July 18, 2007

• Word Study Reference

  I was asked the following question by by Xanga friend, a youth minister at New Hope Baptist Church in Tennessee,  Justin:

  “I have a quick question about some Greek resources. Just wondering what are some additional and excellent resources I can include in my diet? “

  I thought I would share my reply. Thank you Justin for asking

  Check out Justin’s websites at:
  Justin’s Xanga blog
  Jusitin’s Blogspot Blog
  

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  First, I will share with you that all the books listed in the LaleoCafe Resource library are in my collection. This represents about 3/4 of my library and I am working on getting the rest of the books in.
  
  Second, to answer your question more directly, the following are the books I use the most for word studies. One of my “rules of thumb in understanding” is that I am careful to look at scholarly information from two or three sources so that the information is not easily skewed. In other words, if I am doing a word study and I consult three references and one is different than the other….I might question the difference. Where two or three scholars agree……I can bet that this information is pretty solid.
  
  Here are the books I use most often for word studies:
  1. “Expository Dictionary of Bible Words: Word Studies for Key English Bible Words Based on the Hebrew and Greek Texts“,  From Hendrickson Publishers 
      
  2. “New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology: Abridged Edition“, From Zondervan
  I love this book because it examines word usage not only in the Holy Scriptures but in the Septuagint (The Greek translation of the Old Testament, which is the Bible quoted most by Jesus and the Apostles) and other extra-biblical sources. I believe this is a must have! to fully use this book it is important to have a reference to Strong’s numbering system. This book uses the “Goodrich-Kohlenberger numbering” system but has a great section in the back for determining which Strong’s number corresponds to the Goodrich-Kohlenberger number.
  
  3. “Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (10 Volume Set)“, By Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich
  This is the “big daddy” of the book above. While the price at Amazon is $700 for the set, it can be found at ChristianBook.com for $149.99.
  
  4. I use a variety of interlinear’s when I really want to dig deep….such as:
  – “The Interlinear NIV Hebrew-English Old Testament“, By Mr. John R. Kohlenberger III
  
  – “The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament (Personal Size)“, By Robert K. Brown
  
  – “Interlinear Greek-English New Testament“, From Baker Academic
  
  5. “The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English“, By L. C. L., Sir Brenton
  I believe this should be in any serious Scripture students library. Fascinating!
  
  6. Two very good on-line references can be found at Ken Shenke’s site. Ken teaches New Testament at Indiana Wesleyan University, an evangelical college located in Marion, Indiana. . 
  KenShenke.com  and  KenShenke.blogspot.com

  Article: “The Benefits and Dangers of Word Studies“
  
  Ken also has an excellent site called, “Cafe Tutor“. Check it out!

  God bless!
  

  • 8:16 am
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