Cambridge Greek Lexicon - interesting definitions

[Matthew Longhorn]

I figured that since the Cambridge Greek Lexicon is based on a new reading of the text and is not a mere update of an existing lexicon that flagging definitions in it that may be of interest to people is a worthwhile thread

https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/ ... ?format=WX

The Cambridge Greek Lexicon is based upon principles differing from those of existing Greek lexica. Entries are organised according to meaning, with a view to showing the developing senses of words and the relationships between those senses. Other contextual and explanatory information, all expressed in contemporary English, is included, such as the typical circumstances in which a word may be used, thus giving fresh insights into aspects of Greek language and culture. The editors have systematically re-examined the source material (including that which has been discovered since the end of the nineteenth century) and have made use of the most recent textual and philological scholarship. The Lexicon, which has been twenty years in the making, is written by an editorial team based in the Faculty of Classics in Cambridge, consisting of Professor James Diggle (Editor-in-Chief), Dr Bruce Fraser, Dr Patrick James, Dr Oliver Simkin, Dr Anne Thompson, and Mr Simon Westripp.

Landmark new Ancient Greek-English dictionary that will be essential for all students and teachers
Based on comprehensive fresh reading of the Greek texts
Takes account of newly discovered texts
English definitions and translations in contemporary language, with contextual descriptions that will aid users at all levels
Analysis of word forms and related words, copious cross-references, inclusion of disputed meanings

Note that they do not provide locations within an author, just the author that the meaning is found in

I just looked up the meaning that they give for μονογενης
Here the have it coming from μονος and γενος, γιγνομαι
1. Alone in birth; (of a son or daughter), only born, only - Hesiod, Aeschylus, Herodotus, Apollonius Rhodius, New Testament, Plutarch
2. (Of a royal line) from a single family - Plato
3. Alone in kind (of being, heaven) unique - Parmenides. Plato.

[Barry Hofstetter]

If you go to their website they have several information videos that explain their methodology. They are very honest about the limitations of the text. It functions as essentially a replacement for "Middle Liddell" the intermediate version of the LSJ. Do you already have your copy? MIne's on preorder from Amazon and who knows when it will ship.

[Matthew Longhorn]

Hey Barry, yep - got mine yesterday. Thought it could be interesting to see where they differ from LSJ and BDAG and it could have an impact on NT translation, even if they only examined the gospels

[Jonathan Robie]

I just looked up the meaning that they give for μονογενης
Here the have it coming from μονος and γενος, γιγνομαι
1. Alone in birth; (of a son or daughter), only born, only - Hesiod, Aeschylus, Herodotus, Apollonius Rhodius, New Testament, Plutarch
2. (Of a royal line) from a single family - Plato
3. Alone in kind (of being, heaven) unique - Parmenides. Plato.

Is that the entire definition?

What kinds of words would be most helpful for benchmarking lexicons against each other?

[Matthew Longhorn]

That is the entire definition, yes. It certainly isn’t comprehensive, but interesting nonetheless.

What kinds of words would be most helpful for benchmarking lexicons against each other?

I am really dependent on you guys for that. I guess what is interesting is seeing how they handle words that might cause debate. I looked up διακρίνω to see if they held a “doubt” component to it, given a slew of recent articles suggesting that this is not an accurate meaning. They listed doubt right at the end of their definitions and just cited it as

MID and AOR.PASS (W.mid.sens) have doubts (esp about the truth of the Christian message)

giving this NT as a source

[Stephen Carlson]

I’m more interested in its semantic analysis (how they break down the senses of a polysemous word) rather than in how they assign an otherwise unlocated NT usage to one of the senses.

[Matthew Longhorn]

Apparently they are considering releasing the notes at some point behind their decisions which would be good to see

[Jonathan Robie]

I’m more interested in its semantic analysis (how they break down the senses of a polysemous word) rather than in how they assign an otherwise unlocated NT usage to one of the senses.

I agree.

