Beale, Gregory K., Daniel J. Brendsel, and William A. Ross. An Interpretive Lexicon of New Testament Greek: Analysis of Prepositions, Adverbs, Particles, Relative Pronouns, and Conjunctions. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2014. 96 p. Pb. $15.99. Link to Zondervan.
This short book combines a lexical analysis and exegetical syntax for the always troublesome “little words”: prepositions, adverbs, particles, relative pronouns and conjunctions. It joins Murray Harris’s Prepositions and Theology in the Greek New Testament (Zondervan, 2012) and Dan Wallace’s Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics (Zondervan, 1996) as a specialized tool for Greek exegesis focusing on logical relationships between propositions (p. 6).
In the introduction to the Interpretive Lexicon, the authors explain the need for a handy list of words that used in the Greek New Testament to indicate relationships between clauses. The book uses a series of abbreviations for the types of logical relationships possible. For example, Alt = Alternative, C-E = Cause and Effect, C?-E = Condition, T = Temporal, +/- = Negative-Positive, etc. The authors provide brief descriptions of these abbreviations and offer a short introduction on how to read the entries in the Lexicon.
The main purpose of the books is to help interpreters tease out the often subtle connections between phrases and clauses in order to shed light on the text. Because the book is a brief handbook, a student can quickly identify the types of logical relationships possible for any given preposition when working on a discourse analysis of a pericope.
The lexicon itself is only 69 pages. It includes mores prepositions, adverbs and particles, but it is not exhaustive. Each entry begins by providing the page numbers in either the second edition of Bauer (1979, BAGD) or the third edition (2000, BDAG). Entries also include page references to either Harris or Wallace. Each entry is subdivided into usage (preposition with the dative, adverb, etc.) and the entry is “tagged” with an abbreviation indicating the type of logical connection the word usually indicates. The word ἐκεῖ, for example, is an “adverb of place” in BDAG, the Interpretive Lexicon identifies it has an adverb, either L (location) or NLR (no logical relationship). Other entries are more complex, ἐν includes six logical relationships as well as references to Wallace and Harris, plus separate entries for ἐν τῷ + and infinitive and ἐν ᾧ.
There are other guides that are similar to this Lexicon, such Steven Runge’s Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction for Teaching and Exegesis (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2010) or Harris’s text used throughout this Interpretive Lexicon. Runge is far more detailed, which is to be expected in a monograph that runs over 400 pages. This Interpretive Lexicon of New Testament Greek is therefore a valuable exegetical aid for the student reading the Greek New Testament. Considering the book low price of the book, it is an affordable addition to any student’s Greek reading aides. It will in a valuable handbook for those working on a discourse analysis of a text.
NB: Thanks to Zondervan for kindly providing me with a review copy of this book. This did not influence my thoughts regarding the work.
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