Vine's Greek Dictionary

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I was rummaging trough my closet the other day and found my Vine’s Dictionary of Old and New Testament words. This is a dictionary of the Greek and Hebrew words in Scripture, but Vine was a protestant. Anyone know of the reliability of this source? I’m really interested in studying the Greek and Hebrew in the Bible.
 
I’ve got the same, both in book form and on computer (part of the PC Study Bible program). As far as defining words is concerned, it’s accurate; otherwise, it would not have gained the wide acceptance that it has. I really don’t recall how much it get into Protestant interpretation, tho. I will take mine to work tonight (I have a 13-hour shift as a security guard with a lot of down time) and look through it and report back tomorrow, if I have time to get on the computer.

DaveBj
 
I did poke around in my Vine’s last night, and here’s my response. The Vine’s that I have, and probably also the Vine’s that you have (you did mention Hebrew) is a combination of W.E. Vine’s An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (1939) and Nelson’s Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament (1980). Both of them take the English terminology (not every single English word, but the major ones) and analyze the original Hebrew and Greek words that are translated into those English words. Since Vine’s was published in 1939, it uses only terminology from the KJV, frequently comparing the terminology in the RV. Nelson’s uses English from a wide range of translations.

As far as doctrinal bias is concerned, I went hunting for it last night and couldn’t find any. It appears that the writers were concerned only with defining words and showing Hebrew and Greek equivalents. One point–the Old Testament dictionary refers back only to the Hebrew, so the deuterocanonical books would not be mentioned. On the other hand, since the deuterocanonical books are in the Greek Septuagint, and since the language of the Septuagint is the basis of the Greek of the New Testament, terminology from the deuterocanon could probably be found in the New Testament section.

With regard to a question that was posed to me in a PM regarding the meaning of “tempt/temptation,” the Greek verb is peirazo (“to tempt, test,” used a few times with the prefix ek-), and the derived noun is peirasmos (“temptation”). This is a term that has two different meanings, which must be determined from context. (For those who are interested, the technical term for words having more than one meaning is “polysemy.”)

One of the meanings is “to try, assay,” with the intent of proving the worth of what is being tried. Every time I think of this meaning, I think of the time in the '80s when the Germans had built a high bridge, and in a publicity stunt they convinced the U.S. Army to park a number of M1 main battle tanks on the bridge to show it could hold the weight. There was a big stink about this in the States, but the purpose of the test wasn’t to make the bridge collapse; it was to prove that it would not collapse. This is the purpose of the temptations/tests that God sends our way–so we can prove to ourselves that we, with God in us, are strong enough to manage them.

The other meaning is “to draw away into sin.” The “tempting” of Christ, in the meaning of attempts by His opponents to entangle Him in His own words, also falls into this category. This is not something that God Himself does, but it is something that he allows, but only within limits that we can tolerate, and not without giving us a means of escape (1 Cor. 10:13).

For those who have access to an exhaustive concordance, it is a worthwhile study to see all the ways that “tempt/test/try/prove” are used in the New Testament–who does the testing, to whom it is done, why it is done, and the actual outcome.

DaveBj
 
I don;t know Hebrew but I have studied Greek, and still do alot. I have found that there are Protestant influences on Greek lexicons, but nothing that a learned Catholic can’t pick up on. Thayers Greek lexicon is very good. I like using it.

But over time lexicons have evolved due to manuscript discoveries. The same goes for Hebrew as well as Greek. Koine Greek was used for the NT and it had not been fulling understood until the last 50-80 years. Some scholars actually believed that Koine Greek was some kind of mystical Greek dialect used only by Biblical authors, but that theory was shattered when they discovered a mass of papyrus Koine Greek manuscripts in Egypt. They learned that Koine Greek was a dialect used by everyday people, and those documents taught scholars alot about the dialect. The Greek language evolved over thousands of years from Lunear B, classical, attic, koine, etc.

If you intend on digging into the Greek, I recommend Thayers. It gives you NT Greek words along with Septuagint words. If you want to study Greek, I recommend getting “Basics of Biblical Greek” by William Mounce. He is a Protestant, but he does teach Greek very good!!
 
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copland:
I don;t know Hebrew but I have studied Greek, and still do alot. I have found that there are Protestant influences on Greek lexicons, but nothing that a learned Catholic can’t pick up on. Thayers Greek lexicon is very good. I like using it.
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Fully agree–Thayer’s is excellent. I have a hardcopy and a soft-copy in my PC Study Bible. Given that it’s a late-19th-century work, its longevity is proof of its excellence of the scholarship that went into it.
But over time lexicons have evolved due to manuscript discoveries. The same goes for Hebrew as well as Greek. Koine Greek was used for the NT and it had not been fulling understood until the last 50-80 years. Some scholars actually believed that Koine Greek was some kind of mystical Greek dialect used only by Biblical authors, but that theory was shattered when they discovered a mass of papyrus Koine Greek manuscripts in Egypt. They learned that Koine Greek was a dialect used by everyday people, and those documents taught scholars alot about the dialect. The Greek language evolved over thousands of years from Lunear B, classical, attic, koine, etc.

If you intend on digging into the Greek, I recommend Thayers. It gives you NT Greek words along with Septuagint words. If you want to study Greek, I recommend getting “Basics of Biblical Greek” by William Mounce. He is a Protestant, but he does teach Greek very good!!
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Voelz’s Fundamental Greek Grammar is also good, as is LaSor’s Handbook of New Testament Greek. The latter is an inductive study based on the book of Acts. I also have a computer program called Greek Tutor, which is good for the basic basics. It has a lot of excellent drills and exercises. The only thing I don’t like about it is that the pronunciation is with an American accent 😛

DaveBj
 
DaveBJ,
It has a lot of excellent drills and exercises. The only thing I don’t like about it is that the pronunciation is with an American accent 😛
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hahahaha! I sound like some Greek speaking hillbilly when I speak it!

I was recommended a Fredrick Danker 3d ed. Greek-English Lexicon (BDAG). It is expensive, but I have heard alot of great things about it. It is suppose to be up-to-date and most scholarly. But it is supposed to weigh something like 50 pounds. It is not something you can carry around with you all the time. http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/icons/icon10.gif But it is one of those that gives you all that you would ever need from a lexicon. I plan on getting one for my library.
 
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