The hidden depths both of the wisdom and knowledge of God were
manifest, not only in the revelation of his will contained in the
Scriptures of truth, but in the manner of giving that revelation, and in
the language in which is was given.
Egypt had wisdom, but it was enshrined in hieroglyphics so obscure that
their meaning faded centuries ago from the memory of mankind, and for
many successive ages no man on earth could penetrate their mysteries.
Assyria and Babylon had literature, art, and science; but with a
language written in seven or eight hundred cuneiform signs, some of them
having fifty different meanings, what wonder is it that for more than
two thousand years the language and literature of these nations was
lost, buried, and forgotten? The vast literature of China has survived
the changes of centuries, but the list of different characters, which in
a dictionary of the second century numbered 9353, and in the latest
imperial Chinese Dictionary numbers 43,960,—some of them requiring
fifty strokes of the pencil to produce them,—shows how unfit such a
language must be for a channel to convey the glad tidings of God's
salvation to the poor, the weak, the sorrowful, and to people who cannot
spend ten or twenty years in learning to comprehend the mysteries of the
Chinese tongue.
Who can imagine what would have been the fate of a divine revelation if
the words of eternal life had been enswathed in such cerements as these?
In the wisdom of God, the revelation of his will was given in the Hebrew
tongue, with an alphabet of twenty-two letters, some of which, as
inscribed on the Moabite stone, b.c. 900, are identical in form and
sound with those now used in English books.
This Hebrew alphabet, so simple that a child might learn it in a day,
has never been lost or forgotten. The Hebrew language in which the
Oracles of God were given to man, has never become a dead language.
Since the day when the Law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai, there
never has been a day or hour when the language in which it was written
was not known to living men, who were able to read, write, and expound
it. And the Hebrew is the only language of those ages that has lived to
the present time, preserving the record of a divine revelation, and
being conserved by it through the vicissitudes of conflict, conquest,
captivity, and dispersion; while the surrounding idolatrous nations
perished in their own corruption, and their languages and literature
were buried in oblivion.
In later ages, when the gospel of the Son of God was to be proclaimed to
all mankind, another language was used as a vehicle for its
communication. The bulk of the Israelitish race, through their
captivities and eternal associations, had lost the knowledge of the holy
tongue, and had learned the languages of the Gentiles among whom they
dwelt; and now as their corporate national existence was to be
interrupted, and they were to be dispersed among the peoples of the
earth, the Hebrew language was not a fit channel for conveying this
revelation to the Gentile world. Hence the same wise Providence which
chose the undying Hebrew tongue for the utterances of the prophets,
selected the Greek, which was at that time, more nearly than any other,
a universal language, as the medium through which the teachings of the
Saviour and the messages of the apostles should be sent forth to
mankind.
This language, like the Hebrew, has maintained its existence,—though
it has been somewhat changed by the flight of years,—and the modern
Greek spoken in Athens to-day is substantially the Greek of 1800 years
ago.
The gospel of Christ was to go forth to every nation; and the miracle of
Pentecost indicated that it was the Divine purpose that each nation
should hear in their own tongue wherein they were born, the wonderful
works of God. Hence the Scriptures have been translated into hundreds of
languages, and to-day six hundred millions of people, comprising all the
leading races and nations of the earth, may have access to the Word of
God in their native tongues. Nevertheless, no translation can perfectly
express the delicate shades of thought which are uttered in another
language, and it often becomes necessary and desirable to recur to the
original Scriptures, and by searching them to find out the precise
meaning of those words which were given by the Holy Ghost, and which are
"more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold." For while,
speaking in a general way, we have faithful translations, which give us
with great accuracy the sense of the Scriptures as a whole, yet there
are times when we desire fuller and more accurate information concerning
particular words uttered by those men to whom the Holy Ghost was given
to bring all things to their remembrance, to guide them into all truth,
and to show them things to come. Frequently there are depths of meaning
which the casual reader does not fathom, and the study of the Greek and
Hebrew becomes as needful as it is agreeable to those who love God's
law, who delight in his gospel, and who have time and opportunity to
prosecute such studies.
There are few lovers of the Bible who do not at times wish that they
might clearly know the precise sense of some one original word which may
sometimes be obscurely translated; or who would not be delighted to
inquire of some competent scholar as to the meaning of certain
expressions contained in that Book of God. Such persons are glad to
study the original Scriptures, that they may learn, as far as possible,
exactly what God has said to man.