I use a lexicon in a couple of different ways. Often, I am just looking up a word that seems important so I can keep reading, and what I need is a simple definition that I have some reason to trust. That seems to be what this lexicon is geared to. But I'm surprised it does not mention LXX references for μονογενής, they seem very relevant.

Compare to Abbott-Smith, an "oldie but goodie":

μονογενής, -ές

(< μόνος, γένος),
[in LXX: Jg 11:34, Ps 21 (22):2024 (25):1634 (35):17 (יָחִיד), To 3:156:10, 148:17, Wi 7:22, Ba 4:16*;]


only, only begotten (DCG, ii, 281), of sons and daughters: Lk 7:128:429:38, He 11:17; of Christ, Jo 3:16, 18, I Jn 4:9; μ. παρὰ πατρός, Jo 1:14; μ. θεός, Jo 1:18.†

That's easy to read, and it links to relevant passages in the LXX as well as the New Testament, but it has no references outside of these two corpora.

Here's LSJ (please follow the link):

μονογενής


Here's BrillDAG:

μονογενής -ές [μόνος, γένος] unique in race or kind, sole HES. Op. 376, Th. 426, 448 HDT. 7.221 etc.; μ. τέκνον only son AESCHL. Ag. 898; μ. θυγάτηρ only daughter PLAT. Criti. 113d | Christ. only-begotten ORIG. Io. 2.10.72 etc. ‖ philos. unique, being, god etc. PARM. B8.4 (v.l. οὐλομελές) etc. ‖ gramm. that which has a single form, a sole citation AP.7 Adv. 145.18 etc. | metr. that which has a single form, of metrical feet HEPH. Ench. 3.3 epic and Ion. μουνο- ♦ adv. μονογενῶς only, uniquely [ARR.] 11.56.

Montanari, F. (2015). M. Goh & C. Schroeder (Eds.), The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek. Leiden; Boston: Brill.

BrillDAG is also curiously uninterested in the LXX uses.

Louw & Nida is easy to read quickly if you are using it in a software package that handles lookups, here's what it says here:

58.52 μονογενής, ές: pertaining to what is unique in the sense of being the only one of the same kind or class—‘unique, only.’ τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν ‘he gave his only Son’ Jn 3:16; τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ ἀπέσταλκεν ὁ θεός ‘God sent his only Son’ 1 Jn 4:9; τὸν μονογενῆ προσέφερεν ὁ τὰς ἐπαγγελίας ἀναδεξάμενος ‘he who had received the promises presented his only son’ or ‘… was ready to offer his only son’ He 11:17. Abraham, of course, did have another son, Ishmael, and later sons by Keturah, but Isaac was a unique son in that he was a son born as the result of certain promises made by God. Accordingly, he could be called a μονογενής son, since he was the only one of his kind.

Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 590). New York: United Bible Societies.

BDAG is more complete, but not in the same space, it's hard to read this quickly to get a quick definition. (I think the compact BDAG that came out after fits in this space, but I don't have it).

