Editors Needed for Greek Lexicon

[Stirling Bartholomew]

Someone sent this my way.

We are seeking experienced, knowledgeable volunteers to join our lexicography team at Wycliffe Associates to help edit an open-source Lexicon of Greek Words for Translators. Please read on and share this need with your community!

I have shared with you in the past how important it is for national Bible translators to have access to Bible translations under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. This is what ensures that the Bible can be freely translated, printed, and distributed today and for all future generations. And just as with the Bible, churches in every language need access to biblical resources!

We are blessed to have lexicons, concordances, commentaries—a multitude of biblical resources—in English. But our brothers and sisters around the world don’t have access to these tools. And many of the resources in English are restricted by copyright. We aren’t allowed to translate them into other languages.

Here is where we need your help. We’re creating a Lexicon of Greek Words for Translators that can be translated, printed, and distributed in all of the major languages of the world so that churches everywhere can accurately translate the Bible into their own language. We need experienced editors for this lexicon.

Qualifications & Requirements for Greek Lexicon Editors:

• Graduate level biblical Greek knowledge and experience

• Competence using Greek lexicons, and an understanding of the work of lexicography
  Experience with linguistics

• Commit to 20 volunteer hours from home each week and regular attendance of online team meetings

• Able to work well with a team, and willing to give constructive feedback to content creators

• Open-handed philosophy; everything that we create is designed to be freely shared with the global church

• Desire to serve the Lord by empowering translators to get His Word in their languages

If you or someone you know may be interested in helping us fill this need, please reply to this email or call Jennifer Cunneen toll-free at 1-800-THE WORD (800-843-9673). Jennifer will provide you with more details about the project.

Thank you for praying and sharing this opportunity within your circles of influence to help us involve more people in Bible translation.

Until the task is done,
Bruce
President/CEO of Wycliffe Associates

[RandallButh]

why don't they do a Greek--Greek lexicon?
that would truly fill a hole in the field.

[Eeli Kaikkonen]

Probably because of practical reasons. Writing it in Greek would need much more competence, and for field work it should be translated anyways.

[RandallButh]

Probably because of practical reasons. Writing it in Greek would need much more competence, and for field work it should be translated anyways.

The hole in the field remains. For German we have German--German dictionaries. For French, we have French--French. For English, English--English.
and for Koine Greek we have Koine Greek--(anything but Koine Greek) dictionaries.

[Devenios Doulenios]

Despite the difficulties/challenges in doing it well, I agree with Randall that we need such a Koine to Koine tool. There is no reason why both editions could not be done and published, Koine to Koine and Koine to English, Koine to other languages. It's all in the willingness and commitment people have. As I have stated previously, it's past time to jettison the "dead language" label for Koine and other ancient languages and accompanying mindset/assumptions that it entails. Latin to Latin lexica and glossaries are quite common in that field. Why not Koine? If W.H.D. Rouse could do it in Attic for his Greek Boy at Home vocabulary, and his vocabularies for his edition of selected dialogues of Lucian--and apparently, he did it all on his own, with no helpers--surely a team of disciplined and motivated people could do it for Koine today. So many more tools and more knowledge are available to us now than he had in the 19th century. As they say, if not us, who? If not now, when? it could be a joint team with Koine specialists, patristics scholars, classicists, linguists, and coders/programmers. And naturally, it should ideally include some native modern Greek speakers who are also competent in Koine. Their insights would be invaluable.

[Daniel Semler]

why don't they do a Greek--Greek lexicon?
that would truly fill a hole in the field.

I totally agree but this doesn't seem to be the aim of the project if this link describes the same position https://wycliffeassociates.secure.force ... D&tSource=. They appear to be starting from Abbott Smith which I suspect is out of copyright at this point. It's a lexicon I've heard but have no direct experience using.

Thanx
D

[Devenios Doulenios]

For that matter, a Biblical Hebrew to Biblical Hebrew lexicon/glossary would be helpful also. I've started on what could be a small step toward such a work. It's a BH to BH vocabulary for the book of Jonah. I've done the first five verses (first draft) and hope to return to the project later this year. And of course, a Biblical Aramaic to BA lexicon and a Classical Syriac to Classical Syriac one would be awesome as well! (I plan to start learning Syriac this year.) Well, one can dream, anyway.

[Devenios Doulenios]

Abbott-Smith is old, but good, and still helpful. I use it quite a bit. Some years ago I found it online for download in an HTML edition. It opens in your web browser. It is probably available now in additional digital formats. A-S focuses on the GNT, but also covers some Septuagint vocab. Like BAGD and BDAG, it also includes Hebrew and Aramaic terms where pertinent.

[Daniel Semler]

For that matter, a Biblical Hebrew to Biblical Hebrew lexicon/glossary would be helpful also. I've started on what could be a small step toward such a work. It's a BH to BH vocabulary for the book of Jonah. I've done the first five verses (first draft) and hope to return to the project later this year. And of course, a Biblical Aramaic to BA lexicon and a Classical Syriac to Classical Syriac one would be awesome as well! (I plan to start learning Syriac this year.) Well, one can dream, anyway.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one with dreams like this. I have read a good chunk of a book on lexicography, and have started to look a bit at doing a Greek-Greek lexicon myself. (The person on this list responsible for the suggestion knows who he is ). In any case I am still trying to lay enough ground work to do anything. It's a ton of work - who knows how far I'll get. I don't yet have the skills required but there is likely no better way to learn I now know why the Cambridge has taken so many years.

Thx
D

[RandallButh]

For that matter, a Biblical Hebrew to Biblical Hebrew lexicon/glossary would be helpful also. I've started on what could be a small step toward such a work. It's a BH to BH vocabulary for the book of Jonah. I've done the first five verses (first draft) and hope to return to the project later this year. And of course, a Biblical Aramaic to BA lexicon and a Classical Syriac to Classical Syriac one would be awesome as well! (I plan to start learning Syriac this year.) Well, one can dream, anyway.

Hebrew is not as critical because we already have Hebrew Hebrew dictionaries. BH itself is too small a corpus to be a useful item. It would only be a curiousity. Even more so for BA, and ten-fold.

The only Aramaic dialect worthy of a self-referencing dictionary is Syriac.

Koine Greek does not suffer from these restrictions and can easily be done at a 30000 word level or more.