[B-Greek] Trenches book on synonyms (Apologia pro Thayer)

Robert Newman rob at designceramics.co.uk
Wed Jun 25 14:24:54 EDT 2008


Dear Jim,
The technique used by Trench, that of comparing the usage of words to see 
the differences between them is very enlightening. Although BDAG is superb, 
I don't think any Lexicon could completely replace such a study as Trench's 
Synonyms.

A more recent work is A Treasury of New Testament Synonyms by Stewart 
Custer, 1975, ISBN 0-89084-025-3. In the introduction of Custers study it 
say that "It has largely avoided words included in Trench, for in most cases 
his work is adequate, even though it needs revision."

Like Custer, I think that Trench, even though dated, is valuable. Of course 
his observations should be assessed with the aid of more recent tools such 
as Mouton and Milligan's Vocabulary of the Greek Testament.

Regards
Robert Newman



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Lightman" <lightmanmark at yahoo.com>
To: <JMonte2000 at aol.com>; <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>; "George F Somsel" 
<gfsomsel at yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 4:52 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Trenches book on synonyms (Apologia pro Thayer)


That Thayer often gives excerpts from Trench is one reason that, despite
the b-Greek consensus, I find Thayer to be at least as useful as Bauer.
Papyri Shmapyri--show me one thing from Thayer or Trench that the
papyri proves wrong. Not that Trench is never wrong, but as Wittenstein
said, it is sometimes more important that a proposition be interesting than 
that it
be true, and Trench's book is interesting. It will help new Greek learners
absorb vocab meanings. And it's fun, once you read what he says about
LEGW versus LALEW, for example, to test his theories to see if they
hold up.

I have found that the because a NT Greek resource is old almost
never makes it less useful. My favorite Greek text book (Machen)
was published when Harding was President, and I've never read
anything that sheds more light on the Greek than Lightfoot's
editions of Paul, the first of which came out in 1865.



--- On Tue, 6/24/08, George F Somsel <gfsomsel at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: George F Somsel <gfsomsel at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Trenches book on synonyms
To: JMonte2000 at aol.com, b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 4:09 PM

Thayer's Lexicon is later than Trench's synonyms. Part of the problem
with Thayer is that it is deficient in not taking into account the 
discoveries
of the papyri which greatly enhanced our knowledge of lexical usage. If that
is the case, do you not think that Trench would be equally deficient? Add to
that the fact that Trench deals only with certain words which he considers 
to
be synonyms. This leaves a great number of words which may not be considered
as precisely synonyms but which cover similar areas. I think you would do
better to get Louw & Nida's _Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
Based on Semantic Domains_ where you could do a more careful study of the
relationships of many similar words.
First get BDAG.
george
gfsomsel


… search for truth, hear truth,
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth,
defend the truth till death.


- Jan Hus
_________



----- Original Message ----
From: "JMonte2000 at aol.com" <JMonte2000 at aol.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 4:57:49 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] Trenches book on synonyms

Hi all
Is Trenches book on synonyms still considered a good resource considering
when it was written?
Why I'm asking is, as time goes on and scholarship understands more &
more
about the language, books sometimes get outdated. Also what uses can a 1st 
yr

man get from this book like myself? Is it used like a good lexicon, only
comparing words groups? Anything else that you can say about the book would
be
appreciated

Grace and peace

Jim Montesano



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