Off-Topic - "Best" Hebrew/Greek Dictionary

I am starting to Learn Greek myself....and with Mounce's BBG with his video's that are now newly available.....it is not really terrible to learn Greek.  He does have a secondary offering of Greek for the Rest of Us.....that might help with getting to the Word.  But really, the number one resource for you to try to get is Learn to Use Greek and Hebrew with Logos Bible Software.  It is exactly for a person like yourself.  They talk about doing the word studies and so forth when you do not have the Greek Background.  I just love that Logos video set!!!!!! 

SamHenderson said:

I find Logos' own Lexham Analytical Lexicon to the GNT good because it provides a header for every lexical entry with every reference from the the NT for each shade of meaning, crosslinked to Louw-Nida numbers

Thanks for this tip.  I tried using both these resources together and it was very helpful!

Scott Dietrick said:

I'm am NOT a Greek/Hebrew scholar or any other kind of scholar. I'm just a guy who loves the Lord and loves to dig into His word in an in-depth manner. Studying the meanings behind the words of the original languages interests me very much and i find it very helpful in gleaning the full meaning of the word.

I think the best solution for you would be to get and go through the following Video resources: Learn to Use Biblical Greek and Hebrew with Logos  http://www.logos.com/products/details/5876 

The strength of the course is that it explains and teaches you to use Logos for exactly the thing you say you would like to do. I know it is pricey, but I just wanted you to know about the option.

Scott Dietrick said:

Please pardon a stupid question... Louw-Nida seems to only be a Greek lexicon... but why are there LN numbers listed in the Hebrew DBL?

Thanks

James Swanson went through and assigned domain numbers to the Hebrew words. Even though Louw-Nida is a Greek resource the concept of semantic domain can be transferred to different languages.

DBL's Preface has a more detailed explanation

Scott Dietrick said:

Now... is there an equivalent Louw-Nida for the Hebrew? Something that does exactly what LN does except for the Hebrew. I need it.

I am not aware of anything exactly like LN for Hebrew. Now, a dictionary like HALOT will give you lots of classifications of different meanings of a word. It's not uncommon for the entries to be exhaustive in their scope (meaning they have every occurrence in the Hebrew Bible classified).

Andrew McKenzie said:

UBS is has an ongoing project creating a Semantic Dictionary of Bilbilcal Hebrew. You can reveiw the entries already created at :

http://www.sdbh.org/home-en.html

Unfortunately though this doesn't solve the OP's immediate problem. 

Excellent, thanks for the link! It looks like it will be an excellent resource when finished. Unfortunately, lexicons take many years to finish. And then there's the wait time for it to be converted into Logos' format...

I know this thread is extremely old, but since I ran across it (through Google) in searching for a good Greek Lexicon, I figure others will too. 

And, I have one comment on this subject that may seem a bit snobbish and elitist, but that is not my intention. Here's the problem with what the OP wants to accomplish. You do more harm to your own understanding of the scriptures by looking up words in their original language when you have no level of true scholarship in the language. You will draw conclusions that are erroneous and cause you to not only be misinformed, but you are likely to use that mistaken knowledge when expositing the scriptures to others. 

Let me illustrate. Suppose you are a foreigner who doesn't know English and you look up the word "novel". You would see that it means both a "fictional book" and an "unusual or different idea". Now, you know it would be incorrect to conflate the two definitions and say, "Oh! Then that must mean that a novel is a fictional idea that is different." And yet, that's what I see Christians, who are untrained in ANE (ancient near eastern) languages, do with Hebrew and Greek. 

Only by actually being trained to some degree of expertise in these languages can a Strong's concordance even be of any value to you. Now, everyone wants to resort to it because it makes them sound smart and like they're doing "due diligence" in their Biblical studies. But, the reality is, you will only pervert your own understanding of the scriptures, rather than enlightening it. 

[Y] There is a danger in any language. Logos makes the Greek and Hebrew more accessible to everyone.  Care needs to be taken in using that information.

EastTN said:

Ron Grimes said:

I know this thread is extremely old, but since I ran across it (through Google) in searching for a good Greek Lexicon, I figure others will too. 

And, I have one comment on this subject that may seem a bit snobbish and elitist, but that is not my intention. Here's the problem with what the OP wants to accomplish. You do more harm to your own understanding of the scriptures by looking up words in their original language when you have no level of true scholarship in the language. You will draw conclusions that are erroneous and cause you to not only be misinformed, but you are likely to use that mistaken knowledge when expositing the scriptures to others. 

Let me illustrate. Suppose you are a foreigner who doesn't know English and you look up the word "novel". You would see that it means both a "fictional book" and an "unusual or different idea". Now, you know it would be incorrect to conflate the two definitions and say, "Oh! Then that must mean that a novel is a fictional idea that is different." And yet, that's what I see Christians, who are untrained in ANE (ancient near eastern) languages, do with Hebrew and Greek. 

Only by actually being trained to some degree of expertise in these languages can a Strong's concordance even be of any value to you. Now, everyone wants to resort to it because it makes them sound smart and like they're doing "due diligence" in their Biblical studies. But, the reality is, you will only pervert your own understanding of the scriptures, rather than enlightening it. 

There's a great deal of truth to what you say.  I completely agree with you about the value of serious original language study.  That's what motivated me to take Greek and Hebrew classes.

Having said that, the issue of multiple potential uses for a single word is not unique to Greek and Hebrew - we have the exact same phenomenon in English. I can say that my bathwater is hot (high temperature), the curry I'm eating is hot (spicy), a person is hot (sexually attractive), the jazz music I'm listening to is hot (artistically groundbreaking), my ball team was hot last night (performing unusually well), a night club is hot (very popular), or my car is hot (very fast). This is a feature of any natural human language. We sort these different meanings out by context and usage - just as a scholar would with an ancient language. That's why we don't conclude that the curry I had for lunch was not only spicy, but also sexually attractive, performing unusually well and capable of moving very quickly. And, we can make the exact same mistake working entirely in English. I've heard more than one preacher cite an English dictionary for a word such as "love" or "faith," read multiple definitions, and then turn around and apply them all to a single verse.

So, while I heartily join you in encouraging everyone who can to study Greek and Hebrew, I think the best strategy to combat this particular lexical fallacy is to explain it to people in simple terms, using illustrations from their own native language. It's not that hard to understand that when you're studying Romans and look up pistis, for example, in a Greek lexicon that you can't simply load the word down with all of the potential definitions at one time - instead, you have to look at the context to come to a reasoned judgment about how Paul is using the word. Just like my curry and my sister aren't "hot" in the same way, and I don't "love" them in the same fashion.