Product Description

For over a century, Thayer's has been lauded as one of the best New Testament lexicons available. Both accessible and thorough, it is a work suited for the student of New Testament Greek. Thayer's provides dictionary definitions for each word and relates each word to its New Testament usage and categorizes its nuances of meaning. Its exhaustive coverage of New Testament Greek words, as well as its extensive quotation of extra-biblical word usage and the wealth of background sources consulted and quoted, render Thayer's an invaluable resource.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #180507 in Books
• Published on: 1996-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 752 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781565632097
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Review
"There is much of value to be gleaned from its pages.” -- Novum Testamentum XLIII.1 (2001)

Language Notes
Text: English, Greek

Customer Reviews

The classic
Great, classic book on NT Greek words and their usage. He gives a good deal of derivation information, which is very valuable. Note to fellow Greek students: even though your book may include all the vocabulary you need, you should still get this book right away. One of the hardest thing about learning languages (at least for me) is memorizing vocabulary, and having the derivations makes it much easier. Example: the word PROSWPON (face). Mounce gives the memorable phrase "Pour soap on" as a mnemonic; but even more helpful to me was Thayer's explanation that PROSWPON is derived from PROS+OPS="what's in front of your eyes." Another one: ENOPION (before). Thayer explains it comes from EN+OPS="in the eyes of". Beautiful.

Another thing I especially like is how he relates many Greek words to words in other languages, not just English. For example, "IDE" could be defined as look, behold, etc; but Thayer would give the helpful hint "Latin: ecce". Where useful, he also lists equivalents for some words in German, French, etc.

The only drawback is that it's an reprint of an old (1880?) text, so some of the print is a little hard to read, and some of the references are hard to figure out and then to find. But, especially for the money, it's a great tool.

What do those words really mean?
A simple but in depth reference book that lets us look up any word in the new testament and find out it's meaning, or meanings, it's pronunciation and Greek spelling, it's roots, and derivations, places it is used in the Bible, and all kind of other interesting thing in a paragraph or so. The only other thing you should know before you do buy this is you have to have a Strong's concordance to work with to know which English Bible words correspond to which Greek word.

Thayer is No Longer Relevant. But...
Thayer went great lengths to produce an excellent lexical resource. Many would agree. But shortly after publishing, his book became outdated. Koine Greek was no longer viewed as a Holy Spirit invention (which was thought for a long time since scholars could not find 10% of the NT vocabulary in secular writings until about the last century). Since Thayer's release, Koine lexicography has taken great strides and has since left this dictionary far behind (see "Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics" by Daniel B. Wallace).

One positive of Thayer's dictionary is his study of etymology. Understanding how words form is very helpful in vocabulary memorization. But I'll add a word of caution illustrated by this short etymology lesson: "Butterfly" does not mean "a fly made of butter."

As words evolve (or devolve), they do not always retain their meanings. Koine vocabulary is an example that has been required to simplify in order to be accepted by various cultures. The words will not always fit etymological patterns or classical definitions.

Why then is Thayer's still so popular? It's cheap. It's public domain. And it's easy to use. Purchase at your own risk.

Recommended: "A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature" by Walter Bauer, Frederick William Danker (Editor)