A Pocket Lexicon
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A POCKET LEXICON TO THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT BY ALEXANDER SOUTER, M.A. (MAGDALEN COLLEGE) SOMETIME YATES PROFESSOR OF NEW TESTAMENT GREEK JI.ND EXEGESIS IN MANSFIELD COLLEGE OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMEN HOUSE, E.C. 4 LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW LEIPZIG NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE CAPETOWN BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS SHANGHAI HUMPHREY MILFORD PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY Impression-of r9z9 First edition, r9r6 Printed in Great Britain PREFACE THE present work is the third and last volume of the tiny trilogy which I have been permitted to con tribute for the use of students of the New Testament.1 In my Oxford days I was particularly struck by the fact that many theological works, which in their German form cost a small sum, were only to be obtained at a greatly increased price, when they appeared in an English dress. It seemed to me that there was at least as large a public for such productions in Britain and America as in Germany, and I could never see that the usual improvement in form justified the higher cost. The supineness of the clergy and others interested has been and is to me a subject of wonder, especially as few of them are men of means. I have long held the view that the most necessary knowledge in all departments should be available to the English reading public at a moderate price, and in this view I have been heartily encouraged by the Delegates of the Clarendon Press. The last quarter of a century or so has, as is well known, seen a vast_ accession to the material of value for the textual interpretation of the Greek New Testa ment, particularly in Greek papyri discovered in Egypt. These documents are for the most part written in the non-literary Greek, the KotviJ (SuL\£KTo~), 'the common dialect ' or lingua franca, spoken and written through- 1 The others are Novum Testamentum Graece, Textui a Re tractatorious Ang/is adhibito brevem Adnotationem Criticam subiecit A. S. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1910, 19u, reprinted 1913); The Text and Canon of the l\Tew Testament (London, Duckworth & Co., 1913). 111 a2 PREFACE out almost the whole Graeco-Roman world. Of this Greek an excellent account will be found in A. Meillet's Aperru de la langue grecque (Paris, 1913), a delightful volume which all interested in Greek ought to read. A number of years ago I formed the plan of a small pocket dictionary, in which as much of this new knowledge as possible should be incorporated in an unobtrusive way. This plan had been quite given up before the end of r9I1, but in 1912 such pressure was applied by the Delegates of the Clarendon Press that I felt compelled to take it up again and do what I could with it. The aim I have set before me is to give the forms of Greek words in the New Testament and their meanings as exactly as possible, according to the best knowledge available at the present time. I have studied brevity throughout, omitting matters connected with declension, conjugation, gender, &c., and even references to passages in the New Testament itself, except in cases where the reader might be left in doubt which of two or more senses to choose. I have thus been able to secure space for extended explanation, where the simplicity of the language is merely specious. I have endeavoured also to assign all borrowings of words or idioms from other languages (Latin, Aramaic, Hebrew) as accurately as possible. It may be assumed, where no such borrowing is indicated, that the evidence now favours the verna cular origin of word or idiom. Occasionally I have added the Latin word expressing the meaning of the Greek. As readers, I hope to have all who are interested in iv PREFACE the Greek New Testament, from the working man, who with Moulton's smaller grammar 1 and the present work struggles to understand the meaning of the New Testament as exactly as possible, to the experienced &cholar, who sometimes forgets the meaning of a word, and may be grateful for some of the information culled from the Latin Fathers and not readily accessible. Most readers, however, will belong to the class of theological students or ministers, who, whether at home or in the trainrmay be glad to have a handy volume to turn to in a 'difficulty. Unless I am mistaken, the newer knowledge sheds a flood of light on passages hitherto misunderstood or regarded as unprofitable (e.g. r Cor. x. 11, James i. 3, r Pet. ii. 2), and sweeps into the dustbin a deal of the well-meant but hair-splitting theology of the past (cf. £i.), quite unsuited as it was to the comprehension of plain first-century Christians. Naturally a work like the present is deeply indebted to many former publications. It is based not