[b-greek] Thayer Schmayer

From: Matthew R. Miller (biblicalscribe@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri May 25 2001 - 13:20:52 EDT


This may be different from the main thrust os the Thayer's discussion. But
from a purely linguistic point of view, Thayer, and all other Greek
scholars, are such because they have spent time studying words as native
speakers used them. That is the essence of grammar: how words are used by
native speakers. Oral language ALWAYS changes, and if a society, such as
the French Acadamie Francaise, attemps to restrict change in the written
language, still they cannot stop the progression of the oral, hence the
oddities of modern French (5 silent letters, etc.). Thus, any student of
New Testament Greek may study for himself the use of words in context and
essentially do just what Thayer, or any other scholar, has done. I tell my
students: if you research the use of a Greek word in the New Testament,
looking at every occurrence, and you see that the use of the word
contradicts Thayer's definition, then Thayer is wrong! Not to degrade
Thayer -- lexica are valuable tools, and Thayer's has endured the test of
time. But Thayer is not the objective authority, above and beyond the text
itself.

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