[b-greek] Glosses vs. Definitions

From: Steven Craig Miller (scmiller@plantnet.com)
Date: Sat Dec 09 2000 - 08:26:22 EST


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To: Clayton Stirling Bartholomew,

<< I am will openly admit, I am somewhat addicted to the gloss. >>

I think there are two basic problems with glosses. First, occasionally
confusion can result when one accepts a gloss as a definition of a Greek
word. Second, there is the tendency to assume that the semantic range of a
Greek word is roughly the same as the semantic range of its most basic
gloss. Take for example, the Greek term LOGOS which if often glossed as
"word." For many of us, a "word" is any meaningful sequence of letters
which, in normal typographical practice, is bounded on either side by a
space. I seriously doubt anyone in antiquity thought of LOGOS in such a
manner. Anyway, one will note that BDAG didn't eliminate the gloss, it
merely attempted to subordinate it to a definition.

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller@plantnet.com



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