The learning of a living language from those who seek it is no trifling
task; but a language which must be learned from books, presents much
greater difficulties; and to many persons the mastery of the Greek
tongue looks like the labor of a lifetime. It is; and yet it is possible
for studious Bible readers to learn the things they specially need to
know, with an amount of labor which need not appall or dishearten any
diligent student.
There are contained in the Greek New Testament about 5594 words; but in
the whole Greek literature the words are a great multitude, which
perhaps no man has ever numbered. The student of the Scriptures is not
anxious to master or explore this vast wealth of Greek literature, but
his ambition is to know something of those 5594 New Testament words in
which the message of God's mercy is conveyed to fallen man. Hence he may
pass by the bulk of Greek literature, and confine his investigations to
those few Greek words which are used in the New Testament to convey to
man the treasures of Divine truth.
A lexicon of the entire Greek language might extend through thousands of
pages. There stands on the shelves of the writer a copy of Stephen's
"Thesaures Grææ Linguæ," in eight folio volumes, (London, 1816-1825,)
which contains more than thirteen thousand large, closely printed pages.
A later edition of the same work is still larger; and there are critics
and students who would find use for a lexicon as elaborate as this; but
for the great mass of Biblical students most of this material would be
entirely useless, and a very small volume would contain all they would
find necessary in their study of the Scriptures of truth. Thus a
portable volume, confining itself to the definition of the words
included in the New Testament, could give them fuller treatment than a
very large volume which, covering the entire language would be obliged
to condense and abridge at every point, omitting perhaps the very matter
most desired by a student of the Sacred Word.
There is another consideration; the Greek of the New Testament differs
materially in its character from the classical Green, or from the Greek
language as a whole. About b.c. 288, the law of Moses was translated
from Hebrew into Greek, by request of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who sought
everywhere for books to enrich his great library at Alexandria.
Subsequently other portions were translated, and hence, we have what is
known as the Septuagint version of the Old Testament. This was largely
used among the Jewish people in Egypt and elsewhere in the time of our
Saviour. It was a Greek version of a Hebrew book, and it was through
this book, as well as by intercourse with Grecian people and foreigners
of the Jewish stock, that the Jewish people became acquainted with the
Greek tongue. But the Greek of the Septuagint was full of Hebrew ideas
and idioms, and hence the Greek of the Jews in Palestine, and of the New
Testament which is also saturated with Old Testament ideas, differed
from the ordinary language of the Greeks, new meanings having been
imparted to various words, in order that they might represent Hebrew
words and Hebrew ideas. For example, when the Greek word hades is used,
we are not thereby committed to a belief in all the fabulous ideas of
the Greeks concerning the abode of the dead, for the word was but the
representative of the Hebrew word sheol, which is almost always
translated hades in the Greek Testament. Hence in studying this Greek
word in the New Testament we are not to go to the Greek classics to find
out what they mean by the word hades, but rather to the Hebrew prophets
to learn in what sense they use the Hebrew word sheol, of which it is
the Greek equivalent. So the word diatheke in classic Greek signifies a
will, testament, covenant, and so the term in the common English version
is translated in both these ways. But in the Septuagint the word
diatheke is used to translate the Hebrew word berith, which signifies a
covenant, but does not signify a will or testament.1* Hence, instead of
speaking of "The New Testament" we should more correctly call it the
"The New Covenant." A variety of instances might be adduced where New
Testament Greek words have meaning widely different from the same words
in classic Greek.
It must also be remembered, that there are words in the New Testament
which are not found at all in the classical writers. When new ideas are
to be conveyed, new words must be found to convey them. In the language
of the Hindus there is no word for home, simply because the Hindu has no
home. The idea of a home as understood by Christians, is utterly foreign
to the Hindu nation and religion. There are heathen nations that have no
word for gratitude, because gratitude is unknown to them; so the word
agape or charity, which describes unselfish love, a love which reaches
to enemies, and which seeks no personal gratification or reward,—that
love which is of God, and concerning which it is said, "God is Love,"
refers to something unknown to the heathen world. They had no word to
express it, because they had not the thing itself to express.
These illustrations indicate some of the peculiarities of the New
Testament Greek, and serve to show use why the student of the Bible
needs an especial apparatus for studying the Greek New Testament. For
this purpose, he has been most generously furnished with New Testament
lexicons, in different languages, Latin, German, and English, by the
labor of devout and learned students. Among the most noteworthy may be
mentioned Robinson's Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, and Prof. J. H.