on any preceding dictionary of New Testament Greek-to them I am under almost no direct obligation at all but on the Concordance of Moulton and Geden. The best available mode:n commentaries on the New Testament are my main source. I should like to express my deep indebtedness to the posthumous commentaries of Hort in particular, for the precise definitions of words, unsurpassed anywhere, which they contain. His method, working as he did with material less abundant and of far inferior usefulness, 1 lntroductlon to New Testament Greek (London, Kelly, 3rd edition). V PREFACE has led him again and again by a divination, which belongs only to the finest scholarship, to conclusions made certain by the newer knowledge. Next, I am under the profoundest obligation to the Vocabulary of Moulton and Milligan, which gives one in an extremely attractive form, gracefully concealing a severe philo logical discipline unequalled in the world, all the important lexical knowledge accruing from the recent finds. My book also bears traces of the closest study of the invaluable Prolegomena of Moulton. For the proper names I am indebted above all to the Kurzes Bibelworterbuch, edited by H. Guthe (Tubingen and Leipzig, 1903 ). In addition to these works I have made use of many others, and I trust that their authors will regard this acknowledgement as sufficient. Of personal, apart from literary, obligations, I ought to mention my indebtedness to the true friend of many years, Dr. Sanday, for constant counsel and interest; to Dr. Milligan, for so kindly lending me the first part of the Vocabulary in proof, while it was still unpublished ; and, finally, to two former pupils, Mr. John Fraser, M.A., Lecturer in Latin and Lecturer in Comparative Philology in the University of Aber deen, from whose scholarly revision the book has greatly benefited, and Rev. C.· H. Dodd, M.A., now Lecturer, Mansfield College, Oxford, whose critical faculty I have often had occasion to appreciate. For the defects that remain-and even in a small work like this, where thousands of statements are made, they are inevitable-I am entirely responsible. University ef Aberdeen, r9rf. VI BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY A. Deissmann, The Philology of the Greek Bible, i'ts Present and Future (London, 1908). A. LEXICAL. J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament. Parts I and II (containing A-<l) (London, 1914-15), the rest meantime in The Expositor, 1908 II, p. 567, and later vols. to 1912 II. G. A. Deissmann, Bible Studies, Contributions chiefly from Papyri and Inscriptions to the History of the Language, the Literature, and the Religion of Hel lenistic Judaism and Prt'mitive Chrz'stianity. Trans lated by A. Grieve. 2nd ed. (Edinburgh, 1903). -- Light from the Anct'ent East, the New Testament illustrated by recently discovered Texts of the Graeco Roman World. Translated by L. R. M. Strachan. 2nd ed. (London, 1911). H. Ebeling, Grt'echisch-deutsches Worterbuch zum Neuen TcStamente mit Nachweis der Abweichungen des neu testamentlichen Sprachge_qrauchs vom Attischen und mit Ht'nweis au/ seine Ubereinstimmung mit dem hel lenistischen Griechisch (Hannover u. Leipzig, 1913), Pioneer work of great value in E. L. Hicks, On Some Political Terms employed in the New Testament (Classical Review, vol. i [1887], pp. 4 ff., 42 ff.). W. M. Ramsay, The Greek of the Early Church and the Pagan Ritual in the Expository Tz'mes, vol. x (1898- 1899), pp. 9 ff., 54 ff., 107 ff., I 57 ff., 208 ff. B. GRAMMATICAL. J. H. Moulton, A Grammar of New Testament Greek, vol. i, Prolegomena. 3rd ed. (Edinburgh, 1908). Better still, Einleltung in die Sprache des Neuen Testaments (Heidelberg, 1911). Vil BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testa ment in the Light of Histon·cal Research (New York, and London, 1914). The most comprehensive ever published. L. Radermacher, Neutestamentliche Grammatz'k: das Grz'echisch des Neuen Testaments im Zusammenhang mit der Volkssprache (Tiibingen, 1911). A delightful sketch. Only less valuable is H. St. J. Thackeray, A Grammar of the Old Testament in Greek according to the Septua gint, vol. i, Introduction, Orthography, and Accidence (Cambridge, 1909). C. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS. H. Lietzmann, Gn'ech£sche Papyri ausgewcihlt und erkliirt · (2. Aull) (Bonn, 1910). 8d. G. Milligan, Selections from the Greek Papyri, edited with translations and notes ( Cambridge, 1910 ). 5s. L. Mitteis u. U. Wilcken, Grundziige und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde (2 vols., 4 parts) (Leipzig, 1912). £2. D. TRANSLATIONS. J. Moffatt, The New Testament: a New Transla#on. 3rd ed. (London, 1914). A. Menzies, The Epistle to the Galatians, in the Expositor (December, 1913). A. Souter, The Pastoral Epistles, in the Expositor (November, 1913; January, 1914). E. COMMENTARIES. Handbuch zum Neuen Testament ..