Lexicons You Need for NT Greek Study and Why

I've listed some of the most important Greek-English lexica below. To make this blog entry a little less labor-intensive, I will only discuss some of the reasons why these works are helpful. Notice that I don't mention Vine's Expository Dictionary or Thayer's because these works are outdated: and my list only includes classical, patristic or NT sources but see the "honorable mentions." I will list the abbreviation for each lexicon, then its full citation.

1. BDAG-Danker, Frederick W., Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

2. Louw-Nida-Louw, J. P., and Eugene A. Nida. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains. New York, NY: United Bible Societies, 1988.

3. LSJ-Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. with revised supplement. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996.

4. Cambridge Greek Lexicon-Diggle, James (editor in chief). The Cambridge Greek Lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.

5. BrillDAG-Montanari, Franco, et al. The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek. Leiden: Brill, 2015.

6. PGL (Lampe)-Lampe, Geoffrey W. H., ed. Patristic Greek Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon, 1961.

7. MM-Moulton, James Hope, and George Milligan. The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914.

8. TLNT (Spicq)-Spicq, Ceslas. Theological Lexicon of the New Testament. Translated and edited by James D. Ernest. 3 vols. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994.

9. TLG Database-https://guides.lib.umich.edu/TLG (Thesaurus Linguae Graecae)

10. TDNT-Kittel, Gerhard, and Gerhard Friedrich, eds. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. 10 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–1976.

11. NIDNTTE-Silva, Moisés, ed. New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis. 2nd ed. 5 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014.

12. Abbott-Smith-Abbott-Smith, G. A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament. New York: Scribner, 1922.

Honorable Mention-Lust, Johan, Erik Eynikel, and Katrin Hauspie, eds. Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint. Rev. ed. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2003.

Muraoka, Takamitsu. A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint. Leuven: Peeters, 2009.

My Comments: Scholars consider BDAG to be the standard Greek-English lexicon for GNT studies. One advantage is that it's more up to date compared to the older lexica and BDAG greatly improves the definitions for each Greek word. No lexicon is perfect but this lexicon is fairly reliable and covers a range of data.  One website states about BDAG: "This is the undisputed number-one lexicon for the Greek of the New Testament."

See https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/10-books-that-belong-on-every-pastors-bookshelf/

A Professor of the NT makes these remarks concerning BDAG: "The standard dictionary of New Testament Greek used by advanced students and scholars. If you buy one dictionary, this should be it. Just make sure you get the 3rd edition (published in 2000). It’s a major leap forward from earlier editions. The key problem with most cheap or free Greek dictionaries is that they were first written before the discovery and analysis of papyrus libraries in the 20th century that transformed our understanding of the non-literary Hellenistic Greek that we find in early Jewish and Christian writings. BDAG has thoroughly digested those insights, and the 3rd edition also draws on some newer insights from linguistics. A must-have if you’re serious. This covers not only the NT but also the writings of the Greek church fathers."

See https://ianwscott.blog/2019/11/05/which-greek-dictionary-should-i-buy/

He comments on many of the lexica I have listed above.