Thayer's later and more elaborate Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament, based upon Prof. Grimm's get Lexicon; which is well adapted
to meet the needs of the critical student.
The meaning of words is determined finally by their usage by those who
employ them, and the only way to settle the sense of disputed and
difficult words is carefully to examine each word in its connection, in
all the passages where it is used, and in the light of that examination
decide as to its meaning or meanings. In some of the more elaborate
lexicons a large number of passages are thus cited, illustrating the use
of the words under consideration, and it some cases authors have
endeavored to give nearly every passage where a word occurs in the New
Testament. This however, cumbers the lexicon with a large amount of
material which in most instances is of little use. This examination and
comparison of passages, the careful student should make for himself, and
his interests in this direction are better served by the use of a
concordance; and for those who wish to investigate carefully the meaning
of Greek words in the New Testament, ample provision has been made in
the Critical Greek and English Concordance, prepared by Prof. C. F.
Hudson, under the direction of H. L. Hastings, and revised and completed
by the late Ezra Abbot, D.D., LL.D., Profession of New Testament
Criticism and Interpretation in the Divinity School of Harvard
University.
This book contains (1) the more than five thousand words in the Greek
Testament, in alphabetical order. (2) Reference to every passage where
those words occur. (3) Every English word which is used to translate the
given Greek word. (4) The passages in which the Greek word is translated
by each English word, classified and set by themselves, so that the more
usual translations are also exhibited. (5) The various readings of the
leading critical editions and manuscripts of the Greek Testament. (6) An
English index, so that with this book a person who does not know a
letter of the Greek alphabet is enabled to find the original for any
English word in the New Testament, learn in how many places it occurs,
and in how many ways it is translated, so that by examining every
passage, he may have the data before him for making up and independent
judgment from the facts in the case.
This Greek Concordance obviates the necessity for an exhaustive citation
of the passages containing any particular Greek word, and brings us back
to the proper sphere of a Lexicon, as a book defining the words
contained in the language, with occasional references to passages which
illustrate the different meanings; and when equipped with Hudson's
Concordance, a manual lexicon of New Testament Greek serves the purpose
of the ordinary student.
It is for the accommodation of such students, who know little of the
Greek language, but who desire to "search the Scriptures," and of others
more scholarly, who yet find it needful to refresh their memories as to
the sense of Greek words, that this Lexicon is offered. It was
originally prepared by William Greenfield, who was born in London, in
1799, and died there November 5, 1831. He edited Bagster's Comprehensive
Bible, a Syriac New Testament, a Hebrew New Testament, and prepared an
abridgement of Schmidt's Greek Concordance. In 1830 he was appointed
editor of the Foreign Versions of the British and Foreign Bible Society;
and though he died at an early age, he had a high reputation as an
accomplished linguist.
In preparing his Lexicon of the New Testament, he drew materials from
every accessible source; the Lexicons of Parkhurst, Schleusner, Wahl,
and Robinson being especially examined and laid under contribution. This
Lexicon, issued by Bagster & Sons as a companion for a portable edition
of the Greek Testament, served an excellent purpose. At a later date it
was carefully revised with numerous additions and improvements, by Rev.
Thomas Sheldon Green, M.A. and it has received the hearty approval of
competent Greek scholars, like the late Professor Ezra Abbot of
Cambridge.
Though the body of this Lexicon includes all the words contained in the
Received Text of the Greek New Testament, yet in the texts now more or
less current, in particular those of Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles,
Westcott and Hort, and the Westminster Revised, certain new words and
forms are introduced, not found in the Received Text.
With a desire to give completeness to this Lexicon, a list of these
words is presented, with definitions and a record of the places where
they occur, at the end of the Lexicon. This list has been prepared by
Mr. Wallace N. Stearns, under the supervision of Prof. J. Henry Thayer,
of Harvard Divinity School, the successor of the lamented Dr. Ezra
Abbot, and one of the revisers of the New Testament, whose arduous
labors in the department of sacred lexicography are too well-known to
need further mention.
With these statements as to the object and character of this Lexicon, we
commit this new edition to the kind of providence of Him whose words of
truth are therein expounded, and without whose blessings all labor and
effort is but in vain.
H.L. Hastings
Scriptural Tract Repository,
Boston, Mass., June, 1896.