence, the Greek word index does not, since the most direct Greek term for blasphemy (βλασφημέω) is not treated anywhere. Everything is cross-indexed to the other key lexical tools like Kittel, a nice additional feature. Helpful indexes cover Greek words, English words, and ancient sources cited.
A typical article is the one treating the verb "to call upon" (καλέω). After discussing the definition of the term, Spicq discusses when surnames are called out, when reproaches are made, when God’s name is invoked as a religious act of confession, and when names are called out in magical texts to cast a spell or prevent one. Sources include the Old Testament, Philo, Josephus, Xenophon, at least a half dozen papyri collections, and the relevant New Testament uses. These essays give students a sense of the breadth of a word’s use. Only occasionally does one sense that a word has been overinterpreted, as perhaps in the consideration of μετάνοια ("repentance"), where Spicq reads the term in too emotive a manner.
These volumes represent one of the best supplements to Kittel available. New Testament scholars should find much of value here, while those in pastoral work would certainly find the volumes useful in sermon preparation."