μονογενής, ές (μόνος, γένος; Hes.; LXX; PsSol 18, 4; TestSol 20:2; TestBenj 9:2; ParJer 7:26; ApcEsdr 6:16; ApcSed 9:2; Joseph., Just.; loanw. in rabb.) acc. μονογενῆ (-ῆν J 3:16 v.l.; Hb 11:17 D; also ApcEsdr 6:16)
① pert. to being the only one of its kind within a specific relationship, one and only, only (so mostly, incl. Judg 11:34; Tob 3:15; 8:17) of children: of Isaac, Abraham’s only son (Jos., Ant. 1, 222) Hb 11:17. Of an only son (PsSol 18:4; TestSol 20:2; ParJer 7:26; Plut., Lycurgus 59 [31, 8]; Jos., Ant. 20, 20) Lk 7:12; 9:38. Of a daughter (Diod S 4, 73, 2) of Jairus 8:42. (On the motif of a child’s death before that of a parent s. EpigrAnat 13, ’89, 128f, no. 2; 18, ’91, 94 no. 4 [244/45 A.D.]; GVI nos. 1663–69.)
② pert. to being the only one of its kind or class, unique (in kind) of someth. that is the only example of its category (Cornutus 27 p, 49, 13 εἷς κ. μονογενὴς ὁ κόσμος ἐστί. μονογενῆ κ. μόνα ἐστίν=‘unique and alone’; Pla., Timaeus 92c; Theosophien 181, §56, 27). Of a mysterious bird, the Phoenix 1 Cl 25:2.—In the Johannine lit. (s. also ApcEsdr and ApcSed: ὁ μονογενής υἱός; Hippol., Ref. 8, 10, 3; Did., Gen. 89, 18; ὑμνοῦμέν γε θεὸν καὶ τὸν μ. αὐτοῦ Orig., C. Cels. 8, 67, 14; cp. ἡ δύναμις ἐκείνη ἡ μ. Hippol., Ref. 10, 16, 6) μονογενὴς υἱός is used only of Jesus. The renderings only, unique may be quite adequate for all its occurrences here (so M-M., NRSV et al.; DMoody, JBL 72, ’53, 213–19; FGrant, ATR 36, ’54, 284–87; GPendrick, NTS 41, ’95, 587–600). τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μ. ἔδωκεν J 3:16 (Philo Bybl. [100 A.D.]: 790 Fgm. 2 ch. 10, 33 Jac. [in Eus., PE 1, 10, 33]: Cronus offers up his μονογενὴς υἱός). ὁ μ. υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ vs. 18; τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μ. ἀπέσταλκεν ὁ θεός 1J 4:9; cp. Dg 10:2. On the expr. δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ πατρός J 1:14 s. Hdb. ad loc. and PWinter, Zeitschrift für Rel. u. Geistesgeschichte 5, ’53, 335–65 (Engl.). See also Hdb. on vs. 18 where, beside the rdg. μονογενὴς θεός (considered by many the orig.) an only-begotten one, God (acc. to his real being; i.e. uniquely divine as God’s son and transcending all others alleged to be gods) or a uniquely begotten deity (for the perspective s. J 10:33–36), another rdg. ὁ μονογενὴς υἱός is found. MPol 20:2 in the doxology διὰ παιδὸς αὐτοῦ τοῦ μονογενοῦς Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Some (e.g. WBauer, Hdb.; JBulman, Calvin Theological Journal 16, ’81, 56–79; JDahms, NTS 29, ’83, 222–32) prefer to regard μ. as somewhat heightened in mng. in J and 1J to only-begotten or begotten of the Only One, in view of the emphasis on γεννᾶσθαι ἐκ θεοῦ (J 1:13 al.); in this case it would be analogous to πρωτότοκος (Ro 8:29; Col 1:15 al.).—On the mng. of μονογενής in history of religion s. the material in Hdb.3 25f on J 1:14 (also Plut., Mor. 423a Πλάτων … αὐτῷ δή φησι δοκεῖν ἕνα τοῦτον [sc. τὸν κόσμον] εἶναι μονογενῆ τῷ θεῷ καὶ ἀγαπητόν; Wsd 7:22 of σοφία: ἔστι ἐν αὐτῇ πνεῦμα νοερὸν ἅγιον μονογενές.—Vett. Val. 11, 32) as well as the lit. given there, also HLeisegang, Der Bruder des Erlösers: Αγγελος I 1925, 24–33; RBultmann J (comm., KEK) ’50, 47 n. 2; 55f.—DELG s.v. μένω. M-M. EDNT. TW. Sv.


Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 658). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.j

[Matthew Longhorn]

But I'm surprised it does not mention LXX references for μονογενής, they seem very relevant.

It is worth reading the link below which says they restricted their reference of the scriptures to the gospels only

https://williamaross.com/2019/10/28/the ... es-diggle/